MAJESTIC SOFTWARE - DASH 8 Q400 PRO

[reecemj 146]

Am a GA flyer. The Turbine Duke and the Mu-2 are the largest ac I have flown. If you fly the Q400 how much time and effort did you spend learning to fly it? Is it hard to fly well? Am trying to decide if i want spend the time learning and not park her in the hanger. Simmarket has her for 40 bucks. Thanks for your response.

[ninerwhiskey9W 19]

It's not a particularly difficult aircraft to fly. There are some peculiarities which you'll have to get used to. It has a very very busy cockpit, it'll keep you engaged from takeoff to landing. Cruise offers a short respite from the humdrum, but the lack of autothrottle means you'll need to keep an eye on the speed. Even in shared cockpit flights, it has enough to split the work between both pilots.

The main things you will have to learn will be the FMC, and the autopilot. It took me about maybe 5 to 10 flights to get a hang of everything in the aircraft. 

I would definitely recommend the aircraft.

[Radial9 69]

Maurice… I made the same transition from GA (DC3) to the Q400 about 18 months ago. To answer your question, it depends on how far you want to take it. It is a beautiful aircraft to fly. The more I fly it, the more I love it. It will take you some time to become familiar with it. At first it can seem complicated, but after a bit of repetition and familiarity it does become much easier. If you go for it, I would highly recommend the purchase of the Airline2Sim training video’s. They are professionally done and will flatten out the learning curve substantially.

You did not mention your input hardware. I found one of the more difficult and frustrating hurdles to the Q400 was setting up control devices. I’m using a TM Warthog hotas and throttle. It did take some time and frustration, but eventually it all worked out and it now it all feels like a well worn glove. Look up some of the advanced control utilities available and try to utilize them, they do make a difference.

If it wasn’t for the $40 price tag I would inquire if your end game was to fly bigger jets such as the 737 or 777. There is a lot of change coming, which is all good. Again, to answer your question, after about a dozen or so hours it smoothed out. Especially with the video instruction mentioned earlier. I’m sure I will always fly the Q400 as it has become such a joy and pleasure to fly. All the hype and accolades are well deserved.

I will also mention that support for the Q400 can be hit and miss. Majestic lost decades of back forum posts and had to start over about 18 months ago. Trying to be kind, I, MY OPINION and experience, I found the team at Majestic to be best described as “burned out”. If you have a serious issue, they will rise to the occasion, but for the typical new pilot looking for a quick easy path, you may not find it there. I’m going to take a close look at how Majestic responds to the coming changes in our hobby with a high degree of skepticism after following them closely post their huge success with the Q400. There are a lot of pilots flying it and a lot of kind people here and elsewhere who can assist you, if you are making the sincere effort. Feel free to PM me if you run into issues. Again, depending on your hardware you may find getting the control issues working to be your first big hurdle. Majestic doesn’t use the P3D controls, so you need to learn how they work. It’s not impossible, but it does take some learning.

The Q400 will always be an aircraft I will continue to fly. Go for it. Well worth the price of admission.

 

[overspeed3 410]

Great looking aircraft inside and out and has, I surmise, a realistic feel of a large prop plane.  But it was, for me, not that easy to master - still trying.  I've blown many tires upon landing...  (I have the FSX-Steam Q400 Pro version).

[aentwis 61]

I believe it to be the most realistic simulation of a turboprop aircraft in FS, period. The flight model is outside FSX/P3D and the controls may be calibrated and set up individually using the tool provided. It is quite a handful to start with, but if you follow the flows (I found that the tutorial videos created by Fly2Sim were really helpful with operational details), you will soon manage the day-to-day running of the aircraft. It is highly immersive, has a great sound set, and is a good compromise between commercial transport aircraft and short routes/turnarounds. When I had more time spare, I would do two or three legs in it, back to back. A great way to occupy yourself when the weather outside is awful and cold...

Mind the trim settings, the props and thrust settings have quite an effect on the aircraft, so you will need to adjust rudder trim in this one regularly.

One of the best purchases I ever made. It would be a first-day purchase for me in any new sim...

A

[regis9 4,013]

It’s a fantastic aircraft and can be a handful until you get used to it.  It’s very rewarding to fly though and i highly recommend it.  This, the NGXu, and the FSLabs Airbus are my three go to aircraft for airliner flights.

I would highly recommend getting the Immersive Audio soundpack to go with it.  The sounds are fantastic and a huge improvement over the stocks sounds...the only real weakness the Q400 has IMHO.

[kiki 89]

3 hours ago, reecemj said:

Am a GA flyer. The Turbine Duke and the Mu-2 are the largest ac I have flown. If you fly the Q400 how much time and effort did you spend learning to fly it? Is it hard to fly well? Am trying to decide if i want spend the time learning and not park her in the hanger. Simmarket has her for 40 bucks. Thanks for your response.

Just a question I have had in mind. I´ve been tempted to buy Dash8 for a very long time but have spend my sim hours with the products of the A2A, Milviz, Carenado/Alabeo, QW and Manfred Jahn. I do have time for simming perhaps 1-2 hours in a week. What I understand after reading the posts above, it seems to  be just too little to get used to the Majestic Q400. Right?

Maurice, I would like to know, which way you´re going. Please, let us know.

Edited December 3, 2019 by kiki

[Kilo60 660]

Are there any plans to update this AC for P3D like PBR textures or rain effects on windscreen etc...?

 

Or have the Devs abandoned this for planning for MSFS2020!

 

.

Edited December 3, 2019 by Kilo60

[Reader 2,021]

3 hours ago, reecemj said:

Am a GA flyer. The Turbine Duke and the Mu-2 are the largest ac I have flown. If you fly the Q400 how much time and effort did you spend learning to fly it? Is it hard to fly well? Am trying to decide if i want spend the time learning and not park her in the hanger. Simmarket has her for 40 bucks. Thanks for your response.

Maurice,

I am no accomplished pilot but the aircraft model is well worth the small amount of effort required

to fly it successfully.

Like all of the best simulations, its depth can be explored as far as the ability of the pilot extends,

so it works well for someone like me but also for the far more demanding user who wants faithful

simulation of the real world behaviour.

In my experience, the only real challenge is landing, when the fine balance between far too fast

and dropping out of the sky like a stone is a little tricky to achieve.

I have had this superb aircraft model since it was released and it has taken most of that time to

be able to achieve a damage free landing with any regularity.

Don't worry about support, you won't need it, as the current version is faultless.

Like everyone else who has it, I cannot recommend it too highly.

 

Edited December 3, 2019 by Reader

[GEKtheReaper 364]

I was following this ACFT a long time and finaly purchased it, sadly, 1-2 days before it got on sale  :(.  I did watch some tutorial videos on Y/T well before the purchase, videos that realy helped me understand the ACFT. There are 2 videos that are worth it: 1 shows only the start from C&D, and 1 that shows a complete flight incl. the C&D phase (the last one is over 1h long).

I was up and running on day 1 so to speak and managed to do 2 short flights, landing without blowing any tires.

Still a bit of dissapointed seeing some minor bugs in such an old and evolved product like controling the Exits through the FMC where the wrong exit gets closed / opened, switches with inverted mouse click logic, a bit buggy interior lighting, some bugs in FPLN leg checking through the FMC depending on the inserted FPLN,....but nothing that bad.

[regis9 4,013]

1 hour ago, Kilo60 said:

Or have the Devs abandoned this for planning for MSFS2020!

 

.

Their efforts have been focused on the training version of the aircraft.

In terms of landing, the biggest thing to keep in mind is that you don’t idle the throttles at 20 feet like a lot of airliners.  The prop wash generates some lift as it moves past the wing so going to idle in the air will result in a sudden loss of lift and dropping like a rock.  

Keep some power on all the way to touchdown.

 

Edited December 3, 2019 by regis9

[OzWhitey 3,353]

7 minutes ago, regis9 said:

Their efforts have been focused on the training version of the aircraft.

In terms of landing, the biggest thing to keep in mind is that you don’t idle the throttles at 20 feet like a lot of airliners.  The prop wash generates some lift as it moves past the wing so going to idle in the air will result in a sudden loss of lift and dropping like a rock.  

Keep some power on all the way to touchdown.

 

Ha, learnt that on my first landing. It’s not a Boeing jet... 🙂

incidentally, i’ve been flying this today after a bit of a PMDG phase. Great aircraft that has excellent frame rate performance. And you can fly it with minimal use of the FMC and autopilot if you so desire, at least for starters.
 

Definitely recommended.

[ryanbatc 12,834]

The plane has a bit of a learning curve.  I purchased the Pro edition a few years back.  It's got interesting flying characteristics (in a good way), and is extremely good on performance with all that glass.  Unfortunately I just never really got into that much.... still fly mostly GA.

[reecemj 146]

4 hours ago, kiki said:

Just a question I have had in mind. I´ve been tempted to buy Dash8 for a very long time but have spend my sim hours with the products of the A2A, Milviz, Carenado/Alabeo, QW and Manfred Jahn. I do have time for simming perhaps 1-2 hours in a week. What I understand after reading the posts above, it seems to  be just too little to get used to the Majestic Q400. Right?

Maurice, I would like to know, which way you´re going. Please, let us know.

Hi KiKi after reading the post here am going fly her..I do have up to 6 hrs a week to fly. I will take the course and go from there. 

[regis9 4,013]

I usually have to go fly a 737 or A320 to regain my virtual pilot confidence after the Q400 humbles me 😁

Edited December 3, 2019 by regis9