2 hours ago, regis9 said:

I would take the Q400 over the 717 no doubt.  It’s one of the best Addon aircraft available and the best simulation of a turboprop in P3D.

 

Well I'm going to have to completely agree with that!

We (the Majestic team) worked the Dash 8 400 for over 6 years before the aircraft was released.  A few reasons make the Majestic Dash 8 Q400 one of two of the finest and most accurate airliner models ever developed for desktop flight simulation:

1. No expense was saved when it came to both the internal and external modeling (graphics) which was done by two very professional 2D/3D graphics modelers which is one reason why the frame rates are absolutely amazing, especially given the complexity of the aircraft and features that had rarely if ever been seen in flight simulation at the time of release such as fogging windows based on internal and external atmospherics, etc.

2. The aircraft coding is amazing, and along with the graphics modeling make this aircraft a true representation of the real aircraft.  So real in fact, that a non-pilot who had used the software was able to jump into a real Dash 8 Q400 and fire it up, taxi out, take off and fly around rthe Seattle area for quite some time until he ran out of fuel.  But enough about that...

3. There are three different Q400's produced by Majestic, the Pilot Version, the Professional version, and the Training version which is not released yet.  Each version of the aircraft have additional systems/capabilities.  If  you are going to pick up the Dash 8, do yourself a favor and pick up the Professional version as it not only has some additional capabilities but also offers the very best Shared Cockpit in all of flight simulation - it's seamless!

 

So, up above I wrote that the Majestic Dash 8 Q400 is one of two of the finest and most accurate airliner models ever developed for desktop flight simulation (at least in my 40 years in this amazing hobby).  Allow me please to qualify my statement further by saying that I've work on the development and testing side of flight simulation for the past 15 years or so (seems like that's all I do these days), and I have experience with most every high end airliners released for FSX an P3D, and I'm pretty familiar with airliners made for XPlane. 

The other aircraft (the other "1 of 2" of the best aircraft) is the Leonardo MaddogX MD-80.  In addition to my work at Aerosoft, I've been on both the Majestic and Maddog teams for years and it is impossible to rank one over the other simply because they are two completely different types of aircraft which requires two completely different types of flying and pilot skill sets.  I absolutely love both aircraft.  Additionally, Leonardo recently released Shared Cockpit for the MD-80 (increasing the difficulty of ranking one aircraft above the other) although there is room to believe that the existing Maddog Shared Cockpit will be expanded in the future.

I just haven't seen any airliner match the fidelity and realism of the Majestic Dash 8 Q400 Professional, and the answer to any question such as "what about XXXX aircraft" would be the same, it's not quite up to par.

With the above in mind, there is one bit of critical information I feel compelled (the power of unbiased flight simulation advice compels you... LOL!) to share, and that is that not everyone will need or appreciate the complexity, fidelity and realism of these two aircraft.  For instance, not everyone will be impressed that the circuit breakers are accurately modeled and the correct systems loose power and the aircraft systems respond as they should when a circuit breaker is tripped, and not everyone needs random and programmed failures, and not everyone will notice or appreciate the flight models - especially the Majestic Dash 8 Q400 which uses an external flight model developed by NASA allowing the darned thing to fly and act as a true turbo prop!

 

As you can tell, I very much enjoy writing about these two wonderful aircraft, and I hope the information I've shared compels (lol) you to consider purchasing them both!

 

Best wishes my friend!

 

 

 

 

 

If I may add the sounds of the Q400 are amazing for a sense of total emersion. Be ready to study though. The aircraft itself is not so bad to learn but being primarily a Boeing man the FMC is a bit of a learning curve for me. There is also an FS2Crew for this one for a virtual FO to help manage the plumbing.

Although there is some learning curve to the FMC, it's not that much harder to use than Boeing FMC or the Airbus one. If you are familiar with the Boeing one you will learn it quickly (not as quickly as the Airbus, though - if the design behind the Boeing FMC was to make a usable FMC, the design behind the Airbus one could be to make it as convenient and intuitive as possible but overdone in a typical French way so the opposite is true; the design behind the Q400 FMC could be to do it in the least convenient manner possible 🙂 ).

Edited May 9, 20206 yr by emko

If the FSLabs, which I maintain is still the current best plane in P3D, is out of reach, then maybe the PMDG 737 NGXu?

Slightly less expensive, newly refreshed with modern features like PBR and other refinements. Almost all models now simulated. Plus lots of real world routes to choose from than all the other choices. 

Edited May 9, 20206 yr by snapshot21

Thanks for all the inputs gents. The new 737 seems a bit too hungry for my system. My CPU is 3.5 turbo at 3.9 and my GPU is 2070 Super. Thanks Dave for your post. Really informative. Looks like the Q400 will get install on my PC tonight.

On 5/9/2020 at 7:07 AM, Chock said:

Check out the Majestic Dash 8 Q400.

Will the UNS-1 FMC in the Majestic Dash 8 couple to the autopilot and fly a GPS LPV approach including the glide path?  I know in some UNS-1 planes the FMC will not command the autopilot to fly the VNAV part of a GPS approach, only the LNAV part.

Thanks,

Al

The answer is for any and all such queries, if the real aeroplane can do it, the Majestic version can do it since it is essentially a complete simulation of the real aeroplane. With the caveat that this is only if you have the Pro or the Training versions since these have the full FMS navigational capability and other whistles and bells required to do all the things the real thing can, which the less costly 'Pilot' edition does not feature, such as ETP/PNR functions. The 'Pilot' edition also lacks the HUD, so if you want my opinion, the 'Pro' version is the one to go for, unless you want to build a home cockpit or want to simulate ARCDU avionics maintenance for real world training, in which case the slightly fancier 'Training' version has functions which are suited to that.

Frankly, for any flight simmer who appreciates obsessive developmental realism in a simulated add-on aeroplane for FSX/P3D, if they don't own the Majestic Dash 8 and the FSL A320, they're really missing out on stuff, because these are the two best add-on aeroplanes you can buy. And of those two, the Pro version of the Majestic Dash 8 is the bargain of the century and a no brainer purchase as far as I am concerned, because it is considerably cheaper and quite probably the better of the two.

Edited May 10, 20206 yr by Chock

57 minutes ago, ark said:

Will the UNS-1 FMC in the Majestic Dash 8 couple to the autopilot and fly a GPS LPV approach including the glide path?  I know in some UNS-1 planes the FMC will not command the autopilot to fly the VNAV part of a GPS approach, only the LNAV part.

Thanks,

Al

Al,

I've only used the VNAV in the Pilot edition once...on a flight into CYCG. It does work, albeit, it must be programmed manually. The plane flies so well by hand I haven't used it since, just using the approach plate as a reference.

Rob

3 minutes ago, rmeier said:

Al,

I've only used the VNAV in the Pilot edition once...on a flight into CYCG. It does work, albeit, it must be programmed manually. The plane flies so well by hand I haven't used it since, just using the approach plate as a reference.

Rob

The UNS-1 in the majestic dash 8 can definitely calculate a descent path on its own, including ToD and respecting waypoint constraints. 

41 minutes ago, rmeier said:

It does work, albeit, it must be programmed manually. 

I'm not sure with this means. Maybe I'm not asking my question clearly. For example, in a plane with a GTN 750, I can select, load and activate a GPS LPV approach and the GTN 750 will command the AP to fly all aspects of the approach "hands off", including the glide path, down to minimums. So will the UNS-1 do the same thing in the Majestic Dash 8? I'm just trying to understand the capabilities of different UNS-1 implementations.

Al

Edited May 11, 20206 yr by ark

12 minutes ago, ark said:

I'm not sure with this means. Maybe I'm not asking my question clearly. For example, in a plane with a GTN 750, I can select, load and activate a GPS LPV approach and the GTN 750 will command the AP to fly all aspects of the approach "hands off", including the glide path, down to minimums. So will the UNS-1 do the same thing in the Majestic Dash 8? I'm just trying to understand the capabilities of different UNS-1 implementations.

Al

Sorry for not being clear.

For the version of NavDataPro I was using at the time, there was no RNAV approach available for CYCG. If I manually entered the waypoints/altitudes, the VNAV did work for that approach. I have not checked it with an established NavDataPro RNAV approach...although, I'm sure it will work.

As mentioned, I do not use that feature of the UNS FMC on the Q400. It hand flies beautifully.

BTW, I have since upgraded to the Pro version of the Majestic Q400.

Regards, Rob

1 hour ago, rmeier said:

As mentioned, I do not use that feature of the UNS FMC on the Q400. It hand flies beautifully.

I also prefer to fly approaches without the autopilot, did that in real life at one time. But as I mentioned above, I'm just trying to understand the the extent to which different developers have gone in implementing their version of the UNS-1. So I would still appreciate if a Majestic Dash 8 user would confirm whether or not the Dash 8 UNS-1 will command the autopilot to fly a GPS LPV approach glide path.

Thanks,

Al

Edited May 11, 20206 yr by ark

Just wondering if anyone can recommend a good YouTube tutorial for the Majestic Q400 that begins at the default state. Many of the ones I’ve seen start with cold and dark, but I generally don’t do that. I’m looking for something basic that can just get me up and flying it properly. I have had this aircraft for years, but sadly I haven’t flown it much. I have on a few occasions attempted to work through some of these tutorials but I always screw it up in the end. Quite frankly, it’s a bit intimidating. Thanks in advance.

Cheers, Pete

 Majestic Dash 8 Q400.

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Get Majestic Q400 or Maddog X. For me they are the best addon available.