adamant365

AirKevin is correct. The Boeing range charts for the 777F consider the aircraft stuffed to maximum ZFW with cargo which means the weight available for fuel before reaching MTOW is much less than the maximum fuel capacity. The charts for the 777-200LR consider the aircraft full of passengers, but the total payload puts the aircraft far enough below maximum ZFW that the fuel load can be 100% without busting through MTOW.

I too am running all three. I was a skeptic of the whole TIR and EZDOK thing but since I made the change several years ago (because of the NGX) I've never looked back. As has been mentioned, it may take some initial investment of time to get TIR and EZDOK set up as you like, but once you do, it will be a very nice experience. I do recommend searching the web for the "Seth-Flight" TIR profile. It's very good for FSX since it has smooth movements and makes focusing on specific areas easy and you don't have to do all the setup in TIR yourself.

The sound cutout issue happens for some users running Windows 7 and using the FSX flight planner. If you intend to use the flight planner for ATC, here's the workaround that I use: 1. Open FSX, create your flight plan and save it. Close FSX. 2. Open ASE and get the weather ready using the "Enter Plan" option. (I'm not sure if you have to exit FSX before doing the Enter Plan in ASE...this is just the point where I reboot my PC before a flight anyway). 3. Open FSX and at the Free Flight menu select the Aircraft, airport/gate, and time/date. 4. Load the flight plan created in step 1. 5. Use the SAVE option to save the flight (I use the real world flight number as the filename). 6. Exit FSX. 7. When ASE says "disconnected" reload FSX. 8. Select "Load" from the Free Flight menu and select the flight you just saved in step 5. This will put you at the airport, gate, and time you selected in step 3. This also bypasses opening the FSX Flight Planner, which seems to be the culprit in the W7 sound cutout issue for those who have it. There you go. ASE will use the saved weather from the flight you saved, but will update as normal after you are sitting at the gate/stand. I've done many Dash 8 flights using this method and have never had an issue.

Building your own PC is EASY. It really is. I built the machine in my sig in an evening after work and didn't take too many major precautions as far as static, etc. And I had never built a PC before. As long as you touch the case, power supply, etc. every few minutes or so, you'll be fine. You really can get a lot more bang for your buck and can get exactly what you need/want if you build your own. There are numerous resources available on the internet that can help you out. I highly recommend building your own PC. PS...I work for one of the top PC makers in the world and would never recommend (to a gamer) buying a prebuilt machine. As has been mentioned before, you get TONS of bloatware. That's how they (we) make their money. And as for anti-virus, I have always been an AVG user (recommended to me by my closest friend, an IT security professional) and have never had virus problems (knocking on wood...). Of course, viruses only happen if you are stupid with what you expose your machine to (it's a lot like STD's really...if you don't know it, don't mess with it...).

I've noticed this myself even with MAC near dead center. It's always trimmed pretty far nose down when on autopilot. Whether it's normal, I don't know. Also, I don't recall noticing an actual nose down attitude in cruise when viewing from the outside and I seem to recall it being right at 0 or +1 degree on the ADI. I know if you look at the dash from the front (looking towards the props) it appears nose down but I think that is an illusion caused by the high "shoulders" that the high wing creates.

Thanks Todd. I was being a little sarcastic with my "crazy" remark. It's impossible to convey that in writing though...Glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks it's a reasonable request.

I'm a little bit crazy, yes :lol: .

Hi there, Is there an available Republic (United Express) livery? The one Rich recently uploaded is beautiful, but it has the "Colgan Air Inc." sticker on it as does the Majestic-included UA Express. As far as I know, Colgan is defunct and the only Q400's operated by "United" are Republic birds. Would someone be willing to do a Republic badged version? I think it's a simple matter of replacing the Colgan sticker with the Republic one. Thanks! By the way, I love the shine maps Rich!

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/339174-pmdg-and-the-s-turns/

It appears there are already "Washington State University" and "University of Idaho" repaints in the library. Just a heads up on those...

Simple gorgeous Nick! Thanks for this.

Hi Again, I haven't downloaded the SP, but I have noticed something odd that isn't mentioned in the SP. If you set the CHR to run (say, at takeoff), if you pause the sim for any reason, like to grab another beer (yes, that's legal in sim world ) the chronometer continues to run. So if I start the timer and pause the sim at 15 minutes, take a 10 minute drink and drain break, then un-pause the sim, the timer jumps to 25 minutes even though no time has elapsed past the 10 minute mark. Is this something that's being looked at? Just curious...

The OP is not exaggerating. It really is good. I have always been a Turboprop fan not only due to the sound but the fact that most sectors are short, and I have limited time for simming with family, work, etc. I've never been all that impressed with other turboprop offerings but this one really takes the cake. It is immersive. It sounds freaking AWESOME. And it certainly is a challenge to learn. WAAAAAY different systems wise than any Boeing jet. I certainly think it's worth it. You may encounter a bug here and there, but rest assured Majestic are working very hard to correct them. And not everyone has encountered any issues, so don't let that dissuade you. Note the "SP1" thread?? That SP was released to their BETA team I think three days after release. They are working hard. But as it is now, it is a very enjoyable A/C to fly and learn.

Okay, good...I'm just glad it's not something I did wrong in the calculations. I've seen the same thing as you with blanking everything out on the FUEL page. I think when it comes to ZFW or PAX/CARGO, it's an either or thing...you can either enter ZFW or you can enter pax and cargo. I don't know though...the documentation isn't all that clear in that regard.

I got a chuckle out of this. I'm just glad people aren't standing outside my door with torches and pitchforks. I would think if it were working poorly, someone would have said something... Again, Bob was the one who procured the data. I asked and he said it was okay to use it for the non-FSBuild users. Writing the calculations to smoothly integrate the climb/des fuel burn through the various altitudes was not really fun, and I learned a bit more about Excel in the process, but it really only took me a couple hours to get it done. And so far I've not had any problems with the accuracy of the numbers. And by the way...the number of downloads has roughly doubled each day. Kind of odd that it's been exponential like that.

I have always run my i7 2600K (I've disabled HT) with affinity of 14 but had horrible choppiness on the ground in the Dash. I set mine to 6 and immediately saw improvement. It doesn't appear to have affected the performance of FSX in general, but I've only flown the Dash since I made the change. I can't believe there has come a time when my precious little available opportunity for simming has been occupied by anything but the NGX, but I digress... I'll have to see if there is a performance difference when I do get around to the NGX again. For me, 6 is working splendidly (details in sig). For someone with a nearly identical setup, 5 or 7 or 14 may work better. You really have to test each and see what you like/works best.

Hi Ray, Some bits that may be helpful: 1. Make sure when using the control panel that the aircraft is loaded into the sim and the sim is not paused. I had this trouble initially but realized the option "Pause Sim on Task Switch" option was enabled (checked) in the Options --> General menu of FSX. This must be UNCHECKED for the manager to send data to FSX. Also, you have to fill in at least the "T/O Fuel" and "Trip Fuel" for "Calculate" to be available. You can calculate your loads, balance, etc. without the sim running, but you won't be able to send the data to the A/C until it is loaded and you are sitting in the cockpit. 2. I think you can pretty much ignore anything FSX is telling you about your aircraft. The FDE for the MJC Dash 8 is completely outside FSX and therefore I don't think FSX know how to handle what is going on with the aircraft. It was the only way for MJC to create such an accurate turboprop sim. 3. Play around with the calibration in the control panel "Engine Controls" to make your "Disc" range larger. That makes handling on the ground much easier, IMO. I have it set so that reverse isn't even achievable on my controller since DISC is a strong enough "air brake" that it will sufficiently slow the aircraft during taxi/after landing. As for simconnect. I can guarantee you have it because if you didn't, the Dash wouldn't function at all. I'm fairly certain all the communication between FSX and the Dash is through simconnect since the FDE is outside FSX...the only viable way for data to get from outside to inside FSX is through simconnect. I hope some of this helps. I promise you that once you spend some time setting the aircraft up and getting it how you like it, you will really LOVE it. I have only had time for one complete flight, but I can tell you this add-on is right at the top.

When did you notice it telling you that there was no where near enough fuel loaded? The reason I as is because when I calculate fuel on the spreadsheet I uploaded to AVSIM, when I first start the engines, take-off, and even when I'm in the first segment of my journey, the FMS tells me I have way below reserves left. However, it seems the further I go into any flight, the more the destination fuel increases, even with max cruise power and 900RPM. In my opinion, the fuel prediction logic in the FMS needs a bit of tweaking, or maybe it's spot on and the real aircraft behaves that way. It wouldn't be the first oddity of the FMS that I've read about in the Dash. Point being, make sure you are using the correct units (the spreadsheet has tabs for KG and LB). By my calculation (using the sheet), you should load 5792 LBS of fuel. That assumes 30 minute cruise (~1:05 total time, 20 minute climb, 15 minute DES), FL240, 40 NM to ALTNR, 10 minute taxi, and 20 "extra" minutes. What did you load? What did the sheet output for your journey? The reason I ask all these questions is because if there is an issue, I want to fix it. The data for the sheet the Bob provided more than likely came from a RW source, so as long as the MJC D8 has accurate FDE, it should be spot on.

I've added a new sheet (tabs at the bottom) that will output KG fuel weights and re-uploaded to AVSIM using the same filename and instructions to overwrite the old file. Hopefully in a few hours it will be there.

And by the way, this is compatible with Excel 2007 as well. My bad...

The file is available. Simply search for Dash8Q400FuelPlan.zip and you'll find it. Please provide feedback here once you've used it.

Perfect, thanks!

+1,000,000

Hello All, I have one question (so far) regarding operations in the dash that I haven't been able to locate in the manual or the advanced tutorial: How do I enter the reserves (ALTN, HOLD, EXTRA, TOTAL RES) in the FMS? After I've entered my Pax, cargo, and total fuel, I highlight the appropriate fields and enter the numbers, but as soon as I press "ENTER" on the keypad, the field blanks out. I think that's all for now. I can muddle through the T/O and cruise (of course without any sound after 15 minutes) but this A/C is definitely a shock to the system after logging so many hours in the NGX. It certainly is a completely different aircraft from the 737NG. I like the learning though. I will say that even if I was proficient with the FMS, I would find it clunky. It certainly is lacking the flow that the Boeing metal has. Thanks!

Hi All, I've just now uploaded a file to the AVSIM library (Dash8Q400FuelPlan.zip) that contains an excel (2010 or later) spreadsheet that can be used as a fuel planner for the Q400. The data within it is courtesy Bob Scott and the calculations I wrote myself. Let me know via PM if there is anything way off about the calculations. Give it a few hours to pass inspection and then you can download it. Enjoy!