thaine

Thanks!

Hei, I've tweaked and tested my fsx.cfg and I'm rather happy with it at the moment, so I don't want to mess it up. I read once that one istn't supposed to change the settings in FSX itself, otherwise the tweaks done to the fsx.cfg get lost. Is this realy the case? Supposed I want to change the autogen density, can I do that by changing the FSX gui sliders without loosing any of the other settings/tweaks? Or should i do the via a text editor in the fsx.cfg itself? cheers, Rafael

Hei Bryan, Fantastic product once again. I was putting it aside for some while and just recently picked it up once again. I still need some more time to get all the procedures in my head. I have two questions though. Apologies if they have been answered before. I couldn't find anything usefull in the net. I. Condition leveres: I understand that hardware assignments with those levers will lead to problems. I had buttons assigned to move each levers via FSUIPC. That was before FS2Crew. I have now deleted these assignments and to my knowledge there shouldn't be any assignment existing anymore to move these levers apart from the mouse. The problem is that the levers won't be moved by the F/O but the RPM is changed correctly, as I can see from the engine displays. So I have to move the levers so they match with the current RPM settings. Any tips regarding this? II. Landing Flaps settings: I am putting the planned landing flaps into the briefing window, but the F/O is not touching them. Is the captain supposed to sett the correct landing flaps or would the F/O do it? I do not mean the flaps themselves but the gpws landing flaps selector. Cheers, Rafael

Thanks for all your answers. I probably gave the wrong impression with my first posts. Even though I like the technical stuff, I too want primarily fly the Dash, not read the blueprints. Will expressed my thoughts better then me... I watched as well the preview LOC-DME approach and liked it. So I'll join in the training as soon as my bank account permits.

Yeah, I know about smartcockpit and have read through some of the manuals there already. I went as well through the sticky thread in this forum that describes what each lesson will be about and that sounds promising. I might give it a go. The problem with the smartcockpit manuals is that they are complete but really concise. Some topics, f.e. the powerplant one, are hard to understand. At least for me. I still have problems to understand how the FADEC works, which is quite relevant for flying the sim imho, and would hope the training covers that.

So how many technical backround is in the videos? I'm realy eager to learn the Q400 properly, but are a little bit uncertain still. Money is short at my end at the moment anyway. I did buy and went through the AOA 737 training and liked it; especially because of the in depth technical information. There's some tutorials on the Q400 that are quite ok. Don't get me wrong, I assume your training is much more professional, no question. But I wouldn't be interested in a training that only shows/explaines the procedures and leaves out how the Q400 itself works. I want to understand the Q400, not only know which buttons to press in which order. I couldn't figure that out from the trailer and the webpage. But maybe Benjamin can shed som light on it.

Hei Jack, I have already experience with VATSIM such that I can't think of myself as being timid. But I'm still at the beginning of my Dash 8 career. I'm definitely interested in flying shared cockpit and if you're willing in taking me along as FO, I'm all in. Can't help you with ActiveSky Next unfortunately. I'm still using AS Evolution. Cheers, Rafael

I use TrackIr and EZDok now already for quite a while. As well with the Dash8 and I have no problems at all. It might take some moments until you are completely comfortable with setting up EZDok but once it's set up you just enjoy using it. A lot of people are using it and you will find a lot of help. Those two are most probably the most usefull tools I have, right after my yoke and rudder peddals. I never fly without them and it will increase your immersion a lot.

Glad I could help. One more thing though. I read that some people had problems with the saitek throttle and the Dash8 (Controls being jerky etc...). I don't know precisely what the problem was and if it was solved. For me everything works like it should. I merely want to make you aware about that. You can probably find the corresponding threads in this forum.

Hei, I'm flying the plane with only one saitek throttle quadrant and it's working fine so far. I'm happy to tell you my setup as an example: Left lever (black): Engine one throttle Middle lever (blue): Engine two throttle The levers are setup such that they span the region from DISK to FULL THROTTLE. Moving the levers completely down thus pushing the "lever button" (Saitek users might know what i mean) I decrease throttle further for reverse thrust. Right lever (red): Flaps The six buttons T1-T6 are programmed using FSUIPC as follows: T1: TOGA T2: Parking brake set/release T3: Moving power (prop) lever for engine one forward T4: Moving power (prop) lever for engine one backward T5: Moving power (prop) lever for engine two forward T6: Moving power (prop) lever for engine two backward The power levers have discrete positions. So I find it sufficient to have buttons for moving the lever to the next or last detent. In fact, I think this is more precise than moving a lever that does not have the detents. A guide on how to setup these buttons can be found in this thread: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/408492-propeller-control-via-keyboard/ I control the engines without the help of the mouse and find it quite comfortable. I hope you find this reply somewhat helpful. cheers

With this attitude, I wouldn't consider you as a casual simmer anymore . If you want to step into the more complex aircrafts, you have to start somewhere. So why not do it with the D8.

You are probably right. However, they acknowledged that the Dash is a popular plane and are quite positive for making a FS2Crew product for it. It depends more on if and when a SDK can be expected. Helge. Make sure you post that in the according FS2Crew forum. It's more importand for Bryan to know how many customers he can expect.

Hei Helge, Look into the following thread: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/407283-sdk-for-fs2crew/ As I understand it. There might be FS2Crew support somewhen in the future. But the devs are at the moment busy with more urgent updates. I'm waiting as well for FS2Crew support and would very much like to have it. The Dash8 is very much fun none the less. Cheers, Rafael

Here's a picture of the engine control tab in the MJC84 Control panel. The "Posititon" field (red frame) gives you the value that FSX sends to the Dash 8. The other fields, "Max", "900", etc... (blue frame) give you the values that the Dash associates with certain condition lever positions. In the example above, if your joystick for the left engine sends 53624 to the dash, the left condition lever will be put into "900". You use your fresh assigned buttons/keys for moving the condition levers up and down and note down the possible "Position" values (red frame) it gives you. In my case they are: -16384, 4100, 24580, 45060 and 65536. They should be the same for you. If they differ it should be no problem as long as you only cycle through five different values. Then you input those five values in the blue framed fields in ascending order such that you have the highest value associated with "Max" and the lowest associated with "Off". Thats it. Let me know how it works. There's a list with all possible FS offsets in the FSUIPC documentation. You find it in FSXFolder/Modules/FSUIPC Documentation/ or similar. Glad it worked for you.

You basically want to write directly to the FS offsets with your key/button presses. This means that a key- or button press directly sets the position of the prop lever in FS. I have one button for lowering prop pitch and one button for increasing prop pitch for each engine. So in total 4 buttons. I haven't found the offsets for controlling both engines at the same time. I guess it is possible by scripting the button/key presses some more. But I haven't looked into that since I don't use it. You would need to read into the FSUIPC documentation some more if you like to control all engines at the same time. I assume you are familiar with the basic button/key setting screens in FSUIPC. So here is what you do. 1. Open FSUIPC and go to the button- respectively key tab. 2. Set the button/key you want to use for the action. 3. In the "Control sent when button pressed"/"Control sent when key pressed" list you want to chose "Offset Sword Increment" for increasing the prop pitch, and "Offset Sword Decrement" for decreasing the prop pitch. 4. In the Offset field you have to type in the offset for the corresponding prop lever. Those are: "x088E" for the left engine and "x0926" for the right engine 5. In the Parameter field you have to specify the value for the offsets. The format you have to use is "offset increment/offset maximum" and "offset increment/offset minimum" for increasing and decreasing the leavers respectively. It's simply: "5120/16384" for increasing the prop pitch and "5120/-4096" for decreasing the prop pitch. This will divide the whole prop pitch-lever range such that you have 5 positions. The prop pitch levers have offset values from -4096 to 16384. Dividing that range into 4 segments, thus 5 positions, gives you: (16384 - (-4096))/4 = 5120. 6. Save your settings in FSUIPC. 7. Open the MJC84 Control Panel and go to the engine settings. 8. Here you cycle now up and down through all the prop-pitch positions with the keys/buttons you have just assigned and put the values that are given to you in the Input field for condition leaver left respectively condition leaver right into the fields for "Max, 900, Min, Start, Off". For me those are: Max: 65536 900: 45060 Min: 24580 Start: 4100 Off: -16384 They should be the same for you. If they differ for some reason, just put in the values you have. Now you should be good to go. Let me now if you have further questions or something isn't working quite right.