Thinking about the Dash 7

Tom Clayton

Tom Clayton

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Staff member
I've taken a look at the manual that's available on the Pilot's website, and I like what I see. I'm normally not a passenger pilot (boxes don't scream), but I'm really starting to get interested in this one again. If anyone here owns it, can you tell me if the external registration is baked into the textures or dynamic?
 
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Relatively negative reviews kept me away from this plane, but that was shortly after release. To piggyback off of Mr. Clayton's question, for those who own this, how much has it improved since initial release?
 
Bit of a rare bear this one, updates have been few but for the most part she's a keeper. Only concern I can pass along is if you move the throttles forward a touch while on the apron then back to idle the a/c has a habit of creeping backwards , as if you've put things in reverse pitch which isn't the case, again the throttles are at idle ?? This scenario appeared after the last update. Not able to help with your registration query I'm afraid.

Regards
 
Tom Clayton said:
I've taken a look at the manual that's available on the Pilot's website, and I like what I see. I'm normally not a passenger pilot (boxes don't scream), but I'm really starting to get interested in this one again. If anyone here owns it, can you tell me if the external registration is baked into the textures or dynamic?
Click to expand...

Well, I took the plunge. It's a pretty nice aircraft, and most of the negative things reviewers initially noticed (including the huge FPS drops) have been resolved (as far as I can tell from a few flights). The interior textures leave a bit to be desired, but they're not so bad that I don't enjoy being in the cockpit. One annoyance is the altitude selection knob rotates the opposite way from the normal mouse logic, but I can get used to it.

Tom, I'm sorry to report that there is no dynamic registration. However, the textures are pretty straight-forward, and a quick pop into Photopea (or similar editor) should be all that's needed to adjust them to your liking. I was able to adjust some textures into my custom paint in less than an hour. Some registration edits should take just minutes.

20250625074644_1.jpg
 
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Thanks! I may go ahead and pick it up from Orbx tonight when I get home - if my brain isn't too tired from dealing with an onslaught of printer tickets...
 
Well... I bought it. And I'm not unhappy about it. I get my copilot in the cockpit with me so I'm not completely alone, even though my pretend passengers are ghosts. I still wish they'd make a cargo variant....

After watching one of the videos online, I was concerned about the function of the single lever prop/condition controls, but to my surprise, they function perfectly with the mix/condition axis on my controller. The only caveat is that you have to use your controller to put the levers in the first notch (Feather/Fuel Flow) first, then manually mouse each lever back to cutoff before starting the engines. You can start the engines with the axis all the way back, but after you start all four engines, the instant you move the axis, the levers drop back to cutoff and you kill the engines. But it's no big deal to me - I do the same thing with all my twin t-props already.

I did enough of a flight to get a feel for the takeoff roll and partially test the AP. I may need a little more practice getting the hang of the vertical speed, but it captures the altitude once there and flies a VOR beam quite nicely.

I may open up the Pan Am paint and make it a "former" airliner pressed into use for my own imaginary flight service company. I'll get back to you on that one...

For less money than I spend for a steak dinner, I'd say it was worth it. I'm just glad I waited for all the fixes to be implemented.
 
I have it, and my biggest/only beef with it is the delay in beta/reverse if you don't have an axis reverser. I use a button on my X56 for engaging reverse, and it seems to take far too long for the levers to move into reverse range. This is a shame as on the real aircraft it's thrown into reverse the moment the mainwheels hit the ground, or it always seemed that way.
 
KDAN-KGSO is almost a perfect shot into KGSO's 23L, so I use that to test a plane's ILS. This plane did catch the glideslope, but there was no indication on the HSI. The red flag never retracted. I may test again later, but for now I'm on the couch with ice on my knee.
 
If I may modify the post title, I am thinking about a Dash-8 (Q400 even). How have we reached nearly half a decade with this sim and not seen one of these popular aircraft developed by any serious outfit? Or have I missed it?
 
I flew one as Captain in Alaska for about a year. Was a lot of fun and note that many (most) were made as cargo combis and could be configured with varying seats. The cargo door was on the Port Side just behind the cockpit.
 
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