I just need a dash 8 100/200 for flying air Greenland Icelandair and Inuit Air
I really don’t think there’s any flying “by the numbers” here… The flight model feels extremely basic, so I’d be shocked to find any semblance of realism. As I mentioned before, first you have to get past the bizarre engine issues (torque literally bouncing up and down erratically like a trampoline…). Prop levers didn’t seem to do much of anything measurable whatsoever - More “all or nothing” from what could tell. And at 11,000, with the throttles firewalled, I could barely break 170 KIAS, holding altitude but pitched up about 4-5 degrees… I found it to be far too annoying to even complete my first flight…
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Since this is sold exclusively on the Marketplace, I guess it is out of the question to create a enhancement mod to fix engine behaviour, AP logic, etc, as it is encrypted?
Figured I’d chime-in here as Virtualcol doesn’t publicly attend these forums, but they posted on their website that they have an update inbound on November 27th that aims to correct many of the issues the community has identified with their Dash 8-100. Looks extensive enough and seemingly covers many of the shortfalls we’ve been discussing, so it’ll be interesting to see how this develops. I don’t have super high hopes, but this could be heading in the direction of a serviceable Dash 8… Notes below:
-Engine power, speed on the ground adjusted as real. New limit speed reached 290 knts (Overspeed). Typical cruise 265 knts, redline 280 knts. The takeoff now takes between 1000 and 1500 m with flaps at 10°, or 2000 m with flaps at 5°.
-Flaps indicator fixed.
-Sound adjusted to be more realistic (Thanks to Sander Van Ommen, who provided external engine sounds from crank, start, and engines running).
-Condition lever, adjusted to crank->start with engines feathered->Start and unfeather propellers.
-Animation of the propeller at every moment during startup is included.
-Materials of switches, from bronze to steel.
-Advisory and VSI have started using the panel breaker lateral, which is now included in the general circuit.
-Errors fixed in the Advisory panel
-Navigation in HSI data is now shown when the FMS/GPS mode is selected.
-Anti-ice alerts fixed
-Switches of AC/DC that were locked, fixed
-Flight dynamics for takeoff and approach have been adjusted, improving flight stability. These values were adjusted to the real model.
-Flaps behavior and its relation to dynamics were adjusted.
-Aural voices now are appearing, before not.
-Alert Warning lit after takeoff, not showing problem solved.
-ECU is now working in automatic and manual positions.
-Feather switches fixed.
-The lights of the feather switches are lit now.
-Wipers animation fixed.
-Altitude selector now does not depend on ALT SEL in Autopilot, only to activate the change of level.
-Sound of activation ALT HOLD in autopilot fixed.
-Fuel indicators now show the correct data.
-The skin had holes or lines in the cockpit, all of which were fixed.
-Bounce during flight solved
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Very good news. Here we have Virtucol, frequently villainized (I think mostly unfairly) for their simple aircraft (hint: they have stated ad nauseum that they build them like this on purpose for a casual market), providing a timely and comprehensive - arguably major - update to their product while other “more respected” devs get by with silence for months if not permanently on their poor products. Good on Virtualcol for following through on their wares.
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Agreed! They are very transparent about the intention of their products, and I feel they price them accordingly. Also hard to fault them on this, as they have clearly been listening to the community response/watching videos and have taken action to improve their product. They could have just as easily released it and called it a day, as so many other developers do.
Also forgot to mention, as a bonus coinciding with the update next week, they’re bundling in about 20 new liveries requested by the community. Again, hard to fault them here. If they’ve actually corrected what they claim on their update notes, we may have something decent here!
It will be interesting to see the results after the release of the update.
If it works reasonably well, it could be a very good value for the money.
"The takeoff now takes between 1000 and 1500 m with flaps at 10°, or 2000 m with flaps at 5°.”
Hope this is incorrect. Flaps 5 i standard TO. They never use 2000m with that.
The STOL network in Norway has RWYs of 800m. The -100 -200 has no problems operating there. Might be they use flaps10 there. Have to check. But 1000m+ on TO - no way.
2000ft maybe?
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Yeah, they may have pushed it too far in the other direction… I guess we’ll just see next week. That said - I’m not expecting perfection/study-level from them. As long as the aircraft doesn’t accelerate on the runway like a rocket ship; Reaching 100 knots in 2 seconds like it does in its current state, a longer takeoff roll will feel better.
It’s likely the only Dash 8-100 we’ll ever get, so if it can be made passable for basic operations I’ll certainly have a look.
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Virtualcol Dash8-100 updated yesterday (Msfs Marketplace).
Just tried her for 3min…more time tomorrow hopefully.
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Indeed! I haven’t had much time to test it yet either, however initial impressions are that it’s undeniably better than the original release - I was able to complete a full flight from start-up to shutdown and wasn’t left feeling too badly about it… It really wasn’t horrible.
Everything noted in their changelog was accomplished, and the aircraft definitely feels better to fly. Of course there’s some remaining “Virtualcol weirdness”, however nothing that made me want to prematurely end the flight. I’ll need to put some more time into it and properly test it, however I’m pleased with the update so far!
One big glaring negative for me, though, is the sounds. They said they updated the sounds, however I think they took a step backwards. There’s some looping and distortion that doesn’t sound too great, and I don’t remember it being like that with the original release.
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Does the FMS show any distance to waypoints now?
Before I could only get track to next WPT, but no distance. Kind of hard to plan descend etc 
Yes it’s showing distance now, and the HSI reads FMS data as it should - That’s a great fix.
I did notice one pretty significant flaw today, though, and I’ve already notified Virtualcol. The Condition levers seem to be “reversed” in how they manipulate the engine rpm gauges. When you pull the levers back, the props seem to do what they’re supposed to do, however the gauges read an increase in rpm’s as opposed to a decrease. It’s a little wacky.
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Quick test.
It’s ridiculously overpowered still.
Climbing at 4000ft/m at 160ias 
. Should do 1500ish ft/m.
Still have no distance to waypoint in the FMS. Shows 0,0NM to next WPt; with correct track. The HSI got distance though, which helps.
Think I shelf it until they tune the over-powerness😬…
Have you reported this to Virtualcol and what have they said?
Reported them now. Will see…
I know the Virtualcol is quite a flaw, but nonetheless I bought it today, with ah sigh of “well, I like this thing and I like norwegian regional ops, so let’s just go for it and pretend to have some cozy fun with it”.
And I would go along with that, BUT: is the Reverse Thrust really not working?? That would totally ruin in for me because even for some honeymoon-blinded fun-flying, that is a must for this aircraft.
EDIT: ok it seems to somehow work after touchdown when there is some speed to bleed off, but feels a bit weird still…
The reverse in v2 is much damped from v1 (which was much too strong). I’m having troubles with the differential brakes, which are backwards–but only in the Dash 8
I See.
Of course I don’t know the real behaviour, but I would expect the Reverse is able to at least stop the aircraft…I think every other Turboprop in the FS World is capable of that, so I don’t think the Dash is the only one that works correct.