FEATURES

Custom flight dynamics engine

The Majestic Software Dash 8 is currently the only aircraft available which includes a built-in Flight Dynamics Engine which is completely independent from the default FSX FDE. This results in much more realistic aerodynamics behaviour of the aircraft, in particular the realistic wind simulation, enhanced propeller physics including propeller ‘discing’ and auto rotation, the effects of the propeller airstream on the wing lift and the icing effects on the propeller, wings and the flight surfaces.



Weather Radar

The Weather Radar is capable of interpolating the weather returns based on the actual FSX weather using the FSX Weather Stations reports. The Weather Radar can work with both the FSX Real Weather and the Weather Environment add-ons capable of setting the per-station weather. The beam geometry is also simulated in order to depict the weather based on the aircraft altitude, antenna tilt and the altitude of the weather itself. There is ground clutter and weather shadow effects, and also a ground mapping mode simulation, capable of showing the surrounding terrain. The weather clutter in the ground mode is also simulated.



TCAS

The Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) simulates most of the ICAO-defined CASII functions and provides the traffic indication as well as the traffic and resolution advisories. The TCAS works with both the AI traffic and virtual ATC network traffic (Vatsim/IVAO).



FMS navigation, fuel management and basic performance

The dual Flight Management System simulates the Universal 1E FMS and is developed with a high degree of realism. The FMS system is capable of navigation in three dimensions (LNAV+VNAV), RNP-based navigation and Fuel and Performance Management. The up-to-date navigation database, provided by navigation data supplier Navigraph (subject to additional charges - see the website for details) can be used to obtain the latest procedures. In addition, there are custom provisions to control the availability of the ground services and the flow of passenger announcements.



User Documentation

Documentation includes a systems tutorial, sample flight guide, Control Panel application tutorial, checklists and performance tables.



Virtual cockpit and external models

Highly detailed external and cockpit models with HD textures and special effects are included:

Hundreds of custom animations, all controlled by the aircraft systems

Unique 3D propeller simulation featuring variable disc thickness

Smooth gradual lighting in virtual cockpit

Complete custom lighting system with proper light splashes on the exterior model and ground. All lights are functional in the cockpit

‘Intelligent’ pilots with behaviour linked to the aircraft state (exterior model)

Complete multi-stage icing visualisation

Window mist/demist simulation

Frame-rate friendly model

NB: Virtual cockpit only; no 2D panel is included

Liveries and paintkit

Detailed layered paintkit in Photoshop format with a unique stitching tool.

19 high resolution liveries from around the world:

Air Baltic

Air Berlin

Air Canada Express

Alaska Airlines (Horizon Air)

ANA (blue)

ANA (green)

Austrian

Croatia

FlyBe

EuroLOT

Lufthansa Regional (Augsburg Airlines)

Luxair

Qantas Link

Porter

SAS Commuter

SATA

Skywork

United Express (Colgan Air)

Wideroe



Passenger announcements

In addition to the default announcements included with the aircraft, the scripting-based announcement system allows for the building of custom announcements both per livery or globally. The announcement script can play the user defined sound files based on the current condition of the aircraft systems and control states, thus providing truly customised and realistic announcement flows specific to particular airlines.



Saving and loading system states

When saving or loading a flight in FSX the systems will also store or retrieve their respective states.



Custom sound system

The Majestic Software Dash 8 includes its own sound system, independent of the FSX sound system. The sound system is Direct-X based and uses custom DSP (Digital Signal Processing) effects to simulate the propeller sounds correctly. The system is also 3D-enabled for both external and internal sounds, including the switches and controls sounds as well as voice announcements.



Add-on control panel

The Add-on Control Panel Application (CPAN) allows you to visually modify the most important parameters of the aircraft, as well as verify and apply the custom Weight and Balance configurations.