AirBC Dash 8-102 C-FADK Fin#812 "Nanaimo" - Air Canada Connector for
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 Professional Edition (see note below
for the Standard Edition).
This aircraft is a de Havilland model DHC-8-102, serial number 324,
built in 1992 and in service with AirBC from May of that year.
AirBC is a regional connector for Air Canada serving the Western
Provinces of Canada. There are nine Dash 8-100's operated by AirBC
plus an additional six Dash 8-300's Making them a *very* common site
in almost any airport with passenger service in the West.
This FS2002 model has full moving parts including, gear, gear doors,
ailerons, elevator, spoilers, flaps and a steerable nose wheel.
Texture features include separate textures for gear up/down and full
night lighting including strobe effect on upper tail surface and
additional night lighting effects with gear down.
Note: As there are separate textures for gear up/down for the engines
and the front 2/3s of the fuselage, the textures may redraw on gear
extension/retraction.
Some personal notes from the AirBC repaint author:
--------------------------------------------------
First I would like to say that this work is a derivative of the very
fine work of Chris Bawden and Gerrit Kranenbarg on their original
SunState Dash 8 release (see orginal.jpg included in this archive and
look for qfdash8.zip on your favourite Flightsim archive site).
I have often wanted to do a realistic looking AirBC Dash 8 but, having
very little experience in this sort of thing, did not know where to
start. When I saw the Sunstate Dash 8 I knew I had finally found the
starting point. From there it was a matter of experimenting with
PaintShop Pro to revise Gerrit's excellent textures from the Sunstate
livery to the AirBC livery. This included hand drawing the stylized
B.C. Coat of Arms and the AirBC logo, neither of which I could find
suitable source images for on the Internet.
I must extend a big thank you to Chris and Gerrit who graciously
agreed to assist me. Without their original release and invaluable
help, this release would not have happened.
I must also thank Airliners.net (http://www.airliners.net) for the
AirBC Dash 8 photos I used as reference while creating the new
textures and, in particular, John W. A. Merer and Ben Wang for their
photgraphs of C-FADK also on Airliners.net.
Finally, the AirBC "Nanaimo" aircraft was chosen because I grew up in
a town by the same name that is located on the East coast of Vancouver
Island. I have often flown the regional route between CYVR and CYCD
(the airport serving Nanaimo) on similar AirBC aircraft. I have even
logged some cockpit time on longer legs (albeit in the jumpseat behind
the crew).
I hope you enjoy flying this release as much as I did creating it.
CREDITS
-------
Visual model and performance model by Chris Bawden. Original textures
and night lighting modification by Gerrit Kranenbarg. AirBC repaint
by Mike Kelly.
Comments to Chris - chrisb@uq.net.au
or Gerrit - g.kranenbarg@planet.nl
or Mike - yllekm@hotmail.com
This aircraft may not be distributed or modified in any way without
the permission of the authors.
INSTALLATION
------------
Just unzip into your FS2002 "Aircraft" directory. This plane works only with the FS2002 Professional version. It is based on the King
Air 350 and uses that plane's panel and sounds. There are some excellent Dash 8 freeware panels and sounds available to further enhance this release. Make sure to get the "Pro" version of these enhancements.
Note: For the AirBC Dash 8-102 FS2002 Standard version, please see
the included file abcd8s.zip.
FS2002 vs real Dash 8-100
-------------------------
Dash 8 performance information was supplied by Andy Serenc, Sunstate
Airlines (QANTAS regional) Shorts 360 check captain. Sunstate also
fly the Dash 8 and the performance figures reflect the Dash 8-100
model used by Sunstate.
The FS2002 flight model was based on performance information for the
real aircraft. The only setting I was unable to replicate was the
prop rpm settings. The real Dash 8 prop settings are Takeoff -
1,200rpm, Climb - 1,050rpm and Cruise - 900rpm. As the flight model
is based on the standard Kingair I wasn't able to modify the prop rpms
down to the Dash 8 settings so the prop rpms quoted in the performace
information above are not realistic. However all other settings do
match the real Dash 8-100 performance specifications.
PERFORMANCE
-----------
The information below is also listed in the aircraft checklist and can
be accessed from FS2002 by selecting -> Aircraft -> Kneeboard ->
Checklists from the menu.
Fuel
The Dash 8 100 will take 5,600lbs of fuel. Setting tanks at 100% will
give you 5,600lbs of fuel and place the aircraft weight at maximum
takeoff weight. A more normal fuel load would be tanks at 65% which
will give you a takeoff weight of 32,900lbs and a range of about
1,150nm (2,130kms).
Takeoff
- Flap 5 or 15
- Rotate - 95kts
Climb Power
- < 10,000 ft - 80% to 90% torque
- >10,000 ft, < 20,000 ft - 75% to 80% torque
- > 20,000 ft - 70% to 75% torque
Rate of climb
- 1,500 fpm - < 10,000 ft
- reducing to 1,000 fpm by 20,000 ft
- reducing to 500 fpm by 25,000 ft
Climb Speed (indicated)
- Standard Profile - 160kts
Cruise
@ 15,000 ft
- 200kts true
- approx 170kts indicated
- 72% torque
- pull prop levers back to 1,500rpm to reduce to 600lb hr fuel
consumption
@ 20,000 ft
- 250kts true
- approx 185kts indicated
- 65% torque
- pull prop levers back to 1,500rpm to reduce to 550lb hr fuel
consumption
@ 25,000 ft
- 250kts true
- approx 170kts indicated
- 55% torque
- pull prop levers back to 1,500rpm to reduce to 470lb hr fuel
consumption
Max Cruise
- 268kts @ 15,000 ft
- 266kts @ 20,000 ft
