Q400 Visit Today

[FlyChicaga]

Today Bombardier brought in a Dash 8-402 (Q400) into Midway for our company to demo. It was really an awesome experience. The representatives took us all through the plane, from the cockpit to the galley, and showed us how amazing this plane really is. I wish I had more pictures of various parts of the plane, but I took a few of the flight. We headed out of MDW eastbound, over Michigan, and back to Chicago... about a 35-40 minute flight. I'm going to keep all my fingers and toes crossed that our company might consider getting this plane someday!

http://community.webshots.com/album/134030371mujrSL

Hopefully those pics will work.

I'm anxious to see more demos in the future. It's neat to have all the company big-wigs on the plane just flying around, getting served free beverages (non-alcoholic of course!), and getting a bunch of free stuff to boot!

[Kingairer]

Get read for propsoal to get the DH8s if you agree to some sort of lower wage.

[pilot602]

Yeah Bombardier had one of these (a test-bed model) down at CGZ a year or so back. I only got to walk around it from a distance but it was quite impressive! I'd LOVE to end up flying one of these things one day.

This is the one that has the harmonic dampeners up in the wing root rihgt? Awesome machine.

[FlyChicaga]

Nah, actually they are already setting payrates for a 50+ seat turboprop which are higher than now. At least we won't get lower... still not what it should be though. I'm just looking at this in terms of profitability and long-term company viability. We need a change. Soon.

[montanapilot]

yeah i got to fly on horizon from Great Falls to Seattle on one of them. Very Nice for passenger comfort i must say

[FlyChicaga]

[ QUOTE ]
This is the one that has the harmonic dampeners up in the wing root rihgt? Awesome machine.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, there are some mechanical dampeners (not like ANR) which sync 180 out of phase of the propeller vibration. I think there are like 90 of them in the aircraft, and can be activated by a selector button on the F/A panel. Not only does it dampen noise, but also dampens aircraft vibration. They did a demo of it in flight, quite interesting!

[aceflyley]

Cool pictures... I agree, that is an awesome plane. I flew on one on Horizon also and I was shocked at how quiet, comfortable, and modern it was. Without a doubt the best non-jet I've ever been on (better than some jets too, I would say). I hope your airline gets some (for your sake )

[Fearless]

I've flown the Q400 for a little over 3 years - it truly is an amazing airplane. At 5071 hp per side, it's not exactly underpowered. During one repositioning flight (no passengers), we departed Seattle (elevation 433') and climbed to 17,000' in FOUR minutes. Even with a full passenger load, the Q400 will climb at 2000 fpm or so up into the flight levels. Our Dash fleet is not equipped with drop-down passenger masks, so we're limited to a maximum altitude of 25000'.

One of the things I like best about the airplane is that we almost never have to bump passengers or bags due to weight limitations. Our Q400's are configured for 70 seats... Fill up the seats, stuff the cargo compartment, and throw on 6000 lbs of fuel, and you're still several thousand pounds under the maximum gross takeoff weight of 64,500 lbs. (In practice, our maximum takeoff weight can be limited by the maximum landing weight or takeoff perfomance considerations, but these are almost never a problem.)

Passengers seem to like the airplane pretty well. Lots of legroom and headroom. At 350-360 KTAS, it's only a few minutes "slower" than our RJ's on most of our flights. The main passenger gripe (believe it or not) is that the seats don't recline. This would be a nice feature to have on our longer flights.

FFFI

[Ophir]

How does an engineer determine what the best prop configuration is? Why is it six bladed on the Q-400? I know that the amount of torque available can be a limiting factor. But why six on the Q-400, Four on the Beech 1900, Three on the Beech 99 and the Twin Otter? Is it just a hp limitation? Is there ever the potential for too many blades that lead to cavitation?

[pilot602]

Generally more blade = quiter operation. Generally speaking.

[asl]

I've flown on this plane type several times before. FlyBe (British European) operates them and is currently receiving more, I think about one or 2 a month during this year... mainly for route expansion. They also operate the BAe146, and I have to say I'd still rather be in a jet!! Having said that if it has to be a turboprop, then the DashQ400 series is the one. Have you seen the STOL performance on this thing? FlyBe run both 146's and Q400's into Jersey, Channel Islands (JER) which only has r'way of 6,000ft. The 146's have to work really hard to stop at all when fully loaded in from London, this prop makes the turn off at 4,000ft!!!

[Doug Taylor]

Dash-8's are fantastic aircraft.

I watched an Allegheny DCH-8 take off empty in LGA a few months ago and on the tower freq, I heard "Holy crap!" "Yow!" "Good show!"

[Kingairer]

...and you thought it was empty!

I would have to agree, they used to come into the airport I used to work and saw them do some impressive things. I dont know anything about the -400, but the 1,2,3 have always been a good ride for me.

[aloft]

Nice pics! Thanks for posting 'em.

[Doug Taylor]

My only question is, did the "TOGA" buttons say "Takeoff, eh!"?

[Doug Taylor]

[ QUOTE ]
Get read for propsoal to get the DH8s if you agree to some sort of lower wage.

[/ QUOTE ]

That sounds familiar!

Never fall for the "let's just get 'em on campus and raise the rates later" because it never works.

[pavelump]

I was sitting in the runup pad at the approach end of 34 here at KPWK with a student yesterday and I was like, "What the F....?!?" For a second I thought that somebody screwed up and missed O'hare by about 8 miles! It was pretty cool to see it in action! Then, right behind it landed one of those Ferarri pusher twin things. Made me pretty jealous since I was sitting there in a vibrating 1982 C172P about to risk life and limb all in the name of ground ref. maneuvers.

The Dash-8 has been sitting here for the last couple days.

Flychicaga, I thought of you today as a 340 flew overhead as I was flying to Michigan City. I thought, "hmm... I wonder who's flying that?" That'd be pretty cool if you guys got those Dash-8s. Is that a possibility?

Later,
Dave