Special Effects for the DASH – 7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Once installed, these files and configuration changes will provide the following special effects.

 

WET or SNOWY RUNWAY / WHEEL – PROP SPRAY EFFECT

 

 

 

 

Prop spray, wheel spray and a ripple effect on the runway.

 

These effects are automatically triggered under the following conditions.

 

It is Raining or Snowing

Your aircraft is on the ground or less than 10'AGL

Your speed is 40 Kts or greater

 

All of these conditions must be met in order for the effects to appear.

The effect will stop automatically once you have lifted off or have slowed to less than 40 Kts.

 

 

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RUNWAY TYPE AND SURFACE CONDITION GAUGE

 

     

 

In the lower right corner of the Annunciator display you will see runway type and condition information.

 

This display operates under the same conditions that trigger the effects.

 

It will detect if the runway surface is DRY , WET , ICY, or SNOW covered and if the runway is CONCRETE, BUMPY, WATER, ROUGH, ASPHALT, GRASS (short grass), MEADOW (tall grass),  HARD TURF, SNOW, ICE, URBAN, FOREST, DIRT, CORAL, GRAVEL, TAR CHIP, MESH, BITUMIN, BRICK, MACADAM, PLANKS, SAND, SHALE, TARMAC.

 

Please note that you may not actually encounter all these different types in FS2002.  I am suspicious that many of these are listed as left over bits of code from Combat Flight Simulator 2 and may not be implemented in FS2002. Please also note that whatever it reports, the information presented is what the sim is reporting and the gauge is just passing it on so when you see it reporting something  you feel is well, unusual don’t be too surprised .

Of course if  all goes well with your Dash 7 flight,  you will hopefully not see this one too often.  

 

 

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INTERIOR LIGHTING UPDATE FOR CARGO VERSION

This updates the interior lighting and will brighten up the cargo area for nighttime operations.

 

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OPERATING  INSTRUCTIONS

 

Fire up FS2002, hop into the Dash 7 and go find yourself some rainy or snowy weather.  Check the annunciator display and it should tell you the runway type and conditions. Get lined up on the runway, switch to Spot Plane view and roll.  Once you hit  40 Kts. the effects should trigger,  liftoff and  they should automatically switch off.   When you are ready to land,  if the conditions are right the effect should trigger again as soon as you touchdown and switch off once your speed drops below 40 Kts.

 

The Cargo Lights are activated along with all the other lights with key press “L” and can be operated independently of  the landing and navigation lights by key press “Shift+L”

 
CREDITS

 

Special thanks to Nick Pike who very kindly allowed me to use his XML code for the surface gauge and was nice enough to help sort things out and get it working properly.  I made some minor changes to the gauge code and created/modified the effects .  The gauge code is based on Nicks original work in his project “C4-SST “ a concept design aircraft with cruising speed of Mach 2.0 at a cruising height of 66-68,000 feet. The entire panel is done in XML and it’s full of interesting features. The next time you need to get to the other side of the planet in a hurry,  I suggest you strap yourself into Nick’s C4-SST .

 

Thanks to Paul Saunders for helping test and develop the light fx .

 

 

Brian