Flying a dash 8

captainphil

captainphil

Well-Known Member
whats it like flying one those who fly it and I was just curious ,what is the point of prop feather, does it cut fuel costs?
 
captainphil said:
whats it like flying one those who fly it and I was just curious ,what is the point of prop feather, does it cut fuel costs?
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As far as i know a prop is feathered to reduce drag from the dead engine in order to have better performace. I never flew a dash-8 so i can't say. I am however a 300 hr pilot in the right seat of an ERJ!:sarcasm:
 
Prop feathering reduces drag BIG TIME in the event of an engine failure. Without it, the dead engine prop blades just spin in the wind creating massive amounts of drag. When you feather the engine, you're changing the blade angle so that the prop stops spinning with the wind (windmilling). Without feathering the dead engine, the plane will yaw A LOT.
 
captainphil said:
whats it like flying one those who fly it and I was just curious ,what is the point of prop feather, does it cut fuel costs?
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I fly the Dash 8. It's an amazing aircraft. It does what you want it to do. You can make this airplane your bitch with speed changes. 140 knots until short final and watch it slow down to Vref of 98 (or whatever the speed card says for the given weight). Vref is as low as 81 knots at 35 degrees flaps and light weight. How's that for a large turboprop? ATC knows what the Dash 8 can do, so they make some crazy requests, like in PHL.

The cockpit is nice and roomy. The airplane is pretty reliable. The flight controls are somewhat heavy. The A/C system sucks. It's difficult to get a smooth landing out of it (but that's because it's the Dash). It does great in crosswind landings. It can take on a lot of ice. It is a blast to hand-fly.

On landing I rarely use the brakes unless we really want to make a taxiway. When those 14 foot diameter props go into Discing, the props turn into "parachutes" and is enough to throw your body into the shoulder harness. We'll take the Dash 8 in on RWY 33R in Boston with a decent load of pax - you know how long that runway is? 2557 feet. :rawk:

What do you mean by "what is the point of prop feather?" Edit: I think you are asking "why do we feather a prop" - it was just answered in the post above.

Is it a fuel efficient airplane? Yes! The Dash 8 Q400 only needs a 33% load capacity to break even. That's pretty cool.
 
I think the guy wants to know why Dashes and ATR's taxi with the prop feathered?
One reason you feather the prop before shutdown is that once the turbine stops turning you lose oil lube in the prop.
 
so is it different in the ATR and dash8?? in the king airs we do it mostly just to save the brakes because the amount of thrust you get even at idle.. as far as shutting down the KA, we dont feather until we are under 30% N1...i know they are different powerplants, so now im as curious as captainphil
 
My favorite name that never caught on during my regional days was "The Ocho!"
 
I always thought they were feathered during taxi for fuel savings. Don't some companies taxi jets single engine for that reason?
 
It's not uncommon to see an EMB-120 taxiing out of DEN with one prop not turning. GLA is huge about saving fuel and will shut down one engine while they throw the brasilia around the ramp. I haven't seen any of the Skywest guys do it down here in Bako but they are hardly even on the ground long enough to get the engine shut down, let alone have time to start #2 before they get to the hold line.
 
I also fly the smash 8. :p

To answer original post - Fuel saving on the ground, at current time, only Dash 8-300s are allowed to single engine taxi. However, due to a lot of new upgrades, some new CAs would like to keep the engine running till he or she get used to "taxiing" the plane.

On the flip side, Dash 8-100 are not allowed to single engine taxi yet. The main reason - nose wheel. According to what I have heard, nose wheel strut are not strong enough. Jace, you can ask your CA in regarding with that. I believe you and I going to see single engine taxi fleet wise soon enough. :)

Enroute phase, for 100, it burns about 600 lbs per side. However, I do not fly 300 enough to tell how much Jet A it burns. :D I hope this answer your question.
 
adreamer said:
On the flip side, Dash 8-100 are not allowed to single engine taxi yet. The main reason - nose wheel. According to what I have heard, nose wheel strut are not strong enough. Jace, you can ask your CA in regarding with that. I believe you and I going to see single engine taxi fleet wise soon enough. :)
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Used to be able to until Philly broke all the 100 nosewheels.
 
I was halfway to Nashville from PHL once when we got an ACARS saying that the PHL ramp manager had called the company to tell them that his crew "may" have damaged the nose wheel when disconnecting the tow bar and that we should land "carefully". It turned out ok, but they had knocked a huge chunk of the rim of the tire off.
 
I have heard guys call the Dash-8 a flying roadblock... when you get behind them we usually get the "slow to 180" from ATC. Lots of room up front though, I jumped on one and was surprised at the size of the flight deck, even had nice little cup holders.


Doug Taylor said:
My favorite name that never caught on during my regional days was "The Ocho!"
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I heard that on the radio a while back :D
 
adreamer said:
I also fly the smash 8. :p

To answer original post - Fuel saving on the ground, at current time, only Dash 8-300s are allowed to single engine taxi. However, due to a lot of new upgrades, some new CAs would like to keep the engine running till he or she get used to "taxiing" the plane.

On the flip side, Dash 8-100 are not allowed to single engine taxi yet. The main reason - nose wheel. According to what I have heard, nose wheel strut are not strong enough. Jace, you can ask your CA in regarding with that. I believe you and I going to see single engine taxi fleet wise soon enough. :)

Enroute phase, for 100, it burns about 600 lbs per side. However, I do not fly 300 enough to tell how much Jet A it burns. :D I hope this answer your question.
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We're allowed to single-engine taxi the 100's now. Just so long there isn't a placard saying you can't. The good news just came out the other day :panic:
 
I can see it now. . .

Dash 8 operating companies, instructing their crews to fly with one engine inop, and feathered. . .to save on fuel costs.

(Of course Of course, that'd be illegal - and ^^ comment was said in jest!)
 
Milesar said:
I have heard guys call the Dash-8 a flying roadblock... when you get behind them we usually get the "slow to 180" from ATC. Lots of room up front though, I jumped on one and was surprised at the size of the flight deck, even had nice little cup holders.
I heard that on the radio a while back :D
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I fly the "megawhacker" which is the 400 and we are typically not of the roadblock variety. We are slower than a jet but today during cruise at FL200 and we were behind a CRJ and when center asked for speeds we were at 275 and they were at 300. They can certainly go faster but at the levels we fly at which is no higher than 250 we are keeping up with the guys that hang around that low.

It is a great airplane to fly, we climb at 230-250 KIAS up to the levels at 1500FPM and we can run the variety of climbs lower from 4000+FPM and a lower IAS to a 250IAS with a climb of 2000FPM.We typically cruise around 280 above 10K and around 250 at FL250 which gives a true airspeed of just under 370. We can fly to the outermarker at 230 and still be Vref +10 over the fence by pulling flight idle to 200 then throwing out gear and flaps. It has taken some getting used to by both the pilots and the controllers but typically below ten thousand and in the terminal environment we can meet any speed restriction ATC has for us whether that is fast or slow. It is built like a truck and flies very well although a bit heavy feeling in the roll rate because of the 93 foot wingspan.

We do not taxi feathered or taxi single engine. Unless I missed something in training we would not get very far with feathered engines.
 
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