Dash 8-300 Professional

Published by Just Flight
Developed by PSS, Lago, Gary Summons, SimFlyers
Requires: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Released – Out Now
Price : £24.99

The Dash 8-300 is something of a classic aircraft amongst commuters. This add-on, for Flight Simulator 2002, comes with 17 different liveries, scenery for 3 different European airports as well as tutorials and utilities. It certainly looks to be a very impressive add-on.

Included Liveries
There are 17 included liveries, 5 for the Dash 8-300 and 12 for the Dash 8-Q300. They are as follows:

Dash 8-300
Sabena, Jazz (Green), US Airways, South African Express, Bahamasair.

Dash 8-Q300
‘Q’ Rollout livery, Augsburg Airways, BWIA, Lufthansa Cityline, British European, British Airways (Union Jack), FlyBe, Intersky, Wideroe, Iberia, Tyrolean, QantasLink.

Installation
Like all Just Flight products installation was straightforward and gave no problems at all. The software automatically finds the location of Flight Simulator. Before installation begins there is a short Just Flight promotional movie clip that isn’t subtitled but pressing the Esc key will quit this and move on with the installation. On starting Flight Simulator all the relevant new material is added with only a minimum amount of time needed. The hard drive space required for installation is 300MB.

Documentation
Like all software that comes in DVD packaging these days the documentation is virtually all in .pdf format. There’s a document on Frankfurt and the Amsterdam airports. The manual is split over 3 .pdf files and covers everything from important checklists, to useful information about the Dash 8-300 to the procedures that have to be followed with the aircraft. There are also some tutorials that are to be used alongside the tutorial flights that install into Flight Simulator. It’s fair to say that the enclosed documentation is very comprehensive and answers any question you may have.

Aircraft
The two different aircraft with this add-on, the Dash 8-300 and the Dash 8-Q300, both look superb. They both have virtual cockpit displays that look fantastic when the graphic settings in Flight Simulator are set at the highest detail. The external detail on the aircraft is also very impressive and is probably the best I’ve seen in a Flight Simulator expansion. Surprisingly the system requirements for this add-on are only a 800MHz CPU and 128MB RAM. That said though you’re going to need a significantly better PC if you want to run Flight Simulator 2002 at full detail.

Extras
You don’t only get extra aircraft with this add-on; you also get scenery and airports for 3 locations. These locations are London City, Amsterdam Schiphol and Frankfurt Main. These are also impressive. Flying above London and seeing Big Ben and the Millennium Dome was great fun.

Overall Game Rating: 9.0/10
Fantastically detailed aircraft and the addition of extra scenery for 3 locations make this a highly recommended add-on for MS Flight Simulator 2002.

Deaf Gamers comment:
This add-on doesn’t make Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 any less deaf gamer friendly so check our review for our comments. It’s also great to see the tutorials in .pdf format as they allow the deaf gamer to progress through them at their own pace.