Milton Shupe's Dash 7 Panel Instruments

[mikea3]

Hi - Hope I'm asking this in the right place. I've been flying Milton Shupe's excellent Dash 7 project for a long time but not being a real pilot or knowing all the aircraft jargon, I have a question about two panel items. First, what is the "Gate Open" light to the left of the Auto Pilot panel used for and what does it do, if anything? Secondly, on the "Absolute Altitude" or radar height gauge, their is an adjustment knob that works. I know what info the Absolute Attitude gauge is showing and how to use it, but what does the adjustment knob do, or what purpose does it perform, as it is moved between 0 and 500 feet?

 

Thanks for your reply in advance and as a further tidbit of info, I wanted to mention that I'm flying the Dash 7 with the Rocky Mountain Airways paint theme because I worked for Rocky Mountain Airways back in 1978 at the Colorado Springs, CO airport when we took delivery of the first Dash 7. That was a big deal for us as a small commuter airline based in Denver and flying to the ski resorts and a few other close cities in Colorado. Previously we were only flying Twin Otters and a King Air, so we were very proud to include this beautiful new Dash 7 to our aircraft inventory. When I first saw that Milton had created the Dash 7 project and then later on, the actual Rocky Mountain Airways paint theme, this aircraft became my default for the majority of all my flights. I've never been a pilot but I have flown that Dash 7 to all our old Denver based destinations and from there, virtually all over the world in the last many years.

 

Thank you Milton for such a great aircraft and all the memories that went with it!

[f16jockey_2]

Secondly, on the "Absolute Altitude" or radar height gauge, their is an adjustment knob that works. I know what info the Absolute Attitude gauge is showing and how to use it, but what does the adjustment knob do, or what purpose does it perform, as it is moved between 0 and 500 feet?

I don't have the aircraft, but that sounds like the Decision Height setting.

 

That's the height AGL were you need to actually SEE the runway for being allowed to land it.

It's different for every airport, runway, the approach you take for that runway, even the type of aircraft (it's intstruments) you're flying. You need to read charts for that.

 

In general 200-250 ft is a reasonable setting.

 

Wim

[mikea3]

Thanks Wim for the quick reply! I'll set mine to 250 ft. There is a small light in the upper left hand corner of the gauge at about 10 o'clock, that comes on if the bug setting is set for anything over "0". I've not noticed in the past if this is coming on or off or issuing any audio alarm at any point during approach or landing, but I'll keep my eye on it.

[Ray Hff]

The gate, during normal flight, blocks the throttle levers from going into reverse. Its like a lock which blocks them at the "idle" setting and keeps them from going over into reverse.

 

When on the ground, the gate is in the open position as indicated by the light that you see, and it allows you to put the props into reverse to assist in braking.

 

The gate is controlled in most airplanes by a computer which senses weight-on-wheels (WOW). This prevents the power levers from being retarded aft of the flight idle detent in flight.

[mikea3]

Hey Ray - Thanks for the great explanation! I do use the reverse thrust often when flying into many short runway airports,which is the reason I love to fly the Dash 7. So I have seen that light coming on and off all the time and because of my limited pilot/aircraft knowledge, was always trying to figure out exactly what that was telling me. I knew by the term "gate" and in some places "idle gate" that it had to do with switching between two ongoing processes but I can't tell you how many manuals I looked in and could still not find a good answer, so I appreciate your reply.