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!