Ok good question. The idea of going faster for gusts is a good rule of thumb for any airplane. The way I’ve always looked at it is ‘add half the gusts to your final approach speed’. (Never heard of wind direction playing a part in this) So if the winds are 20G28, you could add 4kts. This is just what I’ve heard though, there might be other little tricks out there
But if you’re landing flap 15, you’ve already added 10kts so I wouldn’t touch that or else you’ll be too fast. Flap 35 however, you might want to add that gust factor. This is all technique though, and completly up to you. at the end of the day the idea is just don’t go below Vref, and if that means you need to add half of your gusts to your speed, by all means go for it.
Amazing work. Thank you VERY much for bringing our DHC 8 Q400 back to life !
Along with the ATR family, Q400’s are my favorite planes to fly as passenger. One of the rare commercial craft offering to actually feel you’re in the air. Also generates far less concerning cruise anxiety compared to the Dorniers 228 back in the days…
Had the chance to travel in those a few times with Olympic, Horizon, Wesjet, Tyrolean, and others.
Let’s hope one day ATR’s and DHC’s have the opportunity to be introduced / reworked in IF.
Until then, your hard work is an invitation to fly the Q400 more.
Thanks again for the amazing guide! I had some questions though.
I’m currently flying a real-life Jambojet route between Nairobi (HJKJ) and Lamu Island (HKLU) and I was wondering what altitude you’d recommend me to fly, considering that the route is 260 nm long.
IRL pilots say they fly at FL190 but this seems incredibly low. And they might be speaking in ft and not FLs, as HKJK is 5.330ft ASL it would mean an altitude of 24.000ft.
Hopefully what I said was clear and that you’ve got enough info to guide me through my flight 😁
If you want my honest answer I’d just say don’t worry too much about it. There’s no right or wrong answer. For a flight that long and considering it’s an eastbound flight, FL250 (25,000’ ASL) is probably where I’d look first but you could realistically go as low as FL190 depending on winds and other factors.
Sorry to be vague but there ya go, let me know if you have any other questions :)