I drive one of those Dash 8s, and I'd love you to get a job with us so that I don't have to come down to GCI so often. Only kidding, lovely place really.
As already mentioned, I'm not aware of anyone doing an MCC on a Dash 8, and it's hardly an ideal aircraft for the exercise. If you're thinking about the Q400, it's
huuugely overpowered, the autoflight control panel can be very tricksy and you're constantly retrimming the rudder, even with both engines working. In short, it's a bit of a handful, and if you're coming from a Duchess or Seneca, you'd spend most of the course trying to catch up with the aircraft rather than developing your multicrew skills.
I understand where you're coming from re. getting experience on something you're likely to fly, but many and varied are the types of aircraft operating from the Islands, and at the risk of stating the obvious, a sim is type specific.
The MCC is one of those subjects where if you ask 10 pilots, you'll get at least 12 different opinions. For what it's worth, I've played with several different types of sim during training:
- Fixed base, clockwork dials (Duchess - IR)
- Full motion, clockwork dials (737-200 - MCC)
- Fixed base, EFIS (CRJ - JOC)
- Full motion, EFIS (Saab 340 & Q400 - assessment and type rating)
For me, the best of the bunch was the 737. Practicing with clockwork dials really sharpens up your scan, and it's a much easier transition from clockwork to glass than the other way. Full motion is useful, if only because many airlines use full motion sims for their assessments, and it can be a little disconcerting if your first experience of being bounced around is during the assessment itself.
Personally, I'd go to European for the experience (the quality of training was also superb) - then, as and when you get invited for a sim assessment, find out what sim it's on and treat yourself to an hour or two's practice. It worked for me . . .