Beechcraft Model 99 Series (Virtualcol FS Software) (via MSFS Marketplace)
The first plane I have, to date, bought through MSFS 2020 Marketplace.
A huge disappointment. I lost £12.50 on the deal, so I’m not going to explode with outraged indignation. I wasn’t robbed; I was just hugely underwhelmed.
The plane just looks drab and amateurish; half the controls don’t seem to be working; the dashboard dials are almost all hard to see properly; AP wouldn’t follow GPS no matter what I tried, and all-in-all I was left feeling very unhappy about my purchase.
The first (and very possibly last) 3rd-party aircraft I will ever buy. I suspected I might be disappointed with my purchase, but it’s still a shame when it happens.
You are writing on this forum so why didn’t you look it up before buying? There were plenty of warnings, including youtube videos.
There are many great 3rd party planes, you just have to do minimum research before buying.
Good 3rd party planes are JustFlight Arrow III, Spitfire, Corsair, CRJ (only if you are willing to learn), Carenado Mooney and possibly WACO (not for everyone though), Zephyr, Jabiru and Piaggio/FW (only if you are willing to accept some quirks, better read about it, before buy)
Challenge is that some 3rd part developers are dishing up rubbish, taking advantage of newbies to the flight sim arena… so please do your research before paring with your hard earned
Cal I did see the reviews but I went for it, like you, because I liked it…Still do…But, I do think that now MFS2020 are selling it, they could get the developer to sort out the poor take off struggling performance and the door being able to be opened from outside…If the autopilot is an issue then surely MFS2020 could put a little pressure on the developer to fix these glitches…
That’s not how it works, though. Nobody puts pressure on anyone. The developers do as they wish and these problems have been around for months. I don’t expect them to fix it.
I would have thought since Microsoft is selling it through their store, they might expect a bit of quality control on their products they are selling… I personally don’t see it as a bad aircraft/product, only it could be made very much more realistic and well worth buying if they would sort out what I would think is few very minor software problems.
Microsoft stated many times that quality control is not the scope of Marketplace. It’s just another store front like SimMarket, complete with garbage developers like MScenery and Bredok3D. It’s “buyer beware” market. As for Virtualcol, that aircraft is plagued with a ton of systems issues, texture issues, bad avionics implementation, you name it.
Yep, and the Beechcraft was my lesson learned. I’ve been wary of all payware MSFS 2020 addons ever since. They are not going to fool me a second time - not if I can help it. With the Beechcraft, I leapt before I looked, assuming that because a product was permitted on to the Marketplace it had passed some kind of official quality test. My bad.
In total agreement with your observations on this plane. While I usually do research first, I decided to spring for this plane due to riding the Allegheny Commuter Beech 99 several times between Hagerstown and Washington in my younger years. Nostalgia got the better grasp of me despite my very poor experience with this developer in the past. I thought, well maybe they have gotten better. When I saw the quality of the interior, I immediately knew I had thrown away my money. I could not even get the thing to start.
The aircraft starts. The procedure is wrong, but it does start. It doesn’t get much better after that, though. And in case you are tempted to give their Embraer jets a shot, THOSE make the Beech 99 look like a work of art.
I was hesitant to ever buy anything from this developer. After my experience with the B-99, I assuredly won’t be falling for the Embraer jets. Visiting their website left me equally unimpressed. I deleted the B-99 from my sim and will chalk up the money I paid to “education”. Thanks for your comments.
Is anyone else getting Gen1 and Gen2 warning lights despite them being on? Also - Pitot warning sounds and lamp when switched on, too. Extinguishes when switching pitot heat off.
A green advisory I’d expect for pitot heat, but not a yellow caution and a warning beep.
Other than that the sounds seem better than when I last flew it - admittedly some time ago. I’ll use it for Neofly missions, for sure. Don’t like wasting money and it isn’t that bad it can’t be flown.
(however it still looks meh)