Carenado Mooney M20R Ovation

ALABEO and Carenado are one and the same company. I think they only launched the Alabeo brand to try to shake their less than stellar image they have as Carenado. Clearly it worked as some people still think it’s not the same people working on the aircraft and systems and they praise one and not the other.

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"I’ve just been loving it and giving it a lot of air time. I’ve always had a thing for the classic Cessna style of plane, so this one was a no-brainer for me. It was a look I liked, and slightly faster with better range than the 172, so I had to have it.

People seem to really like it. I’ve seen people refer to it as the best GA plane currently available for MSFS. And I’d like to find out why and if it’s worthwhile dropping my money on. "

so you bought it? Or you didnt ?

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Great to hear you’re happy with the C182T. I really enjoy flying Cessnas. The 182 has been a favorite (in real life) for years; no comparison to the 172 in terms of climb out from high DA runways. Have never flown the turbo though. Imagine it would be a really strong performer.

What I like about it:

Steam gauges
Working custom animated airbrakes (wow)
Fast and sleek
Aggressive and retro styling
Working DME
Its a great plane in general aviation history.
Smooth flying
Autopilot works great now (totally custom)
Night Cabin lighting (glare shield and panel)
Cockpit in general nicely modelled (custom digital readouts, steam gauges but has default GPS)

Overall its a great plane imo

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I seem to recall the Airbrakes from the FSX version… they’re pretty cool! Need 'em to slow that hot rod down during let down and approach… :smile:

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For me it was really the steam gauges. I find they are sooooo much more fun to use than a screen…
I spend most of my day in front of a screen at work, I find than looking at another one ON a screen was not so much fun than looking at living gauges. Plus it’s what I’m used to in private planes…

Furthermore I find it looks awesome, and it has the perfect cruise speed for the kind of trips I like to do

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I was always Put Off by the ‘■■■■ about Face’ Tail Section on the Mooney even if it improves aerodynamics. I’m getting to like Carenado’s version. I’ve been trying to persuade them to give us a Tiger Moth for years. No joy so far.

Thanks for the comment so far guys. I appreciate the input.

No, but I’m considering it. I was a bit ■■■■■■ off at first that Carenado had such a buggy C182. Kind of turned me off of the idea of buying another one of their products, especially when the early Mooney had issues too.

I think there are more than a few of us who learned to fly using steam gauges, a kneeboard, a paper sectional, and a stopwatch. If you were lucky you had dual VORs and an ADF so you could verify where you thought you were flying by dead reckoning.

Sometimes the glass panel planes (almost) make me nervous or tense. Steam gauges are like pulling on your favorite pair of 501 Levis that “just fit right.” :slight_smile:

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Wait for Ant‘s Airplanes then. He‘s about to bring his Tiger Moth into MSFS. The P3D version is incredible for 10$. Why pay a Carenado-30+$ for no system depth if there are far better addons available for a much lower price?

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I reported it, but nothing changed with the update. Transponder is still not populating data. Funny enough, the default aircraft work flawless in this regard (which really was a positive surprise).

For me, it’s that way with a glass cockpit. But that said, that also means I don’t understand navigation we well since I’m letting a computer do it for me vs learning to do it with VORs.

I’ve followed some nav instruction using the C152 and it’s been interesting. I may have to take that a little further, and the Mooney is potentially an aircraft I could get to love.

I also have the Cerenado Cessna but the Mooney is currently the only plane I fly. Love the analoge cockpit, it flies great, climbs fast and the speedbrakes are a must to slow it down. It’s nice to have a wide range of engine instruments in order to find an optimum setting between performance and fuel consumption. Sound is also great, although the engine is much louder than the Asobo planes. I use the headphone simulation in the sound settings so the engine sound is toned down.

The best feeling I’ve had for now was to look up a nav in Skyvector, choosing a very small air field as my arrival (in Cuba, during my Caribbean tour), and finding it just by looking at needles moving around.

The air field was not in FS database, so I really had to trust those needles, but what a feeling when you are spot on after 200nm!

I find the Mooney really hits the spot between training aircraft like the dr400 and c152, which are steam gauges but too slow for my liking, and the step up when I want to do ifr or some more serious travels with the TBM, my other fav plane

My mistake , I need to drink more coffee before I read forums…

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I just love the top row of readouts on the Mooney cockpit. I don’t care too much for glass cockpits, and this one, despite the 530, ticks a lot of boxes. That, and the fact that such a small plane has spoilers, make this a very capable aircraft, able to land on pretty short runways, and yet cruise for long distances at high speeds.

Good Thinking !

The cockpit is pretty ace in the Mooney. Oh and the night lighting, very nice TBQH.

I don’t really have much bad to say about it since they fixed autopilot wobble wobble.

That was what I was hating about the 182 and what was making me hesitant about buying another Carenado plane. Now that they’ve fixed it, I’m taking the Mooney into serious consideration.

I think the wobbly autopilot was a base/core sim issue rather than Carenado’s aircraft. Another customer said above that Carenado is using a custom autopilot. So may be in the first versions they were using some of the base code for AP which they now fixed or removed and replaced it with their own. Since I love all my third party aircraft study level and the sim’s base/core issues and bugs with system simulation doesn’t help, I’ve so far avoided buying any aircraft from the marketplace. But users in this thread have posted news about quite a few crucial fixes and positives, all of which will probably end up hurting my wallet sooner or later :stuck_out_tongue:

P.S. If anyone’s interested, there’s a big discussion going on about Carenado Mooney’s overall status after their latest update on AVSIM: Carenado Mooney Update - Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) - The AVSIM Community

Made me LOL this one :stuck_out_tongue:

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