I’ve had the Carenado Seneca V since it was released. MSFS has had several updates since then ( as we all know ) and it feels like Carenado had trouble keeping up. And I don’t even blame them, it’s been a rocky ride so far.
But tonight I took the Seneca for a spin after months in the hangar, and boy, that sure doesn’t fly like I remember! I know, it’s Carenado, you know what you’re gonna get, but still … that plane feels all over the place now.
Can someone who knows more than me comment on this? Is this how the thing is supposed to handle? Are Carenado planning any more updates or is this it now?
Not to hijack the thread, but I have the same question about the Carenado Cessna 170B. It has had a glaring issue with the avionics since SU6 and it appears that this plane, like the Seneca, has been neglected for some reason.
Sorry but I don’t know the answer to your question. I only recently bought this plane when they had their recent sale so I can’t comment on if the performance has changed over time.
But I did want to comment on their communication that you mentioned. I sent them a question after SU5 regarding the Mooney and I recently sent them a question about the Seneca V. In both cases they responded to me within a day. I can’t say I was always happy with the response but they will respond in my experience. I just went to their website support page and sent the questions so you might try that.
As a reviewer for carenado I can say that they are hard at work with fixes for all their aicraft but with all the updates it gets slowed down because once they have things fixed another sim update comes out and just before they get a chance to release it that sim update breaks things again and so they remain at work fixing things. At the same time they are hard at work on the Skymaster Aircraft that comes out soon. As far as I know shortly after or even at the same time some updates should be coming out for their existing products. Lets hope the next sim update doesnt break things for a change.
Can’t say I’ve noticed any significant differences in flight model for the Seneca between updates. It flies pretty accurately to the POH for me.
EDIT: BTW, there’s a known bug in SU7 that causes the Assistance options to reset and turn all assists on. If the Seneca is behaving in a dramatically different way for you after SU7, double-check that you haven’t been affected by that bug.
To articulate a bit more: I mostly feel that since the last update it got, which was August I believe, the performance is just waaaay more overpowered than it used to be.
You give full throttle at takeoff, you’re breaching 80kts in a matter of seconds, and the climb performance is just ridiculous. Similarly, the trim effectiveness just seems waaay overdone. I give it one notch up, and boom we’re ascending at 1000ft/m
Everything just feel way more ‘agressive’ and overpronounced to how it used to feel.
If that is per POH, well I guess I’m wrong. But something has definitely changed with this aircraft since it’s last update.
I have an issue where the dashboard lights flicker for some reason. Other than that I don’t have any other huge issues with it. I love it, its my go to GA plane. I think it handles really well. It feels like it has a real sense of weight to it, somewhere which the default Asobo planes generally lack.
I have several Carenado models, none of which work as they used to. Worst case, they could not be flown for weeks (Mooney) after an update.
As much as I would enjoy having a 337 available to fly, based on the track record so far, I’ll likely pass on any additional Carenado aircraft.
Sim Updates are not going to go away. Developers who cannot keep up with the development cycle are going to be left on the side of the road, passed by other developers who manage to push timely updates and have good detailed communication.
The Seneca V does not operate as it did six months ago. That’s a shame too, because it used to be a joy to fly… far better than the Baron IMHO. I miss flying the Seneca, but dealing with glitches has gotten very tiresome.
I’m glad it’s not just me then! What bugs me is, a lot of their aircraft were received quite well when they were launched. “Pretty good, for a Carenado aircraft!”, that sort of thing. I bought the Seminole, the Seneca and was always on the fence about the Mooney. And since then, they seem to have just deteriorated.
Especially the Mooney had a lot of problems after various sim updates, and they took ages to update the thing, to the point where I didn’t really want to buy it anymore.
And now the Seneca also doesn’t feel right anymore, to me.
I am new to the Seneca but this is my opinion too. I like how it flies. The only downside for me is the black anti-icing frame on the windshield. Between the very large twin engines and the black frame, it makes for poor visibility. I wish I could hide that since I rarely fly in icing conditions. I sent them an email suggesting that on the iPad it would be nice for an option to remove it. They responded they’ll add that suggestion to the wish list.
It’s feels way too over responsive controls making it very hard (unrealistic?) to fly smoothly compared to say the default C208 for example. Makes landings very har
An issue I get on the Carenado planes (Mooney, C170B) is that the engine sound is bugged and starts with a different sound, then after some time flying it switches to another sound.
Yes, I regret it now. At the time I didn’t realize it wasn’t removable and it had bigger engines compared to the Seminole so I opted for the Seneca. Hopefully they actually listen to my suggestion for an iPad option but Carenado doesn’t put out updates very often so I’m not holding my breath.
I do actually fly it regularly and I like it. I found I can slide over to the passenger seat to avoid it but I’m not from the UK so it just feels weird sitting over there.
My Carenado 182 does that - I contacted support and they said “It doesn’t do that for anyone else… Try re-installing” I even sent them a movie clip of it doing it lol
