Hey folks! Looking to buy my first GA aircraft. I’m typically a “study level” airliner pilot, but since flying in real life GA, I’d like to do some VFR ops.
Was wondering what the highest fidelity GA payware/freeware there is out there at the moment, and whether any of them come with things like flight manuals etc.
I was interested in the Iris Sim Jabiru for a start, wanted to hear your thoughts.
Cheers!
Just Flight Piper Arrow.
Just Flight Piper Arrow III & Turbo IV package. Comes with manuals and tutorial flight plan. Excellent aircraft.
Must say the best I have found is the Just Flight Arrow package. Great manuals. Plane has a few changes compared to real aircraft but is great detail and looking and is a joy to fly!
I think many pilots have a different idea of what “fidelity” means to sim flyers. You would know that most of what we do is procedural so a super “accurate” flight model is really a secondary.
When I fly a sim I might think something like “the performance is a bit better than real life compared to what I expect with these settings”. But so what? I just treat it as a “there is sink or there is lift or the plane is heavier or lighter than I thought”. The flight model should be good, but the total accuracy some insist on is completely unnecessary. I want it too, but necessary for a realistic flight? No.
But I guess it depends on what it is you think you want to experience. For me it is the feeling of flying a realistic nav exercise and a safe flight. Any aircraft we have in the sim can give us that. Unless you want realistic failures anyway. Oh, I’m talking VFR, I can’t legally fly IFR so an IFR pilot will probably have a different opinion!
I used to own a j160 and the iris j160 reminds me a lot of the real plane. I think it is fantastic. But the plane is only part of the equation, the sims wind management is a big part of realism and that is a bit lacking. It is good enough I think. It just could be better. Of course we can’t feel the forces or trim realistically, both a big part of flying that detract from the “fidelity” I desire.
So, a lot depends on what you mean by “fidelity”!
Throw in native GTN 750 support, and you have a great all rounder.
I don’t have the Jabiru, so I can’t tell you anything there. But I do have several other GA aircraft from different developers.
And my vote also goes to the JustFlight Arrow by a wide margin. I has a very good manual and the performance is very accurate to what it says in the charts. Also I have read several accounts of actual Arrow pilots who were quite impressed. In addition it looks very good and the cockpit is really well done and realistic. It’s a very complete package. Not cheap but value for money. My absolute favourite.
Hands down the Just Flight Piper Arrows.
I think it’s pretty clear what he means by fidelity here. The base planes are just okay. The Just Flight Arrows are hands down the best GA planes in the sim.
The JF Arrow will always remain an excellent GA aircraft. But there will be others too: Milviz 310, several A2A aircraft, Flysimware 402 …
The Jabiru package is pretty good value and worth having. If you were buying several different planes I would put the Jabiru and The Piaggio P149 in the short list.
However if you have to choose just one, the Just Flight Turbo Arrow III and IV stand out as by far the best of any current offerings. Aside from quite good flight dynamics and modelling it offers features like user configurable choice of GPS/Avionics packages, simulated engine wear and tear and damage from turbo overboost.
A video I recorded earlier today (please excuse missing the runway completely at the end, I blame the obstruction at the start of the runway and 10 knot crosswind 
)
Does the JF Piper Arrow support the GTN750 by PMS50?
Yep . See the video above. GTN750 enabled.
By the way if you want both standard Arrow III and the turbos, it is slightly cheaper to buy the Standard at full price and get a 66% discount on the turbo instead of the bundle.
Think there is a common direction with this lot. It would be good to offer something different to the mix, so my vote, is JF Arrow. Followed by JF. Arrow. If you fancy a twin with much the same character, go for the Islander. End of.
I think clearly based on the OP’s post, I totally agree that the JF Arrow likely best fits his requirements, by far.
But I’d also put a vote in on the Piaggio P149. I nearly purchased one and so learned a ton about it. I didn’t get to fly the plane I was looking at as the engine was down (It’s likely another buyer didn’t know what he was doing and wrecked the gear case (not to mention it was at TBO anyway). Hence I didn’t go through with the purchase as it had more than a teaspoon of metal chunks in the oil larger than 3/16ths of an inch, requiring a $70,000 dollar engine overhaul), but, based on my research they got the engine modeling down very well (which isn’t easy for a (BMW License-built) Lycoming GO-480 geared engine), and flight characteristics match the POH. But the avionics systems, while accurate for what was modeled, are essentially 1960’s level in what’s in the plane, so, likely not what the OP is looking for. But, it’s a ton of fun to fly and I feel quite accurate, though I don’t have flight experience in type to back that up.
I do have an issue with the JF Arrow, and I haven’t read through discussion on it. There’s this really weird “bump” that happens suddenly at 70 knots on take-off that tries to twist the tail suddenly and sends the plane to the left. I’ve never experienced that in any Cherokee I’ve ever flown, from Warriors to PA28’s to PA28R’s. Hopefully it’s related to the changes Asobo made to the effectiveness of the rudder etc, which they said they haven’t finished yet.
Also the G-44 is grat fun to fly.
I really like the Carenado Mooney. While not study level, pretty much everything works great and it flies great and looks fantastic. The cruise speed is up there so it is great for medium hops too.
Yeah that “bump” is really weird and actually discourages me from flying it. Otherwise the JF Arrow series is great.
Ooh, I forgot about the Mooney. I used to fly that all the time and really liked it, especially with the G530 mod, which I highly recommend.
Oh yeah the Mooney is GTN750 capable as well.