In my search for this type of planes for this particular mission I’ve unfortunately met various dissapointments.
The Blackbox Shorts has bad textures, still no PMS GTN750 and no visible cargo.
The Black Square King Air is decent but has no visible cargo and the flight model doesn’t feel very convincing.
The SWS PC-12 feel very weird to fly and even if it’s me and the real PC-12 really flies like this, I just can’t land it. I am unable to steer it after disabeling the yaw damper at 300 ft AGL and it lands sideways way off the centerline. After this purchase I am very cautious of buying the Kodiak. Also, I never see a Kodiak in Alaska on FR24.
I bought the FSS Tecnam P2012 for this and I do really enjoy this plane, good purchase, but it is not very suited for the shorter strips. It needs 3000 ft at least I believe.
The Black Square Caravan seems like a plane that fits the role really well but I am just disspointed it has default sounds, barely updated flight model and no visible cargo. So I was not planning on buying it.
Anything I’m missing that fits the mission well? Thanks to everyone for helping out!
PS: I do love the default Beaver! But no system depth, engine management is trivial which shouldn’t be so IRL. Also, no visible cargo…
Have you considered Carenados Cessna 207? It is a really common aircraft for small communities around Alaska. It flies nicely, looks credibly used like a real work horse and even has a cargo version with visible cargo. Or you can give the excellent freeware Cessna 206 from Sal1800 on fs.to a try … can land a bit shorter, is available with tundra tires and has different types of visible cargo via EFB. Both are fun for these types of missions.
There is a Noorduyn Norseman in the marketplace. 90% of 61 ratings gave it a 4 or higher, with 69% of those rating it a 5. Don’t know how accurate those ratings are though. Kind of expensive at 26 dollars Canadian if it turned out to be unsatisfactory. Too bad there is no return window if a person buys a plane in the marketplace and it turns out to be a poor simulation.
I bought the Carenado Archer II since that model is pretty close to the Archer III that I was training in before I quit. I’ve tried it out. It flies not too bad, but it is hard to evaluate if it is accurate to the IRL bird because there is no physical feedback and it has been decades since I was behind the yoke of any real plane.
I would suggest the Twin Otter but when I read what you have to criticise about the aircraft you mentioned, I fear that none of the aircraft offered for MSFS2020 will meet your requirements.
Not a single one…
PMDG 737-700 in Cargo version. Alaska airlines livery and from Anchorage you can fly to a lot of small remote communities like Nome, Barrow, Kodiak island, Dead horse, Bethel and all the small places in the Alaska pan handle. These last are part of the well known milk run. All real life routes
Check out the AN-2, a famous flyer by AT Simulations.
Good to fly, lots of systems depth, can get in and out of the shortest strips, hauls a good load.
Very iconic - featured in Stranger Things.
On of the very best FF series I think, a real standout.
That’s a good suggestion. The STOL performance on the AN-2 is insane for such a large, metal bi-plane. I haven’t tried the sim version, but I did see one at an airshow and the STOL performance and slow flight capability was nuts.
Kodiak all the way. STOL hauler that can get back on step to over 190KTAS. Not sure why some struggle with it so much I can land it however and wherever I want it to land every single time.
I vote for the 206 of course. But I have been reading books about Alaska backcountry flying and it was a challenging endeavor. Navigation is always important, so you want all the available options. Floatplane operations are critical to get into far reaching areas.
