Hello, I’m looking at purchasing either the Piper Arrow package or the Kodiak 100 for GA and sightseeing - they seem to both be appreciated by the community for their quality and enjoyment factor but I was curious to hear feedback from pilots of each (or both)?
High wing is better for sight seeing in my opinion, so Kodiak.
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I don’t have the Kodiak but I do have the Islander, and I’d definitely take the Islander over an Arrow for looking around any day, far better visibility. Also you can land an Islander just about anywhere.
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The Kodiak is a Turboprop. That means you always get the feeling the throttles have a little lag as the engine needs to spool up before the power increases. Thus you always have to be ahead of the plane, which makes it a little more challenging to fly. The Piper having a piston engine is much more responsive in regards to power changes and thus easier to handle.
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Love them all but the JF Warrior is slow and steady so for drifting around and looking at scenery it wins for me. And if you are in UK, most likely what you would train in irl too.
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Thanks that’s a really helpful consideration I wasn’t aware of - Do you happen to own both? If so, how is your time spent between them?
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Thanks for the feedback, that’s very helpful. I have two questions remaining which I hope you could consider when you have time -
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Is there dramatic difference between the various Piper models to warrant purchasing the pack of III/T-III/T-IV?
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Is the lack of polish between the Pipers made up for by the pack together?
Thanks for your consideration regardless of your capacity to respond.
I prefer the Arrows over the the Kodiak for sightseeing, even though the Kodiak has cabin windows views that you can set up etc…
They’re just more immersive to me for that task, kinda hard to explain. I would rather use the Kodiak for short IFR hops rather than sightseeing but that’s just me…
Curveball: Consider the Milviz Porter.
If you want steam gauges, the Piper Arrow triad is great! The turbo has oomph to it, too, and can do both low & medium altitude.
If you get the Kodiak, know that it only comes with a G1000 glass panel. It also deeply simulates the turbine startup, which is finicky and can catch fire! 
If this appeals to you, you will enjoy it however.
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If you want a glass cockpit option to the Piper Arrows, the default Bonanza G36 is great! There are two mature mods for it: a normally aspirated one that also includes a hangar/persistence experience; a turbo mod that gives it improved speed and climbing performance.
The mods are distinct, meaning you can have both installed at the same time, giving you two different aircraft to fly.
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Where have you heard about a lack of polish? The Pipers and Warrior are about as good as it gets for GA planes
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Some people seemed to get finicky and nit picky about the JF choice to use lower res textures in parts of the JF cockpits in order to keep FPS up. Personally I have no issue with it and prefer the better frames. I like to fly my airplanes not take screenshots of them. The cockpits actually look fine anyway.
For me:
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Best for circuit work and low level scenic tourer up to about 8000’ or so - JF Warrior II
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Best for longer scenic trips at speed, especially in mountains:
Steam Cockpit - JF Turbo Arrow
Glass Cockpit - Quest Kodiak
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The Piper cockpits have indeed lower texture resolutions in comparison with the Kodiak. Same goes for the fuselage and wings. Rivets and creases are a lot cleaner on the Kodiak. However the Pipers have a lot of character. They are modeled as old and used planes. Just Flight modeled them after real world counterparts, the Kodiak looks brand new. Especially the normal piper is supposed to be a training aircraft, which looks all dirty with the labels rubbed off on a lot of buttons. The Turbo version too, but this one is supposed to look like a private plane that’s been cared by the owner a lot more.
I would go for the Turbo but I have them both.
As for the features both have their pros and cons. The Piper has a tablet and state saving, the Kodiak doesn’t but it has a working environment control and you see passengers and cargo inside the cockpit/cabin when you fill her up.
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Actually no, at least not this time. The criticism of the design decision by JF to make the Pa28 look old and used and keep the texture size down dates back to the first week they were released. If that was you I am unaware of it.
I love both the Pipers and the Kodiak. I think it depends where you fly them and what you want to simulate. If you wanted to go sightseeing in populated areas, it would be much more common to do so in a cheaper privately owned Piper Arrow or Warrior, taking off and landing at airfields. But if you wanted to go sightseeing in the bush, or do some short take offs and landings, or fly a bit faster, the Kodiak is where it’s at. If you want versatility and capability to simulate cargo, passenger, skydiving, bush flying, and go a bit faster and higher, the Kodiak is a great choice. If you want to simulate owning a GA plane that’s very capable but within reach for the average private owner, the Piper Arrow is going to fit that bill.
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One more thing to consider is the effect on the aircraft that the current modeling of turbulence in the sim has. I have the JF Warrior and the Kodiak and I have to say that the Warrior, being lighter, is much more prone to being jostled around by turbulence currently in the sim. I realize that talking about how turbulence is modeled is a giant can of worms with its own hotly debated thread in this forum but it is hard to deny that the lighter the aircraft is, the more it is tossed about in the current rendition of turbulence. To me, it is the constant jerking around that makes the Warrior less enjoyable to fly these days. It is not a fault if the aircraft at all, it is just the way the sim behaves right now. The Kodiak is less prone to being jerked around and that directly translates to a better flight at the low levels required for sightseeing. It is this reason why I would suggest the Kodiak today if I had to choose between the two. Also, the Kodiak can get up and move when you want to get to the next spot a little faster. It is an extremely versatile machine while offering fantastic visibility as well.
I brought this up in one of the PA-28 threads, but I think they’re rather oversensitive to turbulence or at least ground-related turbulence right now - that is probably my only proper criticism of them. I would look at the package on the JF site if their sale is still on, otherwise if you really only want one the Turbo III is probably my favourite ( I don’t much rate the turbo IV just because it’s a T-tail! probably flies fine ).
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I own both the arrows (turbo and normally aspirated) and kodiak, for sight seeing specifically, the kodiak is better due to the high wing configuration. But the arrows are excellent also, just less visibility of the ground because of the low wings. Both are excellent and almost on par with the Milviz 310.
The Piper is so much more enjoyable to fly than the extremely twitchy Kodiak. The Kodiak is nice when you activate AP but horrible when hand-flying.
Well, I like to keep the sensitivity curve as linear as possible. Of course you can make it smooth with low sensitivity but it makes the larger adjustments very uncontrollable.