Fascinating topic!
I have a conflicted love of both the “steam gauges” and glass cockpits.
I’ve watched a few real world YouTube pilots go through avionics updates over the past few years. They are just so much happier with their reduced workload.
As a simmer, and Kerbal Space Program player, I’d love being able to build out my own custom avionics setup. I’m sure real pilots would go mad for being able to sim that too.
I guess the beauty of the sim situation is it can get unrealistic if someone wants that but personally I prefer to keep the various restrictitions that are there IRL so it keeps things as realistic as possible. Some of the sim configurations are just not possible in the real world for mostly either technical or regulatory reasons.
The Vision Jet is amazingly fun to fly…. Sleek fast, great lines, everything you could want in a personal jet!!! :).
Hi folks, thank you for your answers, opinions and tips.
Unlike most others, I still prefer the modern cockpits. They reflect the year 2023 and the ongoing digitalization of our world better than the old clock stores, which are no longer used in modern aircraft for various reasons.
I don’t think it’s realistic to put the old steam gauges in modern airplanes. Because in reality, it’s done the other way around.
But everyone should simulate what he enjoys the most - it’s just a game.
Thanks also for the suggestions on the individual aircraft (some of them I already own). I have now found what I was looking for and fly the Technam P2006 with great pleasure. No flight without flight preparation including the walk-around. Great!
In FSX & older XP prior to 11 (haven’t tried 12 yet) I liked glass cockpits over steam gauges.
Analogue needles looked flat and just not so cool in those days.
However in MSFS, needles seem very “material” and I like that.
Yeah, I’m sure it is. Unfortunately, they only sell on the Marketplace, and I’m not a fan of purchasing planes from there for a bunch of reasons.
I wouldn’t doubt that someday we’ll be buying jets instead of props as technology improves.
I wonder what the difference in efficiency of electrically powered compressors vs propellers is?
It’s absolutely reasonable to put Steam gauges in planes. The majority of planes being sold today have steam gauges. True, not new, but, the used market for planes is much larger than the new market (in volume), and the choice of aircraft with them much more diverse from which developers can choose subjects to sell. And they are much easier to develop. The programming behind those glass gauges, as well as balancing for performance since it’s window in window graphics is tremendously complex and not easy. Thankfully WT is working on developing tools to make this easier. Not to mention us old folks have been flying with steam gauges our whole lives, and find them easier to discern data from in high stress situations.
On the other hand, I absolutely agree that glass cockpit simulations are just as important. And I totally understand that you prefer them. I’m glad you found one you enjoy, and I do hope that down the road we get more comprehensive glass cockpit planes. We seem to be well on our way to that.
If they wanted to improve sales on there they should mandate the unlocking of the config files only, just as they did for first party premium/deluxe planes. That’s my primary reason for not buying planes from there.
And don’t forget a lot of old analogue gages are being replace with modern digital “steam” gauges too…
Sure, they can be done…
I personally haven’t seen any yet out in the field. All that data on a 12" screen is hard enough to learn how to read as easily as 6 gauges; putting more than one piece of data in a format designed for a needle and a single bit of data is another. I’d personally never consider such a thing. If I’m going PFD and/or MFD, I’d prefer a larger format. That’s just too much data in one really scrunched place for me.
Holy cow, those look awful. I haven’t used them, but, I feel like I’d have to spend too much time looking at one thing to be able to discern the data I need. The whole point of a scan is to NOT spend a lot of time looking at a single thing. Scan quick and take care of other tasks, rinse and repeat. One of the hardest things about flying is not getting stuck for too long at any one thing in your scan. A major cause of flight into terrain is due to that.
That’s why needle gauges are so cool, so much data can be discerned with a glance, unconfused by other information.
I find the experimental non-certified panels interesting. They offer more innovation and considerably lower cost. Although I doubt we would ever see them emulated in the sim.
I love the Garmin setups but I have been having a blast lately with the simplicity of the Cessna 152. It’s fun just flying by looking outside. Flying IFR on auto pilot can sometimes just feel too much like work.
Definitely would have to turn DLSS off and put the readers on for those things.
Delighted you’re having so much fun with my suggestion, happy flying with this bird…
It’s funny how I’ve gone full circle. Started MSFS2020 back in, well, 2020, pretty quickly jumped to the CJ4, as I’ve always had a fondness for bizjets. Picked up a bunch of skills, knowledge and tools along the way (Simbrief, Navigraph, etc.). Started flying the Longitude, HondaJet, VisionJet. Then got a bit bored by bizjets, so flew the older (pre-AAU2) 787 Dreamliner. It was a good intro to an airliner, but so much was INOP that it left me wanting, so dove into the PMDG 737. Then joined the AAU2 pilot and flew both the updated 787-10 and the 747-8i.
All of these got pretty routine…just pick a plane, origin, destination, plug into Simbrief, enter or import plan into the FMS (Boeing, Garmin, Collins, etc), cold and dark start, taxi, takeoff, autopilot, follow the route, pick a runway/approach based on wind, land, taxi, shutdown…yada yada yada.
For some reason, a week ago I wanted to learn about old fashioned VOR navigation, so watched a vid that featured the C152. Tried a flight…it went well, but it’s sure a pain not having an Autopilot. Played with the non-G1000 172, pretty cool using HDG mode and following radials. But decided to get the new Caranedo C182, which is fantastic. Only problem is that it’s a bit slow, so yesterday got the Black Square Analog package for the Cessna Caravan. Both are a good mix of steam gauges and modern (GTN750), plus the BlackSquare Caravan has every single button mapped and near-endless failure modes, so need to pay a lot of attention to detail.
Anyways, there’s always something to learn in aviation/Simming, so no reason to get bored.
Before you know it you will have the BS Bonanza, Baron and Kingair as well. Bet you!
Yes that´s true LUCKILY third party suppliers offer so many good old GA aircraft with perfect fine fully functional analogue gauges.
So much better than seeing another half-baked typical wannabe-Garmin-doublescreen simulation that is offering about 10% functionality and realism of the real Garmin devices while looking almost black and unreadable during sunlight.
That´s why the beautyful analogue Carenado 182RG is another precious masterpiece 
You are vastly underselling the current in game Garmins.
Steam is very cool, though.
Just a bit. 10% is very wide of the mark.
Is the heading off by 10%?