Now available:
https://forum.orbxdirect.com/topic/223602-orbx-grumman-avenger-is-now-available-for-microsoft-flight-simulator-2020-2024/
Looks decent but I’m not seeing a lot of cockpit images, and to be honest what I’ve seen of the prop spin animation looks horrible. Hoping to see some thorough reviews.
Orbx tends to abandon their aircraft, so I’m going to skip it even though I’m partial to Grummans.
Yeah, I bought the Wolf Pitts & it’s ok in most cases but the 3D modelling is not perfect by any means & it’s aerobatic performance is fine until you get into more complex aerobatics it does however snap & knife edge. The Avenger should be fine though as it’s a pretty tame aircraft flight wise, it certainly looks nice & well modeled.
It’s worth playing the long game with this one. If after a couple of SU’s have been released, and OrbX have released some updates to the plane to match, then it may be worth getting. Otherwise it’s just another one of their pump ‘n dump planes.
Definitely curious but also waiting. They confirmed to me more than once updates were coming to the PAC XSTOL that still haven’t materialized. I just can’t count on them.
Looks like only one livery as well.
I picked it up, but I only had a few minutes to check it out. The visual modeling and sounds are great. Initial handling felt right but I’ve literally only flown it once so no judgment yet there.
Only weirdness so far is no pilots in the Showcase camera view in FS20 or FS24, and no pilots at all in FS2024. They are there in External view on FS2020, but absent in Showcase (which is the view you’re going to want to use for screenshots…)
Couple of things I am finding …its very slow …can bairly get it above 120 in level flight …not sure if that realistic?
…and trimming is not working well …not enough pitch down trim available to hold it in leve flight.
Looks good, but after the whole PAC P-750 thing I’m not going to purchase another Orbx aircraft. At least not for a looooong time.
…and the original Optica. Sorry OrbX–your track record for aircraft is abysmal.
I was wondering about this one… 2024 isn’t stable enough to purchase the 2024 model, and I don’t want to get the 2020 model and then have to buy it again for 2024 later…. Plus the above posted comments makes me want to ‘wait and see’.
FWIW buying the the 2020 model gives you a 100% discount off of the 2024 release and vice versa
Overall, the Avenger looks great and is enjoyable to fly. Kermit Weeks said about the first time he flew his Avenger, that he thought he had forgotten to remove the control locks, because the ailerons felt so heavy! The heavy ailerons are nicely represented on ORBX’s Avenger.
However, there are sadly quite a few issues with the Avenger and I really hope ORBX will be able to fix some of them.
Things I found so far are:
At first I thought the aircraft is way too slow. I’ve found various figures for the cruise speed of an Avenger varying from 125 knots – 185 knots (which seems quite high) and have found a video of one cruising with a power setting of 30’ and 2000 rpm at 160 kts, in the sim I can only reach 120 kts at that power setting. But the strange thing was that I was able to replicate a typical airshow display of an Avenger without any trouble and looking at the ground view the aircraft appears to be similar in speed to a real one. So, I turned on the instruments heads-up display and found out that the airspeed indicator is completely wrong. The airspeed indicator of the heads-up display was about 20-30 kts higher. Which means the flight model seems to be quite accurate and only the airspeed indicator is wrong!
Like I said, overall, the visual model is great, there are however a few things I really hope ORBX will address/fix. The most important one is that the inner flaps don’t work, only the parts attached to the outer wings are animated.
The next thing is that the visual model of the propeller is in coarse pitch, it should be in fine pitch.
The next thing is that the travel of the cowl flaps and oil cooler doors are not animated, they just spring open or close.
Two issues with the folding wings are that part of the aileron hinge which should be attached to the outer wing is floating in the air and remains attached to the inner wing and if you turn on the nav lights the bulbs float in the air and don’t move with the wing.
The aircraft is a representation of VH-MML and has a modern cockpit, however a few instruments are replaced with generic ones. For instance, the clock in VH-MML is a 24-hour clock found in most WWII navy planes and got replaced by a generic 12-hour clock in MSFS, another instrument is the artificial horizon, in VH-MML it isn’t a two color one, but rather black with a white line. The GPS is also very simplified and it looks like the standard GNS430 display is squeezed into it. I know this sounds like rivet counting, but I think if you want to represent a specific airplane you should replicate it accurately.
The turret gun is missing even though Microsoft now allows the display of non-functional weapons.
In the Avenger the canopy sides are independent of each other and slide back individually, it would be awesome if that was represented.
A strange bug is that the pilots disappear in the showcase camera view.
The MSFS2024 version doesn’t have pilots, and I found the MSFS2020 version to fly better than the MSFS2024 version. In 2024 the aircraft feels very light on the ground and a bit weird in pitch and (this might be a problem with my system) has a lot of stutter issues.
As I’ve said I think it’s enjoyable to fly and I’m happy to have an Avenger in the sim. I think it has a lot of potential, but overall, it feels like the release was rushed, which is a shame!
Here is a short display flight with it. As you can see it’s capable of the usual wing over display many Avengers perform at airshows and from the ground view the speeds seem to be quite accurate to a real one:
Thanks for that …I hadn’t realised!
…and now downloaded it for 2020 as well 
I thought I would add a few pictures to better showcase some of the issues I mentioned earlier.
Here you can see the difference in airspeed. According to the sim the airspeed is at 147kts while the instrument displays 120kts. (I just noticed that the instrument is also missing the 160 kts marking which is present on the real instrument)
Here is a picture with the flaps fully extended:
And here is a picture of VH-MML with the flaps fully extended. At first, I thought maybe it’s a modification, like you would find on some AT-6s where the center flap is deactivated, but as you can see the center flaps are extended. (note also that VH-MML is equipped with a turret gun)
Here is a screenshot of the aileron hinge I mentioned, it should be inside the hole of the outer wing.
Here is a picture of the real one for comparison. (note also that the propeller is in fine pitch)
Here is a comparison of the cockpit. I think ORBX, overall, has done a wonderful job with it, but it would have been awesome if those instruments had been accurate, especially the 24-hour clock, which is such an iconic instrument in navy planes. (I don’t mind too much about replacing the GPS, as the newer GNS430 display is more user friendly)
One more thing I noticed is that part of the structure on the port side of the bomb/torpedo bay are white.
I think especially the pictures of the bomb bay and of the folding mechanism also showcase what an awesome job ORBX has done with the visual model, and how much potential the aircraft has. Which is why it is such a shame there are so many bugs. If ORBX is able to fix most of them, and I think most, if not all of these issues should be relatively straight forward to fix, it will be a fantastic aircraft!
Does it feel like the Avenger is too unstable in the pitch axis? That is probably why it feels so difficult to trim out. It also feels like it might still be a bit underpowered even after accounting for the airspeed discrepancy but I don’t know for sure.
Do you use it in MSFS2020 or MSFS2024? I only flew it once in MSFS2024 and it felt very unstable in pitch, especially when you tried doing wing overs. I MSFS2020 it seems to be much more stable and I can trim it out without any issues.
In cruise it could be around 10kts off (judging by the HUD airspeed indicator), but I’m not entirely sure, the real one isn’t exactly a performer either.
Have you reported the issues to Orbx?
Not yet. I tried to find a support/contact page via the product page earlier today but didn’t find anything. I must have been blind, I just checked again and they even have their own forum, I hope I can contact them there! It’ll be a fun first post 
I’ve notified ORBX now. Hopefully they’ll be able to address a few of the issues =)
