I recently came back to the sim after about a year to give things time to mature. The thing that brought me back was the Just Flight Arrow Turbo III/IV. I’ve been blown away by what Just Flight have done. Based on reviews by real pilots and just how it feels to me as a complete amateur who’s never flown a real plane and still a relative noob to “serious” flight simming, they’re definitely in a league of their own compared to everything else I’ve flown so far in the sim.
So I’d be really grateful for details of what other 3rd party developers of a similar standard to look out for in terms of depth and realism. In particular I’m most interested in GA. I’m no real life pilot but I do very much appreciate the idea that I’m getting things as close to real as I can.
I would totally like a sectioned community repo of aircraft that are considered to be “among the greatest” in MSFS by popular demand in their respective categories.
While there are names (ahem JustFlight) that have gained my trust, I continue having my suspicions with pretty much every dev. Of course it’s common practice to research before you buy, but I think something like this would be nice.
Though they haven’t released anything yet, A2A is the generally acknowledged gold standard for realistic aircraft. Their first offering is supposed to be the Piper Comanche 250, but I follow their forum and they haven’t hinted at a release date yet.
Yes, they were originally working on the Aerostar, but had to land gear up and totaled the aircraft (no one was hurt). So they decided to do a Comanche first. The forum thinks the Aerostar is 2nd, but I don’t think any of the devs have confirmed that.
I know they did a V-tail Bonanza for P3D and that is near the top of my “modern” GA wishlist, so crossing all my fingers and toes it isn’t too far down their list.
They are waiting for an "item to work " in MSFS…so the ball “appears” to be in Asobos/MS’s court or some other party’s court. Sorry to be so vague, but that is what they are posting…fingers crossed that it is sooner rather than later. P3D V5.2(1) is working like a charm…so I can jump between sims, when I want to enjoy my favourite A2A aircraft in all their glorious realism.
The last time I tried to use P3D, granted, probably 4 years ago, I had to get FSUIPC to map controls, Orbx for scenery, some other program for weather, some other program for clouds. is that all integrated into 5.2?
No …but P3d V5.2 (1)'s weather engine is vastly improved…I use the new Honeycomb Controllers, Alpha and Bravo…using both the Honeycomb Drivers and P3D control selections, I have set up a very usable configuration…I am not comparing P3D 5.2 to MSFS, as both have their good points and sharp edges…I enjoy both at the moment, depending on my flight of fancy…absolutely great to have a choice.
I guess from my perspective, I got completely out of flight sims for a few years because of frustration with coordinating all the add-ons, and I’m not ready to try to re-configure all the stuff that’s needed to make FSX or P3D workable again. MSFS already has a lot of that stuff built in (much easier peripheral config, reasonably accurate weather, amazing scenery), for me those other platforms are a huge step backward. The one thing they do have going for them is a very mature set of add-on aircraft, like from A2A, but I’m hoping and praying their Comanche 250 is released soon for MSFS. In the meantime, I’m mostly enjoying the Just Flight Arrow, and hoping their Cessna-alike Warrior is out soon.