GA: JF Arrow and Turbo Arrow
Modern airliner: Aerosoft CRJ
Vintage airliner: PMDG DC-6
Modern Trainer: JF Hawk
Vintage Trainer: DC Stearman
Modern Fighter: DC Tomcat
Vintage Fighter: Milviz Corsair
STOL plane: SWS Kodiak
Modern Helicopter: H145
Vintage Helicopter: Bell 47
GA mod for Asobo: JP C152
Airliner mod for Asobo: FWB A32X
Fighter mod for Asobo: Touching Cloud F/A-18
Special mention:
freeware BD5J Minijet and Touching Cloud Jetpack for just being silly and fun
FBW A320 is the only aircraft keeping me interested in flying at the moment.
Their support, responsiveness and feature implementation demonstrates HOW IT SHOULD BE DONE by developers.
Above all.. Its free to use.
Ill give PMDG DC6 a shout out for actually putting out something study level while we airliner jockeys wait for the main course to be served.
For the very rare instance of me using a prop.. Robert Young’s turbo mod
After that .. the interest wanes.
As I sim in xBox, for me it was the T182T by Carenado. Sadly there aren’t many options, and the G1000 Nxi ist for me a must have at the moment.
For 2022 I hope for the Kodiak, the CRJ(If it provides a way to use the MSFS navdata, as xBox cant use Navigraph, and the PMDG birds…
Foe people who bought the Embraer 110…did they ever fix the engine sounds? Was thinking of buying it at one stage but was put off by all the complaints about this.
The h145 is slowly (infact very fast) developing into a very sophisticated and highly detailed craft, with considerable systems depth and breath, and the most dedicated and hard working development team I have ever come across.
I’ve only been using FS2020 since July, initially on XBox X and now on PC, but my favourites so far (in no particular order) -
FBW A320NX - I’ve used this a lot now, amazing for freeware, can’t wait to see their A380
CRJ 550/700 - I’ve only just bought this but wow, visually flawless (inside and out), challenging to learn but it could easily become my favouite airliner. It’s a ‘hands on’ type aircraft unlike the more automated airliners, but that is a fun aspect. I need way more practice though!
JF Hawk T1 - Only just bought this, so have only flown it a few times, but it’s very, very impressive, way more so than say the default F/A18. It looks fantastic too - IMO possibly one of the best in FS2020 visually. It comes with RAF & Red Arrows liveries and display smoke too, what more could anyone ask for?
Flying Iron Spitfire Mk IXc - Only just bought this (on sale) and have only briefly had time to fly it but it looks wonderful, and based on the opinions of others I’m really lookng forward to learning how to fly it.
HPG H135 Heli - Amazing for freeware, I sadly missed out on their recent H145 sale, but based on the H135 and from what others are saying I wouldn’t hesitate getting the H145 too.
Got Gravel Vertigo - for pure fun, it’s a blast and again excellent for freeware.
Mentions
BN2 Islander - for most STOLs around airstrips on small islands, does what it says on the can.
Carenado Mooney M20R - I love using this for VFR.
Embraer 110 (v1.5) - I’ve only recently bought this, but it’s a nice looking (inside and out) & fun aircraft. I’ve been flying it a lot over Christmas and it was a steal on sale at £17GBP
Junkers JU52 - Visually very impressive, flew it a lot when it was first released, but haven’t been back to it much since.
The others mentioned on this thread I don’t own (yet) so I can’t comment, but I’m interested in trying out the JF Arrow(s) and the Kodiak 100.
Personal preference. They are faster, have more power, and look better with retractable gear. Doesn’t mean of course that the Warrior is in any way inferior.
Number one for me is the H145 by HPG, spent about 80% of my flying time in this helicopter. Many people, myself included, were skeptical about the early access business model, but IMHO their execution is close to perfect. They started with a superb visual model and basic systems, and have been constantly improving those systems in the past months. It’s really interesting being part of this journey …
Number two on my list is RotorSimPilot’s freeware Robinson R44 helicopter with the AirlandFS external flight model. Beautiful 3D modelling, simple but adequate systems, and a really good flight model that can be customized to your needs. Still in early beta, but already quite amazing.
Number three for me is the SWS Kodiak, once again amazing visuals, great systems and a very believable flight model. Add to this great sounds, many variants and liveries, and you get the perfect package.
All three aircraft benefit greatly from externally developed avionics: The wonderful GTN750 by PMS50 for both helicopters and the amazing Garming G1000 NXi by WorkingTitle for the Kodiak.
Well, for my type of flying, the Extra is the best I can get at the moment in MSFS. Still far away from perfect, it gained in the last update enough to be usable. I am really looking forward for the first unlimited aerobatic planes. The Su 31 is not available yet and my XA 41 suffers from lag of time to be developed.
Difficult question there are so many, Junkers, CRJ, Just Flight. (DA 62 Mod-Amazing work by [MrTommymxr] and last but not least the H135 which enabled me to check out my walking routes in Scotland for 2022
But without doubt the plane for me that has been so intellectualy rewarding has been the Asobo\Microsoft Boeing 787, with no manual etc I have managed to land it using the upgrades that Asobo has done to LNAV, VNAV etc, it has for me been rewarding so much to learn and its simply beautiful in every way for me.
The TBM 930 for me offers the perfect balance between complexity, airspeed and freedom.
Since I have to fly a lot in rl between EDDF (FFM) and EKCH (Copenhagen) due to work and family matters I really love to hop into the TBM EDFM (Mannheim) and fly up to ESMS (Malmö). So I have a fly over my house at Mannheim, a fly over my apartment in Lund and if the weather allows for it I’m gonna see the Turning Torso and Öresund Bridge.
The plane provides IFR capability, the G3000 is good enough to be fun. And the airspeed allows a neat 2 hours flight which suits me perfect. Since the latest update some major bugs have been fixed and so yeah my plane 2021 is the TBM 930.
TBM930 is my go to plane. I only fly VFR and the TBM allows me to carry on doing that while at the same time covering a reasonable distance which the C172 just can’t match.
Haven’t flown the airliners as that just doesn’t interest me at all.
Hoping if I can find more time for flying next year to learn IFR and grab a couple of third party props.
