What planes have given you the best (and worst) return on investment with respect to purchase price and hours?

Discussion Hub Aircraft
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For me, best would be probably SF50 Vision Jet by FlightFX. Super easy to get in and fly so I’m always coming back to it. Big windscreen means it’s great VFR. Complex avionics means it’s great IFR. Side stick means I’m not rigging up my yoke every time for casual flights. Developers pay attention to it and they’ve only made a great plane better. And it’s CHEAP for what it is, IMO.

edit: Kodiak, ATR 72-600 , PMDG 737 and Carenado’s 182RG not too terribly far behind for best ROI.

Worst would probably be PMDG’s DC-6, and it brings me GREAT pain to admit that, because I LOVE this plane. But I only take it out when I’m looking for a start-to-finish realistic experience from apron to apron, trying to show this amazing aircraft the respect she deserves. And that, coupled with how hands-on it is through all phases of flight, and combined with the (justifiably) high cost of entry, undoubtedly makes this my worst ROI in my hangar. Man I hate to admit that! I love the plane. But I gotta be real.

edit: Just Flights Piper Turbo Arrow probably takes second place here for worst ROI. Again, LOVE the plane. Just a higher priced aircraft that makes me feel like I really gotta be on the ball whenever I tow her out, which leads to fewer opportunities where I decide to do so.

I didn’t mention anything about the planes that are often trashed on here - stuff from Bredok, Captain Sim (guilty of buying the 737MAX and maybe a couple others…) and LatinVFR (USED to be pretty meh, now they really seem to be showing their stuff some more love and they exist in a pretty admirable space in the market right now IMO). I don’t fly these much but I knew what I was getting into when I bought them, they filled a niche, and that’s on me.

My picks are Marketplace-limited, as I am on Xbox.

Whatchu all got?

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Best = Wilga (is), FI Bell 206 (a bit behind) and Comanche (will be).
Worst = Reno racers :stuck_out_tongue:

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Worst: anything Bredok.
Best: HYPE H-145; Fenix A-320

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Color me surprised to see you pop in here telling me you’ve gotten your money’s worth out of Wilma :open_mouth: :stuck_out_tongue:

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Best: Fenix A320. I fly it 85% of my time in MSFS.
Just the best commercial airliner package available. Great graphics, superb sounds, delightful depth (of systems) and soon to become even better.

(Honourable mention: FlightFX HondaJet. Only thing that detracts is the sound of the engines. Not FFX’s fault, they sound realistic. I just don’t like the noise the real things make).

Worst: ATR 42/72 by HH/MS. Sadly, far too many problems and regression issues. Despite having low expectations of it due to the price, there’s nothing I like about it. Carenado’s version in a different flight sim is more enjoyable.

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Carenado C170B I bought in, I think, Winter ‘21 when it was on sale (the only time, I believe they had a Carenado sale).

I fly it and fly it and fly it and fly it and fly it and now I have Berlin in NeoFly flying it and making me money.

I love that it has no autopilot and is 1950’s vintage style cool and so simple that you’re up and flying in no time.

I love that there is also a tundra version where the Garmin Aera is super helpful for backcountry flying along with the awesome 40° of flaps for putting this bird where you want it and 20° for obstacle clearing climb out.

I love this plane and constantly find myself shopping for a real one on the used aircraft market.

Everyone complains of bouncing, but I just finished Jerrie Mock’s “Three-Eight Charlie” accounting her women’s first solo flight around the world in a Cessna 180 — the 170’s bigger brother. She was constantly complaining of bouncing on her landings. It’s just the nature of these planes.

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I only started flying it in earnest a week or two ago, but the Hobbs meter on my Kodiak already shows north of 50 hours, almost all hand flown. I love the versatility, the fidelity of the model, the STOL performance, the way the trim clicks when you adjust it so you don’t have to keep looking down, pretty much everything.

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Best: the Islander, because it has by far the most hours on it now - always was and always will be my sentimental favourite.

Worst: the Trislander, which is fun to fly but too similar and therefore misses out to the Islander when I choose that kind of flying. Not really seeing this as a financial loss though because I bought it at the time to also subsidise BBS’s work on the Islander V2 upgrade.

Fenix has been great value for money as well, and even the relatively expensive BAe146 has given me so many highly enjoyable hours that it was well worth it.

Another in the negative column would be the Kodiak, but then I only bought the cheap-ish float version, so not too bad.

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Best: PMDG 737-XXX - have far and away more time in these than any other 3rd party aircraft.

Worst: Lots of contenders and I admit I’ve purchased all the Famous Flyers/Local Legends for an upcoming project and haven’t flown them yet, but until the latest WT updates, I’d nominate the default 787/747s. They were SO disappointing out of the gate for a Premium Deluxe purchase. They’re light-years ahead of where they started now, of course.

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Best: Fenix A320

My most expensive add-on but the best. I had a year on xbox with no usable airliners until the A310 came out, but that regularly black screened and CTD on the platform.

I bought the Fenix even before I’d finished building my PC when I switched platform in the middle of this year. Since then I’ve not had a time where I didn’t want to fly it. The only reason I fly anything else at the moment is because I need about 2h for the A320 and so if I’ve only got an hour I have to fly something else. I’ve easily got more hours on this than anything else.

I love hand flying it too, flies beautifully, and unlike the common image of having nothing to do while flying airliners, hand flying full procedures as a solo pilot is very challenging and often ends up task saturated.

Next best: Vision jet

This was mentioned above with a great explanation of why this is an excellent plane for most kinds of flying. C&D to in the air in a couple of minutes so perfect when I’ve only got an hour.

Also: C-22J

Cheapest plane on the market I think and absolutely fantastic, used to fly it plenty. I fly it less often since I got the VJ though.

One offs:

Piper Comanche - I won it in a giveaway and I love it so value is unbeatable. I’ve only flown it a few times because Fenix but I’ll get many hours in this over time.

Zenith 701 STOL - It was half the price of coffee on the offer when I bought it and it’s my favourite backcountry bush plane. It is and feels really agricultural and that makes it much more authentic when flying outback or Africa etc.

Worst: Wilga (OK that’s unfair)

I bought it in a sale but it came after the Fenix and also the Kodiak which is my current STOL go to and I literally haven’t taken it out if the hanger. It’s my fault but right now there so much I want to already do in the sim I just don’t have time for another plane.

Worst: the boat, Sea Ray or something

Ok it’s not actually a plane, but I really wanted a good boat. I regret this because although the model looks nice it doesn’t handle anywhere near like it should (even with the caveats in the manual) and the cockpit simulation is worse than an average captain sim. The developer isn’t interested in improving it, just in moving on and making more low quality stuff.

I haven’t really made any bad plane purchases, mainly because I don’t buy a lot and I’m very careful with the ones I select. I like to really learn them well to get good at them rather than just hopping around, so they’re all good value really. Even the ones that are low hours it’s because I don’t have enough hours to fly, not because I don’t like the plane.

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MrTommyMxr and DanielLOWG’s Cessna JT-A Skyhawk. I have hundreds of hours on it. And it’s free.

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Best anything by Black Square

Worst WYMF5

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By the ROI measure,

Best = Kodiak. With 600 odd hours I’ve had my money’s worth out of that.

Worst = DC Designs F-14. Fun for a quick blast of low level flight, but I realised that for me there was no point in a military aircraft without military missions & capabilities.

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Best: The SimWorks Studios CH-701 (my “go to” bush airplane), the JPLogistics Cessna 152 (my “go to” GA cruiser), and Ant’s Tiger Moth Pro (my “go to” classic). I suppose the 152 has the best ROI, since it’s free!

Worst: My few Carenado and Aeroplane Heaven purchases (I have the V-tailed Bonanza from Carenado, and the Tri Motor and Stratoliner Legends from AH). I’m not a circuit breaker nut, but I do expect an airplane to behave and function like an airplane regardless of how inexpensive it is. Carenado and AH both miss the mark in that regard. The only exception is the Carenado Beech 18, but it requires Denarq’s awesome update to be usable.

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Oh how I wish I could experience that beautiful Twin Beech with that mod on Xbox.

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Was initially surprised you said DC6 but im the same if I think about it! Love it but rarely spend the time needed for it. Need to go back to it.

I love the Comanche- flying it to every capital in the world.
Also enjoy the BSQ Caravan, Ducksworks modded DC3 and oddly Carenado’s Skymaster on NeoFly

For me the HJet leaves me cold. Too automated.

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Fenix! That’s all I have been flying since its release! Over 1000 hours now …

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In my case I’d say -

Best value/most ROI

  • PMDG737-7/800 (Have a few hundred hours in this (since 737-700 release) so great value per hour)
  • JF Fokker 28 Fellowship (a frequently used favourite)
  • JF BAE146 (had great value out of it for a few months, but not using it much any more)
  • ATR (had good use out of it for a good price so ROI is great, but not flying it much now)
  • Maddog MD82 (currently flying this, and I see me flying it a lot more as it’s so different and a lot of fun to fly)

Wost roi/least hrs

  • Reno races (and I only spent $20)
  • Some of the other local legends (one flight and done type thing)
  • Bucking the trend, but I bought the Kodiak many months ago in a sale but have yet to go fly it

Lesson:
Don’t go by price. Some of the more expensive aircraft can be the best ROI if you use them a lot, some of the cheapest aircraft can be the worst ROI if you use them only once

Side note:
Best ROI on (paid) Add On(s) : GSX, Navigraph(sub)

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Great reply, thanks - at the risk of cluttering up the thread, I just gotta say, I don’t really know where BAe fits as far as ROI for me. It’s like the DC-6 of jets. I really gotta fly this more - it was NOT cheap and I’ve had a blast every time I’ve flown it. It’s gotten me out exploring tons of VERY pretty European scenery, from a guy that typically only flies around USA.

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See the “Your top 10” threadnought. Tiger Moth is probably top ROI given how cheap it is. 146 would be there except it’s considerably more expensive. Worst ROI right now is probably the F28, which doesn’ tmean it’s the worst aircraft I have.