I’ve been reading this thread every once in a while and now I have finally decided to post my own top 5 to help my favorite aircraft rise in the charts.
1. Cessna 310R - MilViz
Best aircraft for me. I love each stage of flight when I’m in this thing. Landing it well took some practice at first because it drops fast when you pull the throttle all the way back during your flare, which can lead to some hard landings if you don’t smoothly reduce power. According to various real world pilots, this behavior is accurate and I believe it is due to the shape of the wings. I like using the PMS50 GTN 750 mod with this one. The product is considered complete but there is an upcoming service patch that should be released soon ™.
2. Quest Kodiak 100 - SimWorks Studio
This is my go to aircraft when I want to land on some grass strips in the middle of nowhere. I also like to explore mountains with this one. It’s able to clear Denali in Alaska and can also get up to see Everest, although Everest is a few thousand feet higher than the service ceiling. The Kodiak is excellent for exploration and I love the turbo engine sounds.
3. Cessna Citation CJ4 - Working Title
I like this one for anytime I want to go fast or high above the clouds. I usually whip up a flight plan on SimBrief since the Working Title mod lets you import flight plans from there. Love flying IFR with this one, but I also sometimes fly low altitude VFR just for fun.
4. Cessna 152 - Asobo
I need an aircraft that can fly low and slow with a great view and preferably with a yoke. The 152 fit the bill nicely and is also fun to fly. I would love to hear if anyone has recommendations for some payware aircraft that can fly low and slow but also has a yoke.
5. Piper Turbo Arrow 3 - Just Flight
This was my first purchase on MSFS. I like flying the turbo arrow when I want a light and simple aircraft that is fairly unrestricted in where it wants to go. I took this thing up to the first base camps at Everest at just about FL200 which suprised me. Honestly, I haven’t flown the turbo arrow much lately because it tends to be very jumpy from supposed turbulence in most stages of flight (unusually so). Many people believe this behavior is a bug in the flight model according to what I’ve read on forums, so I’ve sorta just shelved it for now until there is maybe a patch or something that changes this.