My feedback on your TO BUY LIST, biased towards the planes I own, only if to make me feel better about my purchase, and biased against the planes I do not own, only if to make me feel better about my purchase rejection.
2.) Vision Jet. I don’t know how they did it - beautiful model but no hit on my FPS. And I have a low-end CPU/GPU. It’s a fun plane and I do fly it a lot, but somewhat disappointed by the large number of INOP buttons and functionality. Not to mention that they forgot (just plain forgot and admit to that, at least) to include OBS functionality. How could the developers and the (supposed) real life pilot testers have missed this? They say none of them uses VORs to fly so they forgot to implement. I know VOR is a technology on its way out now that we have GPS, but still, some of us like to play with those features. Big OOPS that makes me a little nervous about the developers going forward. Also, I can’t get VNAV to work. It does have Auto Throttle like the big boys (airliners that I don’t fly) so this is my chance to play with it.
2a.) HondaJet. I bought this before the Vision Jet and was asking myself if I really needed to get the Vision Jet because they are pretty similar. They are. But they have different use cases for me. The Vision Jet is like a family GA plane with a jet engine. The HJet is a mini business jet. The developer MG did a great job, included all the functionality and I don’t think there are any INOP buttons. VNAV works great, there’s a big new update coming that makes VNAV work with all SIDs and STARs, aboves/belows/ats and even speed restrictions, so that will be fun to play with. The HondaJet is faster than the Vision Jet, 420kts to 311kts, I think it is, so you can do longer trips in the same hour-ish that I like to fly. I don’t regret having both the HJet and the Vision Jet.
3.) 737. Not my kind of plane either, but wouldn’t mind at least learning about commercial jets. And I have personally flown in 737s more than any other plane. I have the CRJ from Aerosoft, but I never fly it. It is a regret purchase, honestly. But back to the 737… Hopefully when the 737-900 is released, PMDG will do a sale on the other models, like they did when the -800 came out. The -600 is toooooooo small and weird looking and was never used by my local airline, Southwest, so I never flew it. Southwest flies the -700, so that’s likely the one I personally would pick up, but only on sale. I have never spent more than US$36 on a plane.
7.) King Air Analog. MUST BUY. This is not just some “added stuff”. This is a steam gauge dream plane. Lots of functionality, speed, pilot attention needs, etc. It just goes. I think it was in my last TOP 5 and will definitely be in my year-end.
8.) Piaggio P149D. I own this and won’t buy the Globe Swift for the same reason as you, just the reverse.
9.) Bonanza V-Tail, 170B, Aviat Husky. The V-Tail and Husky are must buys, imho. The 170B is fun, but I could do without it. I have a lot of similar planes in categories that I like to fly: touring and bush. The V-Tail fits the former, the Husky the latter.
10.) Trislander. Didn’t purchase for the same reason as you. I love the Islander! The Trislander seems like a funky interesting plane, but just too similar for me.
11.) Piper Warrior II. MUST BUY. Even if you think you have too many similar planes. The Arrows (which I have) and the modded Bonanza G36 are fast touring planes in my book. The Warrior II is a medium speed sightseeing plane, something to do circuits with, lots of VFR. It’s a really great plane. Sure, all of the Arrows and the Warrior II could do with a refresh, but I love flying them just as they are. If this matters, I picked up the Sting S4 as my modern glass alternative to the Warrior II. So now I have steam and glass planes to practice circuits and do low-level VFR.
Done!
