I’m temporrarily moving the Spitfire to the bottom of the list until this absurd prop drag is sorted out - had to patch it myself to return a little sanity. Otherwise it’s still as good as ever.
I don’t do many fast jets, but I’m really liking the new (Free! … not that I’m cheap …) DC F-18A/C Hornet legacy model … looks lovely, and has some nice functionality, for MSFS ‘peacetime’ flying:
Reminder to self: work out how to engage the nosewheel steering BEFORE commencing taxi …
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+1 on the Sting S4! I bought it a while ago because…parachute! Then kinda forgot about it. Took her up tonight, and wow! The detail in the textures is insane, between the leather trim and carbon fiber the cockpit looks super snazzy. it’s fun to fly, and good performance. I’m not sure why, but every pattern I flew was perfect. The added detail features are of course extra cool, so I think I’ll spend more time in the S4, this time with the reality features enabled!
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I’m surprised to see the A310 so low on the list. I know it was a free update, but there’s other free update/base game planes way higher up. Is it because of the frame rate or the ATC issues?
I personally can’t get enough of the A310 lately. I love the 80s vibe with the mixed analog/digital instrumentation, and even though it’s the “smallest” widebody and it’s not that much longer than the 739, it still feels big.
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I like it too but the lack of real world use (except for Iran) makes me fly the 737 more.
Very true. I just fly with old defunct airline liveries and pretend that it’s some dodgy developing world charter flight. Gives me more reason to try and land it in places where it doesn’t belong too.
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Also, only a small segment of users are tubliner flyers to begin with. There’s a lot of people out there with many different tastes in airplanes (not that any of the other segments are any larger than the tubeliner segment).
Now, if you’re saying you think it’s low on the list compared with other tubeliners, that’s a different question, and gets into Boeing vs Airbus, how many exist as noted above, vintage vs newer, and other things. From everything I’ve heard it’s a great sim model. Haven’t flown it myself.
Are you sure about that? I don’t have any statistics to go on, but based upon downloads on .to it seems that airliners and their liveries get downloaded a lot more than GA planes. In the aircraft section sorted by “most downloaded” six of the top 8 are either airliners or large cargo aircraft. The other two are a helicopter and a fighter jet.
Now after that there’s a lot more GA. But the top airliner has something over 380k downloads, the highest GA has 80k.
It looks like there are a lot of people flying airliners - but based on the lists in this thread it looks like a large number of virtual pilots has a strong preference for either airliners or GA / STOL, but rarely both equally. I could be completely wrong here, it’s just the impression I got.
So admittedly I’d have expected more airliners in the top listings as well, even if I personally don’t fly them.
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You’ve done a lot more analysis on the subject than I have. As I said, the segment isn’t necessarily small, but it’s competing with a whole lot of other segments. My memory of the list had airliners pretty far down and not many, mostly GA and warbirds, Bush planes, etc…
Hehe, I guess analysis is a bit of a tall word for what I did. I just noticed the incredible download counts on .to recently and thought of them when I read your posting. I’m most certainly not qualified to come to a conclusion.
Absolutely agreed on the competition of different segments. All major segments are certainly popular which is a great thing for virtual pilots and for developers alike.
The question was a good question, I guess I wanted to see it a little more focused on it’s own segment and a discussion around why it is low (or not) in that context. Which happened.
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Downloads of liveries probably isn’t a good indicator of the number of people flying airlines vs GA. I’m guessing most users that fly airliners want liveries of their favorite airlines, so all of those will get a ton of downloads.
GA users will download liveries based on personal preference so one specific livery isn’t going to be as popular. Also, GA users might be a lot more likely to just go with the defaul liveries for their planes.
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Thanks for that - just checking as you are allowed 10 now, you didn’t want to keep any of the ones from your previous list? (namely: Fenix A320, F-14, JF Arrows)?
The numbers I looked at were downloads of aircraft, not of liveries. But absolutely, this is at best an indication but we shouldn’t read much into it. I just brought it up to add a view to the discussion.
In most ways the position of GA versus airliner versus helicopter on the monthly ranking doesn’t mean much anyway. I’m sure most people already know which kind of aircraft they like so when reading the list one probably automatically looks only for those that fit the profile. At least I for one certainly do that. I’ll happily compare the Tiger Moth to other similar planes on the list, but where it sits in relation to let’s say a helicopter isn’t too important to me.
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It’s an interesting topic!
I think another factor is that there is less choice for airliners. Or to put it another way there is more choice for other aircraft types, so they get more chance to be mentioned. But if you look at the “best” airliners (in terms of detail/realism) then for sure the PMDG stuff is represented strongly in the list since it was released and very often mentioned. The Fenix has dropped off a bit though and the other free enhancements (Heavy Division etc) are not really mentioned much. It’s all about the 737! 
As for the livery downloads I agree with @Smidge1106 - players that like those planes will hunt out a livery that matches what routes they like to fly. For bush planes etc, they are mostly just a bit of fun for changing things up but not “necessary” and most people probably don’t bother unless there is one specific real-world livery that means something to them?
As to the original question about the free A310, well I am not a tube-pilot either but tried it once and it ran like :■■■■: for me, so maybe other peoples systems also struggle to run it?
Exactly what I was going for explained much more succinctly!
I enjoy both for different reasons. I think MSFS more than any simulator before it lends itself to fly low and slow with the World map scenery, autogen and photogrammery. In other sims, unless you invested a bunch of money in localized and area scenery and weather addons everything looked fake, even the non-3D maps looked awful down low.
The airliners/ bizjets are challenging for their sophisticated systems, complicated autopilots, FMCs and all the automation. It gives you a feeling of reward that you got from here to there in an efficient and professional way, just like in real life. But requires more preflight prep and knowledge flying SIDs and STARs, getting up to cruise altitude and back down. But sitting at FL360 for hours watching the FMC and autopilot do everything is not that entertaining, it almost relegates you to passenger status. That’s why many fly the shorter routes without much time in cruise.
MSFS makes it fun and realistic to fly GA/Bush aircraft, meaning helicopters, ultralights, gliders and even balloons. And the best addons to arrive were the GA aircraft. There are a lot of simmers who still use P3D and x-plane to fly the airliners because of the choices available but use MSFS when they want to fly lower and slower and see the scenery and land at bush strips. I for one like flying GA/bush aircraft in MSFS more than ever before. The immersion and scenery and quality of the aircraft makes it very realistic, just like flying the real thing.
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Beautifully said!
I hardly ever fly airliners ( and if I do, nothing bigger than regionals, which means 146 and CRJ ) - but I have more paints for those than all my GA aircraft added together.
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Reposting my January list with two changes:
- Fenix A320
- SWS Kodiak
- FSW Cessna 414
- FlightFX HJ420
- HPG H145
- Got Friends Wilga
- SWS Van’s RV-14
- Darkstar Experimental
- B78X Heavy Division Mod (hopefully their B789 will take less time than everyone expects)
- JustFlight WB-Sim 172SP (highly recommend the Boris Audio Works sound set)
The changes I made were replacing the Indiafoxtecho F-35 and DC Designs F-14 with the B78X HD and the 172SP.
With respect to the GA vs Airliner discussion, I find that I enjoy short flights in GA a lot, but they are never very long. Maximum of 30-45 minutes as I just take off, fly and then look for a place to land, if I haven’t previously selected an actual destination.
Airliners keep me interested/invested a lot longer because of the procedures, inputting everything into the systems and then the accomplishment of completing a longer flight. I flew the 78X from EGLL to YPDN recently and that felt really good. Yes, I don’t like the staring at displays during long cruises but I do like seeing the ground change below me, just like when I’m on a real plane.
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