I spent the better part of the month confirming that putting warheads on foreheads using laser, GPS, and optical sensors just isn’t for me. Gladly back to MSFS now.
Piper Comanche / A2A – Weird one for me. The highest quality GA in the sim, but I’ve discovered that I’m just not a huge fan of the Comanche…instrument layout, avionics, sounds, flight dynamics, etc. I like every other Piper I’ve flown, but this plane doesn’t do it for me. Clearly nothing against A2A – they’re arguably the best in the biz, and I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to buy another aircraft from them.
Daher Kodiak 100 / SWS – She loves me, she loves me not. Reminds me of a girl I dated many years ago. Can’t even remember her last name now, but she was nuts. And a lot of fun. I woke up with a lot of headaches during that time.
Cessna 310R / Blackbird – Just picked this up. Wow. Love the looks and sounds – my favorites in the game. An absolute joy to hand fly so far, but it seemed to get knocked around pretty good in gusty conditions (that’s at least partly on Asobo and their goofy wind/gust modelling). I found that trim input with the HC Bravo trim wheel is almost worthless, but I had much better luck with the HC Alpha yoke’s elevator trim input. On the other hand, elevator trim is schizo on almost all aircraft in the sim. I re-read all the spirited debate regarding its landing characteristics. I’m Switzerland on that debate since I’ve never flown a real 310, but surprisingly landings are a breeze following the conventional guidance here on the site. After many hours in the Kodiak, I have no problem keeping some power in until (and after?) crossing the numbers if needed. Still a ton to learn about this one. Better view from the cockpit than I expected.
Cessna 414A / Flysimware – Another great Cessna twin model, but a completely different flight profile compared to the 310. High and pretty fast or lower and not so fast. Personal preference is for the 310, but the 414 is a very high quality airplane and fun to fly.
Britten Norman Islander BN-2 / Black Box – Not sure where exactly to rank this one. I unintentionally hangared this one after completing my UK Bembridge - Sumburgh tour. After reading about STOL performance among various aircraft at TFFJ and Saba, I flew it again. Forgot how nice this one flies and how great its STOL performance is even without Beta. On both approaches I thought “Oh, no way am I going to make…” and ended up just missing the turnoff at both fields. Not the most exciting to fly, but a dependable performer with very benign handling characteristics. Maybe I’ll download the Gem Air livery and try it in Idaho in the near future. Those terrible textures on the screws/bolts on the pilot’s side windows bug me every time I fly it. Ugh.
DH 82A Tiger Moth / Ant’s – Best biplane. Best low/slow flyer.
Sting S4 / FS Reborn – Highest quality UL.
Piper Archer II / Carenado – Best casual flight aircraft. Simple and easy.
Cessna 152 / WB – Best simple and easy, but not THAT casual.
Hondajet / FlightFX – Nice little jet. Perfect for flying if you have to catch up on emails, phone calls, and watching vids/TV while en route to your destination…you don’t have to do anything in the plane after turning on the AP.
My October list remains the same as it was last month. I am in the middle of my London to Australia tour in the Comanche, having made my way through France, Italy, Greece, northern Egypt, Israel, the middle East all the way to India where I will reach Kolkata tomorrow. 18 flights so far. So I did not use any other a/c this month. I got a new friend ( a wild cat) but did not even try it. I am really ashamed.
I’m totally with you on this. It’s the best modeled aircraft in the sim, but I prefer to fly the JustFlight Arrows. For me it’s mostly the cockpit and controls layout. It just isn’t a good fit for my control hardware. Why is the mixture control on the left???
If you have your own cockpit hardware you can place the mixture wherever you like. But if you want to replicate the cockpit layout as well, then I take your point.
Yes, I could do that, but every other plane I fly has it on the right. I’m primarily in VR and I have often tried to control the mixture with my throttle lever by mistake And looking to the ceiling for the trim while reaching down for the wheel is a little bit of a realism killer.
It’s mostly not - it’s aircraft config, it’s quite possible to make an aircraft that behaves like it’s in gusts, not being shaken around by a playful dog.People give Asobo a hard time over third party problems.
The Islander’s STOL performance should be a lot better than it is ( the previous version was quite close ), amazingly enough.
If JF spruced up their interior textures and fixed the silly weathervaning on the ground, both the Arrow and Warrior would be back on my list. I really do enjoy them in perfectly calm flying conditions.
Since the October list hasn’t been posted yet, I’ll try and sneak this in. Otherwise it can be an early November list. For official purposes, these are the same top 10, but I’m reordering them for readers.
The top four have really settled into the top tier for me.
A2A Comanche 250 - I’m still trying to fly a large mix of planes, but this one just feels right everytime I fly it.
Milviz 310R - I really like this one. A little more faster and complex. Thought I’d take it up for a quick spin after the most recent update and it turned into an 1:45 flight. That’s a good sign that it’s fun to fly.
Aeroplane Heaven Cessna 140 - Now that I’m finally getting semi-decent at tail draggers, this has become my default slow touring plane. Like the simplicity and the old time charm.
Black Square Bonanza A36 - I’ve always like the Bonanza. Great plane for a fast cruise, especially with the turbo optoin.
It’s harder as the aircraft get smaller ( so Ultralights & STOL planes with low mass & low wing loading have it really rough - obviously IRL they do too, but I think there’s maybe some force scaling problems in the core aerodynamics somewhere, but that’s only from looking at behaviours rather than analysis ) but GA twins should certainly have a good go at it. Note I didn’t say “realistic” anywhere here, just more believable. One day we’ll have realistic atmosphere in a home sim, but given doing any realtime aero work is still a heck of a problem for professionals then I’m not sure we’ll be alive to see it.
==== COMPLETE CHARTS PDF PACK ==== Want to see more awesome aircraft?
You can download the entire Charts Pack as a PDF here. This file includes the main All-Time Chart and a page for every month listing all votes, so you can see aircraft that fall outside of the Top 25 above. Download the PDF here:
====== MY SUMMARY ======
Only 2 new aircraft mentioned this month - the lull before the storm?:
Developer
Aircraft
HPG
Airbus H160 Helicopter
Black Square
Daher TBM 850
The BN2 Islander had a resurgence in the monthly mentions but still dropped a bit in the All-Time ranking due to shuffles in other removals and so on.
The F4F-4 Wildcat had a good few new mentions but it’s so tough competition in the All-Time Chart now that it still only crawled into position 106.
A little bump up for the Wilga, with the Comanche in hot chase! Still a strong shout for the Comanche this month but the climb up the All-Time Chart has stalled a little as the gaps are becoming harder to overcome.
I bought a few new things this month but had below-par flying (and driving!) time available to me:
Juice Goose (awesome fun, very well made and totally brings the simulator into a different and unexpectedly interesting focus).
Nardi FN-333 Riviera (really excellent and very unique. Not quite top 10 material but I have flown it a lot and it’s very enjoyable. Has a mixture of features that do not appear in any other aircraft).
Santos Dumont 14-Bis (bad mistake… but super cheap).
Airbus H160 (not flown yet. Tonight is the night!).
FREE BYOB-2000 Barrel Heli (the vertical Scrappy! Pretty excellent for a laugh!)
FINAL NOTE: The next Chart Update will be done on 3rd December as that is the nearest Sunday to the end of the month.
Thanks for the stats! The Islander flies really nicely, but I can’t get past the poor visuals in the cockpit. It’s just not a great looking effort I’m afraid. It’s also just so slow! I take it out occasionally but it does not crack even my top 20. My opinion on the Wilga was already expressed, but I have no idea how it got ahead of the Comanche in the all-time chart. Frankly it’s fine but nowhere near that good. Kind of shocking it’s so high, to me. But to each their own.
I bought the C414AW this past month and it did end up on my top 10. I expect in November to be adding the FSR500 to this list rather high up. Maybe the PC-12 from SWS, too, if it makes November.
Turbo Arrow is a solid plane, but has definitely been exceeded by the Black Square Bonanza for the same role at this point, while the regular Arrow has been exceeded by the A2A Comanche. But if you really like those particular Pipers, or you want a different style of turbocharger than turbonormalized, the Arrow is still great.
It’s interesting that you would compare the turbo Arrows and the Black Square Bonanza. It makes total sense in regard to role. However, for me the Arrow flies so much more realistically than the Bonanza that I very much prefer it. I could be wrong since I have never flown either one irl, but the Arrow just “feels” more convincingly real.
May I recommend trying it in South Devon? it’s currently gusting up to 50kts or so and trying to blow my door in, seems a perfect place!
It’s definitely a HPG helicopter - the action pack is what makes the 145, I don’t find it particularily nice to fly by itself right now ( I’m investigating differences in rotor implementation atm but rather poor health ), so I think it’ll probably be the same for the 160. Could have a major breakthrough in handling too, ofc. Don’t regret buying it at all, just doesn’t have a just-one-more-flight feel for me yet. If you like more hands off flying you’ll love it.
Been flying it a bit tonight. Would have been more were it not for spending about 4 hours trying to find the reason for a constant CTD on loading flight (gets to 85% and crash). Didn’t help that I had installed a few new things all together but after much wasted time process-of-eliminating, it wasn’t any of those faults. Seems to be Live Weather causing it. But not everywhere. It seemed to think everywhere in Europe was snowing. Until it let me in and it wasn’t snowing at all! Using weather presets I was fine with everything though.
First impressions. Well, I am sure it shouldn’t do this (was literally the first thing that happened lol):
…same as all other MS Copters. But if you don’t move the stick on the ground to make it do that, I do quite like the way it flies and lands. It’s very stable, feels suitably large and modern. It’s fast so will be good for group flights where I always seem to lag behind in my Bell 206. The M500E is fast enough and I do like that too (more sporty) but this does what it’s supposed to do in that regard.
Got to say the modelling is definitely in the top equal of anything I’ve seen. Fantastic details. Performance (fps) is rock solid. Had a little fiddle with the automation stuff and AP but didn’t really figure it out properly yet. Need to read or watch a guide, or better still get some hands-on tuition from someone that knows how it works as I learn better that way! Does some odd things (fighting me and flitting around) but I am sure it’s just me not entering or using the right modes at the right times.
I like that it has rolling wheels and brakes. Makes for some interesting landings. And the suspension gives it the transition from full weight down to lift and lift-off that most sim copters are missing. Feels pretty great.
Yep the missions are what bring these HPG creations alive but the way I saw it was spreading the cost rather than buying it all at once plus getting used to the tablet and AP functions before I get into the “career” missions
Overall though I find it satisfying to fly so far (just by hand) but definitely prefer more raw machines like my trusty FI Bell 206!
Except Cowans, which need a good hard shove of the cyclic ( the DCS Mi-8 - something of a benchmark - will also tip over if you abuse the cyclic with the collective on the floor on the ground too, it’s about the same as Cowan’s stuff ). I mentioned that one about an hour after release, lol. It’ll do it at idle, too.
Flew a fair way round the south coast tonight ( in the storm! ) in the latest patch from discord, seems to be a fair amount of improvement in it already. Yes it still tries to chop it’s blade tips off on the ground though.
And looking to the ceiling for the trim while reaching down for the wheel is a little bit of a realism killer.
==== ALL-TIME TOP 25 ==== 
==== THIS MONTHS TOP 25 ==== 
==== COMPLETE CHARTS PDF PACK ==== 
Download the PDF here:
====== MY SUMMARY ====== 
