Here is my December vote. This month it was very difficult for me to choose between the first 3 aircraft, all the others are stored in my overcrowded hangar:
Asobo Cirrus SR22T G6 (the brand new all-day GA aircraft, awesome!)
FSS Tecnam P2012 Traveller
FSReborn FSR500
Diamond DA40NG with MrTommyMXR mod
A2A Comanche 250 (with glass cockpits could be No.1 … lol)
Putting my last vote of the year in, and not much changed really!
1
Comanche 250
A2A Simulations
2
Wilma
Got Friends
3
Piaggio P.149D
AT Simulations
4
DoubleEnder
Got Friends
5
Bulldog Autogyro
Rara-Avis Sims
6
Spitfire
Flying Iron
7
Tiger Moth
Ant’s Airplanes
8
Bell 206B
FlyInside
9
SA315B Lama
Taog’s Hangar
10
Cessna 172
WB-Sim
OUT: Rans S6S [FlyBoy Simulations]
I still like it a lot, but it doesn’t have the character of the others. Flies beautifully. Could have finally dropped my WB 172 as honestly not flown that in a long time now, but it still has a place in my heart!
IN: Lama [Taog’s Hangar]
A second helicopter in my Top 10, with a very different feel to the Bell 206. Really nicely made and very satisfying to fly with the handling, sounds, visuals and raw attitude. Love it!
A2A Piper Comanche 250
FSReborn FSR500
Blackbird Cessna 310
Black Square King Air 350
Ants De Haviland Tiger Moth
PMDG Boeing 737-600
Black Square A36 Bonanza
Simworks Studios Daher Kodiak
Blackbird Pilatus PC-6
FlySimWare Cessna 414AW
December’s list:
A2A Piper Comanche 250
FSReborn FSR500
Blackbird Cessna 310
Black Square King Air 350
Ants De Haviland Tiger Moth
PMDG Boeing 737-600
Black Square A36 Bonanza
Simworks Studios Pilatus PC-12
FlySimWare Cessna 414AW
Blackbird Pilatus PC-6
Added the new SWS PC-12. Removed their Kodiak, just to have some balanced representation of aircraft types and developers.
Special mention:
Denarq Beech 18 - Updates keep making this better and better. Easily top 10 quality with the addition of a completely free mod. Wish I had room for it.
WBSim Cessna 152 - With the new Boris sound mod, this is even more incredible.
Asobo/WT CJ4 - I’ve grown to love this more lately. It’s really great to operate and flies nicely.
No change for me this month. I’ve mainly been flying the Vulcan, high to low level across the UK from the various RAF bases to the Highlands of Scotland, north Wales and the Peak District. I’ve also been doing the same in the Alps and across the Himalayas. Nice update from JF too for this.
Flew the Sting and the Rans S6S to have a look at the new city updates and remembered why I like these so much, beautiful handling and great views.
Old List:
I just want to mention a couple of non-aircraft related things which have greatly improved using the sim for me this year (and one that I regret buying):
Aircraft Manager from Sonicviz: I only use it for the control profiles but this was worth every penny and the support is excellent.
I bought a 15cm extension for Thrustmaster Warthog joystick and can’t believe I waited so long to get one. Actually I can believe it - the price always put me off. I found a cheaper version than the ones that are usually touted from a UK seller on ebay and it’s completely transformed my flying.
My regret is buying the TDS GTNXi in February. After spending ages torn between this and the PMS GTN, I thought, well the real thing must be the best. It is excellent for what it does and the dev is very helpful and responsive, but it’s missing so many of the small strips and airfields that it’s pointless for me in the aircraft I use it in.
Anyway, many thanks go to Baracus for keeping this running for another year. I think the new monthly format has worked well.
You can at least add custom waypoints in the TDS, but what a pain. The local navdata for my area in the trainer is comically out of date ( it turned into a FRA a little while back ) & you can’t remove waypoints afaik… if I had a Garmin sub I’d definitely use that one though.
I bought the Vulcan, it’s exactly like I thought it would be. Sigh. One more strike left.
Also not making a top 10 is the ATR, but after deciding to fly a bunch of legs for no real reason it’s a bit better than I remembered. Apparemtly I already got at it a bit but it does need some developer maintenance. I don’t generally do “for the price” - something is either good, mediocre or bad, but that one is pretty good considering it was a fiver. There are bugs, but they don’t show up all flight.
Coukd consider a lighter grip for your warthog, there’s a lot of compatible items. Also sand & relube it.
As you say, it’s a pain and if it was just the odd one or two it would be OK, but Garmin seems to have criteria which excludes airstrips under a certain size.
Thanks, I’m fine with the weight. I did regrease it but haven’t sanded it. Will probably do that next time.
Legend I’m submitting in order of the most fun I’ve had in December.
Note: I’m not a massive helicopter fan. Should tell you everything you need to know about the 160.
One of the main reasons I joined the forums was because of your threads, I’m sure you’re responsible for about 50% of the content on this forum and I know it would be a much quieter and more boring place without your contribution and that of other forum members.
This thread is the gold standard for choosing aircraft.
Wishing you and everyone a very happy holiday.
This channel is my go-to source to find out about choosing potential new purchases. You should get commission !
I’m not in the UK, but I did once work on the equally ill-fated if slightly less fugly Nimrod MRA4. It would be fun to see that get a little more time in the air.
If only the original Nimrods had been built all the same size…
Remove the H160 & the 500E from my list - I’ve flown a fair amount of things this month & I dunno if it’s the last update ( SU14, not any individual updates ), but all the helicopters are annoying me more than making me enthusiastic right now. It might be temporary & they’ll get updated & restore my enjoyment, but for now I can’t quite recommend them enough to go in the list.
So, for now:
December:
1 - A2A Comanche - if only it wasn’t a Comanche!
2 - Ant’s Airplanes Tiger Moth
3 - C-160 Transall - currently it might need a tweak to give it a bit more trim authority.
4 - JF 146 - like a few aircraft currently it might need some AP tweaks to be a bit more aggressive. Quite heavy FPS hit in the cockpit recently. I have an uncomfortable feeling it’s on borrowed time & the FM will get “improved”.
5 - BS King Air ( lightly modded )
6 - C414 ( lightly modded )
7 - Ant’s Airplanes Winjeel - it’s only down here because the texturing is a bit antiquainted, ti’s a wonderful thing to fly.
Almosts/mentions:
most of FI’s lineup ( the Hellcat at the top ) - they just suffer from use of MSFS’s “stability” rubbish and in the Spitfire’s case, not looking at available data
BBS Short 330/360 & Trislander - if you can get the v1 FM then the Islander too
the modded DHC-2
the Inibuilds MU-2 is surprisingly nice to fly but a bit rough inside. I struggle to find much to actually do with it though.
the Azurpoly Magister almost gets in but it’s just a bit dead feeling to fly,
I have been flying the MS ATR a fair bit this month - it has a couple of bugs and I had to de-MSFS-ize the FM a bit but if you have your premium discount then it’s not bad. In winter they make up 60% of the traffic into the nearby airport & it makes a change from the King Air.
Hype H160/H145, for some reason all the helicopters in this sim are annoying me far too much at the moment but Hype’s offer a lot. Expensive.
You might notice the lack of other JF aircraft than the 146 - that’s because I can’t stand the others. Modelling wise, sound wise, systems wise they’re fantastic, but the recent FM work has been dire & I regret getting both the F-28 and the Vulcan.- and somewhat the Pipers & the Hawk but only because I’ve flown them a lot in the past and I still have older versions of the FM - that’s an expensive pile of regret. If you like overpowered controls with wierd profiles & ladles of the worst parts of the MSFS SDK to patch it all up ( or if you’re more interested in systems than how something flies - there’s quite a few people who’re more interested in what they’re doing than what the a/c is doing ) then take a look.
Old list:
1 - A2A Comanche
2 - Tiger Moth
3 - C-160 Transall ( skips over the 146 because it has a better FMS now )
4 - JF 146
5 - BS King Air ( lightly modded )
6 - C414 ( lightly modded )
7 - HPG Airbus H160 - a new entry! still some room for improvement but there is a lot of room for improvement in the MSFS helicopter model.
8 - Cowan 500E ( lightly modded )
I don’t post here often, but frequently read…but I figure I should contribute for a final 2023 wrap up. These are the airplanes i most enjoyed this year!
Blacksquare TBM 850… Fantastic all around
Flying Iron Spitfire
Flying Iron Bf109
Rans Coyote
Ants Airplane Winjeel
A2A Comanche
Flight FX Vision Jet
Taogs Llama
FS Reborn FSR 500
Just Flight Hawk
Honarable shout outs to the Cowan Sim Heli fleet…and the WB Sim 172. Happy Flying over the Holidays and into 2024!
After approaching 500 hours in the sim things have slighly evolved, from an inital “i might spend money on an aircraft but not on an airport” to “the Pyreegue black friday deals are too good to pass on”, additional off-the-shelf hardware (Tobii, VKB rudders) and hardware still in pieces (arduino, encoders, 8-digit tube displays for “christmas time” radio stack project)
The original list from April is no longer valid, so I decided to provide a brief end of the year update:
New list:
Just Flight - BAe 146: Spend probably 70% of my time in this one, it is just perfect !
Just Flight - Avro Vulcan: So very different from the other aircraft with all its complexity and flight model. Actually bought a hardcover “manual” for this one (Tim McLelland, The Avro Vulcan)
AzurPoly C-160 Transall - The distinctive engine sound always makes me smile and reminds me of my childhood running on the balcony in a small village in west germany in the 1980’s because you could hear it soon enough to get a good view when passing over.
Ariebaba - Rockwell OV-10 Bronco: Just a lot of fun to fly with some quirks, which i would consider more of a good challenge “not to fall into” than an issue (recovery from stall …)
Taog’s Hangar - SA316B Alouette III: For scenic, low speed flying - the “justification” for getting actual rudders.
Milviz/Asobo - DHC-2 Beaver: For multiplayer trips if floats are needed
Orbx/Microsoft - DHC-4 Caribou: For multiplayer trips if STOL is needed
IndiaFoxtEcho - MB-339: If “not falling back too far behind all the F14, F18, F35, …” is a requirement
Fully aware of having only 8 entries on the list; for completion, following the christmas spirit of a 2024-wishlist, 2 non-eligible entries:
