Great words. Well said and all so very true!
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You know Iāve been working too hard when I donāt remember posting my Top 5 in March hahaha! Regardless, I guess I would like to update my selections. Thanks Boss! On the 29th to!? That was my marriage anniversary! Time to go apologize to the wife. I guess my head was wrapped in MSFS!
Alright, wow, where to start. I usually donāt stray too far off topic, but you asked some genuine questions, so Iāll do my best to open that Developer āCan of Wormsā.
First things first, thank you for your kind words in regards to our products at Got Friends. While I have the attention of a few people, I would like to reiterate that my selections were purely biased in a few regards. As far as our products go, Iām humbled to know that their are individuals who will purchase our products solely on the merit of our past efforts. I would like to personally thank those individuals, but more importantly, I would like to stress the importance of doing research. At Got Friends, we are very open about our development, that said, we arenāt perfect either. I urge everyone to do the proper research, watch video reviews, study promotional content, and ensure any purchase you do is a purchase well spent. This 100% includes our products. We do our best, we have some fun, and we try to deliver some very unique add-onsā¦ but regardless of the name behind it, I always urge people to make sure itās well deserved in their hangars.
Discus-2c: Once again, not perfect, but we definitely take pride in this accomplishment. As far as Asobo contact, we have had none. I have been told by a couple (Big Names at Asobo) that they have flown the Discus-2c and enjoy it. That compliment is enough for our team. As much as we would have loved to partner with Asobo for Gliders in Novemeber, Iām 99% confident that they are going in the right direction. Whether they looked into our code or not (which they can see), Iām just honored to have been part of the āGlider Awakeningā in MSFS.
Got Friends/Asobo Contact: Like I said, not much contact outside of personal compliments. I run a massive support group of various Developers who constantly help each other figure out the SDK oddities. Also, at Got Friends, we approach development with a different mindset. If it doesnāt work natively, we figure it out. Workarounds, Custom Features, it doesnāt matter, if we want it, we do it (Sometimes failing all together!)
H145: Not much to say more on the subject. Hype Performance and I go way back to the good old days of MSFS Freeware Development. I know their team and we talk often. Love their work and their delivery, although expiremental, was absolutely ground breaking. Will always support them in the future!
A320NX: If you know Got Friends by now, you know we arenāt big Airliner fans. We love the small fun stuff. Nothing is better than throwing your aircraft around. However, I guess my selection was purely based on their accomplishments and actions towards the community. Their team members were Instrumental in various HTML toolkits, Blender Addons, and more. Without their dedication, there would be far less aircraft in the simulator, ours included! Highly respect everything theyāve done and very excited for their A380!
The Goose: Oh Yes! Big Radials and I go way back. Before I was making freeware, before I was practicing on FSX conversions, I was talking with their team on FSDeveloper, learning the ins-and-outs of MSFS Development. Theyāve always been one step ahead of me in regards to Official SDK Incorporation. Once you have the āDeveloper Mindā, your able to look into any unencrypted aircraft and really understand whatās going on. When I say their aircraft is highly stable and well polished, I mean it. Not only through our weekly conversations with them, but because I can see their code directly and see the āNo Gimmickā state of their aircraft. Very nice products. Will purchase everyone of theirs in the future, if not to fly, to see how they optimized them so well as a developer.
AS-33: Where do I start. Once again, Iām biased. MadoloSimulations and I go way back. We were part of the founding members of Aerosoar (Our old dead development group) and started working on gliders together. Weāve always shared code, 3D models, and flight model techniques back and forth. I give them untethered access to our Discus-2c and they reciprocate the same hand to us. We are not in competition, although it seems that way. Without MadoloSimulations, Touching Cloud, Ian Lewis (B-21), and the rest of Got Friends. Gliding wouldnāt be possible PERIOD in itās current state. We all formed an alliance early on to help each other and we continue to do so to this day, while we are all preparing for November. In my personal opinion, our Discus-2c is superior in Graphics and Textures. The AS-33 is by far the best glider in the simulator for realism, systems, coding and technique. I am extremely proud of the work theyāve done and aspire to bring our gliders to that same level.
As mentioned, Iām biased, most of my selections have a personal connection to my upbringing. That said, I 100% stand behind small developers, community leaders, and self-taught work above anything else. I hope it didnāt sound too bad when I said Iām not a fan of out-hiring. There are AMAZING aircraft on this list that are easily some of the best add-ons for the game and they are out-hires. At the end of the day, I stand behind the little guy, but fully support all development from any upbringing. Out-hiring or not, someone out there is working really hard to make this game awesome, and thatās all that matters.
Cheers! Hope that gave some good insight, even though it strayed a tiny bit off topic haha!
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Everyone who votes has biases. Few get to vote for their own plane(s).
I know Baracus adores your glider.
I am still in the keeping it in the air phase of my training! 
Excellent post.
Thank you.
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Took her up again tonight. At this point, after taking a long break, I always get back in and get stuck on something. But I know my way around enough to just start flipping switches.
Eventually I comically work my way through it like a pilot on an 80ās adventure show!
So mechanical and logical. So analog but still complex.
Just a stunning plane.
Perhaps I ranked her too low?
As for @DigitalJonx ās points about my beloved Goose, Yeah. I am not a programmer and I am not a pilot. I fly sims. Have all my life. And what feels real to me teaches me about flight. Big Radials makes planes that feel real to me. It is amazing to learn they do it all by the SDK.
As an artist, I have no problems with other companies who cheat. Milviz is rather proud of their cheats for some planes and they sit atop my list. If it feels right, go ahead and add 500 lbs to the tail when on ground. Add an invisible spoiler.
But it is nice to have some insight into why my beloved Goose feels so good in the air, at sea, and on the groundā¦ well, it is terrible on the ground, but terrible like it SHOULD be. Even being a MSFS tail dragger and sea plane, it feels so good and clumsy. And in the air it feels confident andā¦ wellā¦ real.
Much respect to the freeware community, and Jonx, you just earned a purchase. Your freeware is quite good. And a purchase means I will put in the time it takes to really learn to fly the bird. You offered me a new kind of flight before it was available elsewhere on this sim. And that deserves support. Thank you.
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Love to hear it!
If I earned a purchase, then youāve earned my recommendation. You love the Goose and all her clumsiness. May I suggest you try our Edgley Optica. Got Friends, not Orbx. It may contain the quirky quality youāre looking for.
If you truly are ready to become one with the sky as you glide on laminar airā¦ then absolutely try the Discus-2c! Also, before you settle, try the Freeware version of it first on Flightsim.to. (Unless that was the add-on you were talking about) haha
Cheers!
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I have flown your freeware. I decided to buy it in full. It is an excellent glider and I have not yet learned to keep her aloft. A challenge well worth the price, especially knowing what I am purchasing.
I will look into yāallās Optica. I hear great things. It is a fascinating plane. Orbx didnāt impress me with theirs which I bought at a tremendous discount.
Time for me to update my list. My old list can be found here.
1. Cessna 414AW - Flysimware
I picked this one up a couple days ago. Iāve found out for myself why this plane is at the top of the community favorites and now itās my favorite too. I flew it into the typhoon hitting Japan a few hours ago just for a crazy challenge and that was a super fun flight. I had zero visibility and had to rely on the instruments. Thankfully, the AGL radar saved me from crashing when I didnāt account for mountain elevation. There were brutal gusts that wanted to see the plane disappear into the ground, but I was able to fight to keep the plane in the air.
I definitely love the panel on this aircraft, from the fancy clock to the fuel computer. Also very nice to pair with the GTN 750 + Working Title. I successfully flew around in the most turbulant part of the storm, getting as low as 500 ft (still couldnāt see the ground), but I was afraid of the gusts just powerdiving me into the ground if I went any lower. When I had enough, I flew back to the airport and was lucky to have ~25kt (50kt gusts) of direct headwind. Landing this thing is night and day compared to the 310R, very satisfying.
I see myself putting in a lot of hours flying around in the 414. Very happy with my purchase, despite a couple minor quirks (like that rear cabin mirror, hah). If Flysimware ever actually implement random failures like the 310, then it would take a lot for me to remove this plane from my favorites.
2. Cessna 310R - MilViz
The thing I love the most about this plane is the systems modeling with failures. Even though the 414 is going to have my attention for the foreseeable future, I still consider the 310 to be one of my favorites.
3. Quest Kodiak 100 - SimWorks Studio
The Kodiak still fills the role of STOL in my fleet. Itās hard to beat for when I want that kind of flight.
4. Cessna Citation CJ4 - Asobo/Working Title
The CJ4 is still my go-to for when I want to fly high and/or fast.
5. Cessna 152 - Asobo
When I want to fly low and slow, the 152 does the trick for me. Seems like Asobo will add computational fluid dynamics to this plane soon in a similar fashion to the 172, which should make for an even better time.
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at least your priorities are right, for āus lotā anyway! Whoops 
Thanks for the extra details youāve written - much appreciated.
Yea itās a good āun. I like using it for sightseeing as the view out is pretty good (it is a surveillance plane after all). Feels like youāre in a helicopter cockpit. And of course, dog and cat! 
Thereās some interesting and beautiful liveries for it too. More varied than āwhite with this stripe, or white with that stripeā you usually get lol (only kidding!!)
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1 Flying Iron Spitfire LF mk IXc, It is a Spitfire, need I say more LOL.
2 WB Sim C172 mod. I have real world time in the 172
3 JPLogistics C152 mod. I have a personal history flying the 152 with my Dad.
4 Milviz C310R Fav light twin since FSX Steam.
5 Big Radials Grumman Goose both payware and freeware versions. Great sim of a plane I remember from TV, Tales of the Gold Monkey.
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First time voting! In the past month or so, my top five have been:
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Milviz 310R ā I purchased this soon after release, but it took me a while to get around to flying it since I was spending a lot of time with the 414. Lately, Iāve been flying it a lot, practicing pattern work and getting the hang of its landing behavior. Itās a challenge, but also a very fun airplane to fly. I also enjoy the engine monitor gauges which Milviz included in this one. The 414 only has a simple EGT gauge.
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Blackbox BN2 Islander ā I bought this when I heard a big update was in the works. The updated version (now 2.1.2) is excellent. Fun airplane to fly in the Caribbean or for low and slow sightseeing.
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Just Flight BAe-146 ā One of my favorite airplanes since I was a kid. Itās a challenge to fly well since so many systems are analog. Iāve been flying a lot of short hops to practice my technique.
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PMDG 737-700 ā Just an excellent, well-rounded experience. The custom ground equipment really adds to the experience.
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SimWorks Kodiak 100 ā Another great sightseeing airplane. I enjoy both steam gauge and glass cockpits, and this one has the excellent G1000 NXi. Itās an enjoyable airplane in a lot of scenarios, either for hand-flying or autopilot. VFR or IFR.
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#1 WB Sim Cessna 172 Classic Enhancement
Great version of the 172. Nice to fly, good modelled, failures and fouling possible.
#2 JPLogistics C152 Enhancement Mod
#3 Milviz/BlackSquare Cessna 310
#4 JustFlight Warrior II
#5 JustFlight BAe 146
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I think you mean Blackbird, MilVizās new name. BlackSquare is a different developer.
Is the WB Sim 172 enhancement really that good? I have the BlackSquare 208 steam overhaul and love it, plus the JPLogistics 152 mod is amazing.
Iād say it is!
Yes, it is. Nice flying, you have to have an eye on the spark plugs not to foul, look for oil ā¦ Nice plane.
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I donāt own the Orbx version but I did watch AvAngels video comparing the two offerings and the Gor Friends was markedly the better version. I bought the Got Friends Optica and I was immediately surprised to see just how much of a do-everything GA aircraft it could be. It has similar speed to a Warrior but with superb visibility of course. The six-pack up front and the 530 gps & Autopilot makes the cockpit fully functional. It is just a very versatile aircraft and I find it to be a blast to fly. It is another one of those that I find myself frequently going back to after flying my newer purchases for a while. It is also very stable and flies quite nicely in the sim.
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I have to change my posting from 2 days ago:
- Black Square Steam Gauge Overhaul - Analog Caravan
- FSW C414AW
- Leonardo MD-82 Maddog
- JustFlight BAE 146
- PMDG 737-800
The Black Square Steam Gauge Overhaul is a real game changer for the Caravan. An absolute must-have for people who love to fly with radio navigation!
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No problem, adjusted it for ya.
Yeah the Caravan mod is nice. I donāt use all those systems yet, but the whole package feels a lot more interesting than the default. Seems expensive for what it is but itās not so bad and breathes a new life into a plane I didnāt use much before. Seriously gonna look into their King Air now unless something else comes along before (like the Mustang for example)ā¦
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- Aerosoft twin otter
- Default Boeing 787 10
- Spitfire flying iorn
- Latinvfr A321
- Aerosoft CRJ 700
I keep flying the twin otter exploring New York National Parks, Iāve been practicing landing the 787 10, Iām still attempting to land the spitfire, the a321 is very fun because you can explore the interior, I can do the delta connection KROC to KJFK route in the CRJ without using a gps until final approach with how many times Iāve flown it
(Iām not flying the upcoming a319 and waiting for the aerosoft a320 family to see if I could fly the 318 and 319)
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