Your Current TOP 10 Aircraft

Hey Aviation Friends,
This is my first post and I’m relatively new to the Sim Scene. I really enjoy this Forum and this Top 5 Listing since it’s opening my eyes for how to get the best out of MSFS.

My Top 5 on XBox is:

  1. 414 (Sound, Details, behavior: just on Spot)
  2. GotFriends Discus 2c Premium (man is that relaxing, just completely different to any other plane)
  3. Beechcraft D18 Twin Beech (tail dragging chrome beauty. If you know how to handle this diva you won’t leave her)
  4. Ju52 (Saw the real one many times here in Germany. Slow plane to enjoy scenery and flying history)
  5. Kitfox (my type of adventure plane. Small, light and STOL friendly)

Greetings,

Sebastian

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28/9/2022

Top five

  1. FlyingIron F6F-5 Hellcat
  2. Milviz Cessna 310R
  3. FlyingIron Spitfire Mk.IX
  4. FlyingIron P-38L Lightning
  5. Asobo Local Legend #5 Beech 18

Old list

  1. FlyingIron Spitfire Mk.IX
  2. FlyingIron P-38L Lightning
  3. Just Flight Hawk T.1
  4. HypePerformanceGroup H145
  5. Asobo Local Legend #5 Beech 18

The Hellcat from FlyingIron uses ground handling physics developed in-house they say and I hope they port it across to their Spitfire. It is a winner! I am very impressed.

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My current favorites

  1. Asobo T-6 - Pylon racing with your friends over voice chat (shoutout to the reno discord) is hands down the most fun I have had in sim, and the T6 has done more than any other aircraft to teach me how to fly fast & coordinated.
  2. Milviz 310R - Feels ‘real’ and forces me to fly properly
  3. Milviz FG-1D Corsair - for cruisin’ in the pacific
  4. Discus 2c - Gliding with people over voice chat is awesome
  5. Mooney M20R - fast and easy to fly/land. For when I am too tired to fly the 310R

Ill also add an honorable mention to the Pelican. Nothing else can hover to look at POIs and then zip to the next one at 300kts. Maybe I will swap this to the F-35 when I get that.

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Updating my list.

Old:

  1. Blackbird Cessna 310R
  2. Blackbird Pilatus PC-6 Porter
  3. PMDG DC-6
  4. Just Flight Piper Warrior II
  5. SimWorksStudios Kodiak 100 II

New:

  1. Blackbird Cessna 310
  2. Blackbird Pilatus PC-6
  3. SimWorks Studios Daher Kodiak
  4. Ants De Haviland Tiger Moth
  5. Just Flight Piper Warrior

Cessna 310
The wear and tear and random failures, combined with fantastic custom engine monitors and a very polished aircraft overall make this my favorite GA plane in the sim right now. I’m working on a coast-to-coast USA flight with it so I can cruise around and just enjoy the experience. And hopefully catch a failure or two along the way. Already had a dead gear bulb today.

Pilatus PC-6
I can’t get over how good this is. The sounds are some of my favorites of any plane. I love to load it up with cargo and take off from some hilariously tiny bush strips. And it has beta descent! What a blast.

Daher Kodiak
While a great cargo bush monster, the Kodiak is the more refined big brother to the PC-6 in my hangar. The Kodiak is a superb package with great sounds and visuals, great flight modeling, great systems and features. It edges just below the PC-6 because it isn’t quite as absurd with short strips, and it’s a tricycle instead of a tailwheel.

Tiger Moth
I hesitate to put such a new plane all the way into my top 5, but it just hits all the right notes for me. It’s clearly a labor of love and does some things I have never seen before, like priming the carburetor itself by opening the engine cowl. It handles beautifully and uniquely and seems to hit all the right numbers. Lovely for aerobatics and cruising alike. It’s just a beautiful realization of this classic plane.

Piper Warrior
Probably the plane I fly least lately, but there was a period of time it was about all I flew. For a primary trainer or slow cruiser, it’s immaculate. Just feels right in handling, and this is the only plane on this list I’ve had a lesson in IRL. The other Pipers from Just Flight are equally wonderful. I could (and have) flown exclusively this plane for months.

I had to bump down the DC-6, although it’s terrific. It just isn’t the kind of flying I tend to gravitate toward.

Some honorable mentions from my top 10 but not top 5:

Sting S4
Amazingly detailed plane. Feels like an ultralight and landing it especially is great fun. It’s just such a simple plane in reality with its Rotax engine there’s almost nothing to do but set power and forget about it.

Grumman Goose
This may end up higher in the future. I fly it tons. Sounds, visuals, and engine management/damage are terrific. It’s the only plane that handles right on the water. It’s not higher mostly because the visibility is kind of bad with those big engines by your head.

P-38/F6F Hellcat
Flying Iron Simulations knocks it out of the park, every time. I’m sad I can’t fit one of these planes on my top 5. They have engine wear, sounds, visuals, flight model… there’s just nothing they haven’t thought of.

Beech 18
If we had a full fidelity version of this plane from someone like Big Radials, I think it might crack my top 5. Love this plane’s looks and history. And Carenado’s flies wonderfully. I just wish it had a little more depth to its systems. Yet I keep taking it out for a cruise!

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Thanks for those entries with the nice descriptions guys. Bonus points for that! (Not real bonus points)

New:

  1. Black Square C208B (the new kid in town)
  2. Blackbox BN2 Islander
  3. Milviz C310R (could be first place if updated?)
  4. Just Flight PA-28
  5. SWS Kodiak

Happy landings!

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Thanks for the update.

Just out of curiosity what needs updating?

(It was your number 1 last time lol)

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My top 5…

  1. Fenix A320
  2. PMDG 737-800
  3. FBW A32NX
  4. Aerosoft CRJ
  5. DC Designs Concorde
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ur right, the C310R was my number 1 … but then I did not have the Black Square C208B yet :wink:

The update on the C310 should improve the flight dynamics on approach (too bumpy for my taste) and the back and forth wagging on the runway feels unrealistic to me. But that’s complaining on a very high level. I still love the aircraft.

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Old list (September 3):

New list:

1: Simworks Studios Kodiak
2: Black Square Cessna C208B Grand Caravan | Steam Gauge Analog Overhaul
3: Simworks Studios RV-14/14A
4: Just Flight Piper Warrior II
5: FlightFX Honda HA420 (HJet)

Kodiak holds its slim lead over my new buddy the Black Square C208B.
I’ve been taking the Black Square Grand Caravan through all the valleys of Alaska and now Canada and she is powerful, capable, full of steam gauges and avionics!
The RV-14 and Warrior II have not had much flight time but they are still top of the line aircraft
The HJet is getting a workout shuttling me around the Southwestern US on my business/vacations trips.

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My August list -
Islander
Beechcraft Twin 18
Bonanza V35 .
The Goose
Staggerwing Model 17

Updated list -

  1. The Goose - She moved up, been flying her a lot what a beauty!
  2. Islander - Still in my top 5, probably always will be…
  3. Beechcraft Twin 18 - She’s a beast on the ground but so much enjoyment flying.
  4. Cessna 414 Chancellor - Recent purchase, I can see why she’s rated high.
  5. Pilatus PC-12 - Recent addition to my hangar, been fun to learn so far.
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I think its my first time posing here…
I wonder if I could break the rules ever so slightly…
It’s okay, Im a naive kiwi…

My top 5 aircraft I am looking forward too…

  1. Milviz 737-200… OMG along with the BAe 146, this would absolutely complete my childhood fleet memories of Ansett NZ BAe and Air NZs 737-200 parked at my childhood town or Rotorua, its literally the hotrod or the C310 to C414 equivalent of the BAe!!! I am so fized and ready for this hotrod of the skies to become part of the MSFS fleet in my hanger!!!

  2. Nexgen Saab 340… Once again, an aircraft of my later childhood dreams (Air Nelson NZ) thie sturdy and reliable Saab 340 which is still very much relevance in todays world… REX aviation along with my old local Air Chathams…

  3. Milviz ATR 72… OMG… this is possibly one of the mist highly anticipated aircraft of MSFS!!! The one relevant aircraft of todays current regional haul routes that is so very lacking in this game… This will be the PMDG equivalent on flightsim.to with the amount of liveries that will flood that aircraft type within days of release!!! OMG I look to their reports with absolute interest and anticipation!!!

  4. Bluebird simulation 757… This is something I am very eager with the more I follow the updates on this sight, the research on its hot and high performance, that little void between the 737 and the 777 it will fill… that type of aircraft it is!!! With the initial thought of it being more accessible to those who are just getting complex aircraft, for them to now come out and say they will be doing a high fedality aircraft of this sorta size range!!! Cant wait!!

PMDG 777… Who else is looking forward to high fedality aircraft type of this size and range, the most popular long haul aircraft in service thay has seriously revolutionized aviation in sucb a way!!! The amount of airliners… flag carriers that this aircraft type has seriously brought the world to their respective countries!!!

Oh and my top five current aircraft…

  1. DC6!!! Ive just brought this and wow!!! So glad I learnt VOR on the beloved Bae before getting this right from the start!! Absolutely love this bird and thank you to all of those who reassured me of getting this!!!

  2. BAe!!! During periods of flying A32nx and PMDG 737… I love coming back to this beautiful bird and I just fall in love with it time and time again… now loving how the airbrakes open on the tarmac.

  3. PMDG 737-800… Who cant go past a simple and mind lazy magenta flight with a flick of a switch or as I say… plug and fly… When time is not quite at your side, but you want to have that feeling of accomplishment… 4x sim rate… but with some sence of input… be it just the radios… RNAV/VNAV RNP ILS… this is such a pleasure to fly

  4. HD 787… In much like the above but the sence of long haul in a relevant aircraft of today… I do love this aircraft as much as the love hate relationship was there when spending $$$ for a premium product and getting… HD certainly have brought… to the best of their encrypted ability to do this aircraft justice… absolute pleasure to fly…

  5. BN2… Something about that BN2 sound… if you still have hearing… with the latest update bringing it up to the high level of fedality regarding engine failure with those carb icing… But the simplicity of this aircraft and the way it handles, flies and the general simplicity behind the gauges… absolutely love this aircraft for island hopping and VFR schedule flights…

6 Likes

It is indeed, thank you for the list(s).

I’ve added clause 4.7b to the rules to state that only native Kiwis are allowed to list “future products”, so you’re all good. :wink:

However for the main charts I’ve used your other list lol.

I don’t know how you’re going to have the time to learn and fly all those complex large airliners but your enthusiasm is infectious :wink:

Yeah man I totally love that raw sound. Best thing about it!

And yea that DC-6 is a beaut isn’t it. Especially since the bump in frame rate now all those gauges are handled by my GPU since SU10 :smiley:

I’m not really into the long haul stuff but do enjoy taking the 146 for a longer flight once in a while. Usually I’m pretending I’m taking the F1 bosses to some distant racetrack to keep it “realistic” using the F1 skins, or some military cargo transportation between RAF Bases. Love landing that thing with the effective airbrake but haven’t even attempted using the nav/AP tools yet.

1 Like

1st post in this thread for me. These are the planes I enjoy flying the most, although not necessarily the ones I fly the most. However, I play FSE and own my top 2 planes in that universe, so I do fly them more than the others.

#1. TBM 930: This is plane is perfect for my favorite type of flying. That is, touring the world at a reasonably fast speed in all weathers, and with great short-field performance even high and hot. And with this plane, I can make decent money in FSE doing exactly this. In FSE, I’ve flown mine all over North, Central, and South America, plus the Caribbean, crossed the Atlantic via Ascension Island, been all through west and south Africa, then up across the Sahara to the UK, from which I went on a European tour. I just LOVE flying this plane. It triggers my inner Jeremy Clarkson despite not being a jet.

#2. MilViz C310R: I also own this plane in FSE and I got it specifically as a change of pace from my TBM. If I’d gotten the 414 instead, there wouldn’t be that much difference. I play FSE in a similar manner with this plane but must work with only 2/3 the speed and 1/2 the altitude. Also, this plane is MUCH more challenging just to land (as it has a higher approach speed with literally no margin for error. And the whole product is so good and the sounds are so, so awesome, which is good because I have to listen to them for hours. For instance, my last flight was 850 miles from Las Vegas to Cabo San Lucas, and I still had 41% fuel left at the end. This plane can go 1200-1300 miles with a reserve and full seats.

Now we get into things I might not fly so much but still love.

#3: Wing42 Blériot XI. This is a study-level plane that has essentially zero systems. It has no instruments, nor a panel for them, nor a firewall, nor a cockpit floor, nor even a seatbelt. Nor ailerons, nor trim, nor a proper throttle, nor brakes. The difference between stall speed and Vne is very small and you have nothing to tell you where you are between them. If you think you’re an aviator, not just a pilot, then prove it with this plane. It’s just you and the seat of your pants.

#4: Wing42 B247. Seriously, you gotta love any plane where, if you don’t like what your gauges are say, you can tap them and the needles move a little. Starting the plane requires physical effort both winding up the flywheels and hand-pumping the fuel pressure. It doesn’t have circuit breakers, it has fuses you have to change out (while hopefully figuring out why the fuse blew). And this plane also introduced an entire global radio navigation system new to the game but very, very old to the real world, which is fun to use. It makes you appreciate VORs and even NDBs more :slight_smile:

#5: CTLS (or is it really CTSL?) This is just a fun little plane all around. It can do a Cuban-8 right off the runway and it has a negative flap position for what passes for speed in the thing. And you have all these big windows and no wing struts so is great for observing new POIs on the ground. One of my favorite things about it was that, until a recent update to the Garmin Aera, it had no attitude indicator, which made it IDEAL for drunkenly flying into hurricanes :smiley: Now you can let the visual horizon go for a while thanks to the Aera, so it’s not quite so fun although good winds still blow the little thing all over.

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Thanks for the list and interesting descriptions!

It’s SuperLight, so yep, that ^^^ :wink:

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Every self respecting aviation enthusiast has this somewhere in them, I think. MORE POWER!! THE SPEEEEED!!!

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The Sunday Runway Show is Live and In The Air again!

If you want to see some MORE GREAT planes that fall outside of the Top 25 above, you can grab the full PDF download here:

==== THIS WEEKS TOP 10 ====

====== MY SUMMARY ======
It’s great to see the Discus glider enter the Top 25 at last and the 310R also had a huge burst of new votes.

There were three new aircraft this week:

  1. Airbus A319 by LatinVFR
  2. Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat by Flying Iron
  3. deHavilland Tiger Moth by Ant’s Airplanes

I was going to buy the C510 Mustang (why do manufacturers give these “nicknames” the same as other existing older planes?! Did Cessna not hear about the P51-D Mustang?!) but gonna hold fire on it for a bit.

Did get the Tiger Moth and that’s very nice but not had much fly time this week so not many stories to tell! Just mainly trying to stabilise my system again in the bit of time I had after the Sim Update and sort out my rapidly disappearing internal disk storage lol. Ended up moving all my planes to external disk but they seem to load OK so it’s freed up a few dozen GB for scenery mods and given me the confidence that running planes (at least) from USB-C drive is fine. So I have a few TB available now hahaha. Might try the same with airports etc soon… Dangerous :smiley:

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I thought it was named for the Ford Mustang :stuck_out_tongue: Seriously, this plane is something of an outlier in the whole Citation family. Mostly because it’s the only one that doesn’t have the trademark barrel-shaped (or are they really coffin-shaped?) windows. Seriously, whether a Citation is one of the original few marks, a CJ-whatever, an XLS, a Sovereign, an X, a Latitude, or a Longitude, very few of which have any real family resemblance, they all have those windows. Except the Mustang, which has little, squinty windows.

This is definitely a great product and a fun plane to fly. She’s considerably more challenging to fly than the Baron, is only a tad slower, but can go WAY further with full seats (important in FSE). I should have mentioned above that it supports both the TDS and PMS50 versions of the GTN 750. I prefer the PMS50 product for the up-to-date Navigraph charts. However, this product seems to be slightly bigger than the TDS offering so by “default” in the 310R, you only get 1 of them plus a 650 (like having a stock 530/430 combo). Fortunately, there’s a mod at flightsim.to that forces the PMS50 product to use TDS bezels so with that, you can have 2x 750s.

I myself don’t buy scenery mods because I hardly ever revisit the same place. I’m out to see the world and everything in it, in the areas BETWEEN airports, not AT airports :).

That said, Xmas before last, I was REALLY drunk and bought the Dzer… (unspellable but you know who I’m talking about) Moscow pack because it was on sale and included a bunch of custom airports along with the city scenery, so seemed a good deal. And at the time, I was halfway considering going there in FSE as part of a PIREP thread I had back then. But my plans changed and I never used it until fate intervened and I was compelled to recreate Mathias Rust’s misadventures, ending with landing a C172 in Red Square. So it was nice to have the scenery for that. But that’s the 1 and only time I’ve been to Moscow in MSFS and, given the recent unpleasantness, I doubt I’ll get there again any time soon.

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Oh you’re the one on FSE that did that? I remember that forum thread well, very interesting and informative. And yes, I too am more interested in the scenery BETWEEN airports than OF airports, although I made an exception for LatinVFR’s San Diego because that’s my closest major airport.

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yes it should be I think. by a guy called plerzelwupp ? but frankly I have lost track of it myself and have no backup.

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