Stephen Posted August 10, 2013 Report Share Posted August 10, 2013 Carenado have updated the Carenado CT210M Centurion II to Version 2.0. The CT210M was released in early April 2013 (March 28th), which is only a few months back. But the timing was not the best as the aircraft found itself between the changes of the X-Plane 10.20 plugin updates. Of all the releases from Carenado the Centurion caught the worse of changes and was prone to crash. (usually as it ran out of memory when loading heavy scenery). I must stress the point that the issue is not Carenado's fault in any possible way, It was just all in the timing. To my own frustration the aircraft has spent most of the time sitting in the hanger. I would give in and let it fly (No pun intended) and just accepted I would not get to my destination (usually I didn't) but I didn't care. Of all the releases from Carenado and I love them all. With including the multitask 208B Caravan, the Centurion II went very quickly to the top of my list of one of very best experiences you can have in X-Plane... I damn well love this aircraft! Carenado CT210M Centurion II HD Series - Ver 2.0 At first the aircraft looks a little plain. Without the undercarriage hanging down and being strapped up and locked away in the belly it makes the aircraft looks very minimal with just its clean fuselage, wings, tail and tailplane. But look closer and the detail is very well done, with rivets, vents and flapping aerials all contributing to the realism. The Cessna 210 (210 and 210A) first flew in 1957 and was even then essentially a Cessna 182B to which was added a retractable landing gear, swept tail, and a new wing.Built were 9,240 aircraft of which there as many variants as 26 and they were all built between 1957 and 1986. This version is the 210M Centurion or Turbo Centurion with the optional 310 hp (231 kW) TSIO-520-R engine and minor changes and was produced between 1977-80 and 1381were built. Clean the CT210M is under the fuselage with the undercarriage all folded away……. but the retracting undercarriage was very problematic – It is longer than the original 201 undercarriage to allow for the two extra seats in the cabin. Extended the gear looks as vulnerable as they are in real life. The rear seated passengers also got a shock or a bump in the lower extreme every time they were retracted and so many pilots just left them locked in the down position. Flying The Centurion II So why did this CT210M aircraft become so special?... because the “T” in the name is for “Turbo”, Turbo means power and a lots of it. It goes uphill like a steam-train with no carriages on the back, at 7° (noseup) you can hold 100knts all day. The Centurion will climb all day with you holding on to the glareshield for support, more than 7° and your speed starts to drop, drop the nose a little and you accelerate like no tomorrow, turn your head away from the instruments and your at 10,000ft in minutes. Maximum speed is 204 knots (235 mph, 378 km/h) at 17,000 ft (5,200 m) however the normal cruise speed is193 knots (222 mph, 358 km/h) at 20,000 ft (6,100 m) and the final ceiling is around 27,000ft, which is very high for a small aircraft like this. So it goes like hell for a small aircraft and climbs like hell and it goes very high as well because it is pressurised. With so much in ability you can cross distances in no time - the power is intoxicating. Another huge attraction is with the equipment provided. The radio stack is very well provided for with – two Garmin GARMEN GNS 430′s, a very modern new GARMEN GTX 327 transponder, GARMEN GMA 340 Audio Panel and that fabulous KFC225 Bendix King autopilot. Only issue I have with the KFC225 is the V/S (Vertical Speed) mode, you use it the same both ways when you set the altitude, so they can become a little mixed up – “are you setting the altitude” or are you “setting the V/S?” your watching the numbers not the mode… I just set the “up” and “down” buttons for the right angle and arm the target altitude and that works fine. You have all the tools here to do the job with and the panel is pure Cessna, it is not as over filled with gauges and gadgets as the Co-Pilot does not have the Standard Six instrument pack, but it is all the better for that, the fall down lighting is superb giving the metal panel a lovely (blue) glow. As the outside lighting fades away the panel shows off its wonderful detail. all the dials are superb, but the standout item is the Fuel Flow/Man Pressure gauge. It catches your eye when you power up or down, you use it effectively as well to regulate the power setting in cruise or for setting the power to climb or descend. The cabin is well appointed - but note the fuel tank switches between the seats. With all that power available you drain your tanks a lot quicker than with most General Aviation aircraft. Worse is that if you don't keep an eye on the gauges you can run a tank dry before switching over to the other side, and then you can then find yourself with an engine stuttering without any fuel - You watch those fuel gauges! The side windows are set very low and can be a problem when looking out to the side for an airport. You have to duck down to see out, but at low speed or on the ground the windows open with great Carenado detail. The outer lighting is very good, with the standard beacon, nav and the new v2 flashing strobes. There are two main lights in the nose for landing and taxi. Liveries There is one white (paint) default livery and five supplied liveries. Clockwise: White - Light Green - Electric Blue - Light Blue - (dark) Green - Red The Light Green is the livery I like the best, however there is a great add-on livery from Leen de Jager Menus Carenado supply two menu tabs on the lower left of your screen. Options (O menu) opens both the Pilot and Passenger doors and a “Baggage Door” on the left side of the Cessna. Other items on the options panel are: Instrument reflections, Window reflections and “Static” Elements. (chocks, engine covers and tags) Camera (C menu) is the standard Carenado viewpoints with adjustable zoom. Version 2 (v2.0) update This is the v2 aircraft and the main item to be noted is the updated SASL plugin - offical v2.0.1, it also covers 32-bit and 64-bit Mac, Windows, and Linux support. The Centurion II comes for both versions of X-Plane9 and X-Plane10, the lighting has been upgraded for both XP9 and XP10 in many areas like the lighting halos for nav and strobe lights which are now more visible under certain viewing angles. Landing lights now feature tightly-focused "glare" effect when viewed from the right angle and the Nav lights have been improved for a more realistic appearance. But more effects are available with the HDR XP10 version for spill lights, which illuminate the surroundings, coming from Nav and Strobe lights. And a lot of texture enhancements on liveries and panel instruments and text which will benefit people with low powered computers and low set texture settings. This gives you a high quality aircraft even if you don't own a very powerful machine. A lot of tweaking has gone on as well by Carenado, the v1 CT210M was hard to taxi as the power was on or off, mostly on. Now you have to apply the power to get the aircraft moving but you still have to find that sweet spot between the propeller biting the air and no pull at all, thankfully it is easy to do, and the taxiing is now very good. Sounds are very good in the full range and in 3d, but still inside the cabin they can be a bit monotonous over a long flight, the sounds do come from a real Centurion but they do still drone a little. The difference between v1 and v2 is significant. the aircraft is certainly a better machine on the ground, but the CT210M is excellent in the air. It does not hit your frame-rate with as much pain either. So this is a great upgrade. (a full upgrade list is noted below) Conclusions With the standards of aircraft quality rising, you are also given a huge amount of choice in what you buy and what you fly. Right from the moment the CT210M Centurion II was released it very quickly went to the top of my aircraft of choice to fly in General Aviation, I love this aircraft, the speed, the power and the quality. It gives back a feeling of a great aircraft that is packed with features. But overall it just great to fly and spend time with in the cockpit. The v2 upgrade fixes and also fine tunes this very good aircraft before - and turns it into this simply great aircraft now. Being a Carenado the quality is outstanding as you would expect in every area and the highlights are the panel lighting and livery details... but overall it doesn't get any better than this. Documentation Price US$29.95 For X-Plane 9.70 and X-Plane 10.22 (different versions are supplied for each simulator) The CT210M Centurion II is available now from the X-Plane .Org Store: Carenado CT210M Centurion II HD Series - v2.0 Developer Site: Carenado Review By Stephen Dutton Published 10th August 2013 Technical Requirements: Windows Vista or Windows 7 (32 or 64 bits) or MAC OS 10.6 (or higher) or Linux XPlane 9.6/9.7 or XPlane 10.11 (or higher – 64 bit compatible) Pentium 2 GHz – 4GB RAM/1GB VRAM 308mb available hard disk space/Download was 257mb Review System Specifications: Computer System: - 2.66 Ghz Intel Core i5 iMac 27” - 6 Gb 1067 Mhz DDR3 - ATI Radeon HD 4850 512mb Software: - Mac OS MountainLion 10.8.2 - X-Plane 10 Global ver 10.22 (final) - ExtremeSceneryMAXX Addons - Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle v2.0 Update list of changes: -32-bit and 64-bit Mac, Windows, and Linux support. -Updated SASL to official v2.0.1 release, which contains optimizations that benefit from Laminar's X-Plane 10.22 release. -Interior lighting optimized for X-Plane v9 and v10. -Overhauled lighting system. Lighting halos for nav and strobe lights are now more visible under certain viewing angles. -Landing light features tightly-focused "glare" effect when viewed from the right angle. -Nav lights have been improved for a more realistic appearance. -Improved ground handling -No longer has inverted fuel and oil systems. More realistic. -Optimized "options" menu, to use less memory. -Optimized "Cameras" menu to use less memory -Tweaked volume knob for engine sounds (Left "Vol" knob on audio panel) -Tweaked turning radius on ground to compensate for new v10 no-toe-brake-with-rudder setting. -Adjusted elevator trim characteristics -Adjusted trim time from centre to max for v10, as this setting, left un-addressed, will cause the same plane to take twice as long to trim. -Tweaked pilot head moevments -tweaked gauges, such as fuel and oil pressure, vacuum, etc. to conform to v10's new way of calculating "Nominal pressure/temperature" as opposed to "Max pressure/temperature". -Programmed default camera snap points for v10 (on top of existing ones via "Cameras" pop-up menu) 2 Different .acf files: one for v9 and one for v10. -v10 .acf features optimized objects. Interior/exterior shading is applied only where needed, saving resources. -v10 .acf has further optimizations to objects that don't need the background (clouds, skies) to be drawn through them, if they're not transparent, saving further resources. -v10 .acf also protects certain textures from resolution degradation at low rendering settings. This guarantees that the panel instruments and text are always crisp and clear, no matter what rendering settings are chosen for the sim. -v10 .acf is optimized to make use of HDR rendering, especially in terms of lighting. This includes spill lights, which illuminate the surroundings, coming from Nav and Strobe lights. -When HDR mode is turned off, care has been taken to optimize the appearance of the plane without the enhancement benefits of HDR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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