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  1. NEWS! - REP for Carenado PA31 Navajo by Simcoders Simcoders have released their next REP package for the Carenado PA31 Navajo. The idea of these Reality Expansion Pack REP packs are to bring a bit more of the everyday running of a GA light aircraft to life, and to also add in more functionality and extra features not found in the original package. Basically if you have used one REP pack then they are all the same with just the aircraft they are attached to in being different. The feature list included in the Navajo REP package is quite long and detailed... Features Code driven flight dynamics - Super smooth to fly, requires your attention all the time - Realistic takeoff, landing, cruise, and overall performance - Realistic roll speed at both high and low speeds - Realistic slow speed behavior Interactive Walkaround - Cockpit checks - Lights checks - Aileron, rudder, elevator, and flaps check - Tire check and choks removal - Tie-down removal - Pitot tube check - Engine cowl check Realistic onboard systems and procedures - Custom Kneeboard (in-sim) and PDF Normal and Emergency Checklists included - Custom Oxygen (O2) system - Custom vacuum system - Custom steering system Mass & Balance Tool - Load the airplane and check the C.G. and weight limits at takeoff and landing - The airplane behavior changes when the C.G. moves Complex Damages System - Triggered by the pilot actions - Based on real-world data - Target every system in the aircraft - Meant to teach how to correctly manage an airplane Simulation state saving - Every single switch and lever position is restored when you reload the aircraft - The battery may discharge if you leave it on and then close X-Plane - When X-Plane is launched, the engine and oil temperature are restored based on the time passed Economic System - Can be enabled/disabled on the fly - Earn virtual money when you fly - Use virtual money to buy fuel and do maintenance/repairs - Realistic fuel prices around the World - Fully compatible with FSEconomy - More info at https://www.simcoders.com/reality-expansion-pack/economy 100% Custom Piston Engine - The Lycoming TIO-540-A2C is modeled down to the smallest bolt and breathes air like a real engine - Realistic turbocharger behavior - Custom fuel pumps and fuel filter - Custom vacuum pumps - Realistic Oil System affected by Oil Viscosity. Choose the best oil grade for your kind of operation. - Spark plugs fouling. Change the spark plugs type in the maintenance report. - Working engine preheater - A custom algorithm simulates the fuel/air mixture and its combustion - Custom injection system simulation - It is possible to switch the default fuel injectors with balanced ones (provide better performance) - High fidelity power curve - Custom system failures - Realistic startup behavior and procedures - Automatic startup option for a quick start - Differencies in throttle, propeller, and mixture levers setting from left and right engine to achieve the same power make the simulation more realistic (engine differencies can be disabled in settings) Engine Preheater and Winterisation Kit - The engine may be warmed up upon start with the provided electrical heater - Once activated, the electrical heater runs even when you close the simulator Interactive towing - Push, pull and steer using the joystick - Towbar simulation Electrical & Avionics System - Realistic Battery behavior - The battery can be disconnected if the airplane is not used for some time - The avionics are damaged if on when the engine starts/shuts down Realistic Landing Gear - The landing gear is damaged by hard landings - The brakes and tires are damaged if not managed correctly Custom simulation of Hypoxia - Tunnel vision - Hard breathing Learn with the in-flight tips - A noninvasive tip with a suggestion about the conduct of the flight is shown when you are not flying the airplane properly - A noninvasive tip with a suggestion on how to recover the problem is shown when you damage the airplane Native Virtual Reality Support - Complete support of new X-Plane SDK 3.0 - Menu visible in VR - Windows visible in VR Developed with love - Coded by real pilots Automatic Updates - The airplane is constantly improved - Issues are quickly fixed Very easy on FPS - Written in C++ with no compromises Developed by Simcoders support forums for the REP PA31 Navajo Important: the Carenado PA31 NAVAJO HD SERIES XP11 is required for this add-on. It will not work on other aircraft Images are courtesy of Simcoders ________________________________________ The Reality Expansion Pack for Carenado PA31 Navajo by Simcoders is now available from the X-Plane.OrgStore!... Here: Reality Expansion Pack for Carenado PA31 Navajo Price is US$19.99 Requirements X-Plane 11 Important: the Carenado PA31 NAVAJO HD SERIES XP11 is required for this add-on. It will not work on other aircraft Current version: 4.6.1 (March 28th 2022) ________________ News by Stephen Dutton 29th March 2022 Copyright©2022: X-Plane Reviews Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Right Reserved.
  2. Aircraft Upgrade Review : SR22 GTSX Turbo HD Series XP11 by Carenado For decades the big three American general aviation manufacturers of Cessna, Piper and Beechcraft have dominated the American light aircraft industry. Their aircraft are very good, but in reality their designs and aircraft construction were born out of the 1950's and early Sixties, and in time they kept to keeping in to what they knew or to what they could sell in high numbers. This blinkered approach made the big three very reluctant to change or even to innovate. Like for Tesla in car manufacturing this then left a huge gap in the GA market for any enterprising designer to try something a little different and even to create a far more modern single-engine four-or-five-seat composite aircraft. This idea has been so highly successful in the fact that since it's first flight in November 2000, the Cirrus SR22 series has been the world's best-selling general aviation (GA) airplane every year since 2003. With 6,149 units delivered from 2001–19 alone, and in combination with the earlier SR20, there is a total of 7,645, SR aircraft produced and quickly making the SR22 among the most-produced aircraft of the 21st century, and is also the single most-produced GA aircraft made from composite materials and accounting for over 30% of the entire piston aircraft market. The big three has suddenly become the big four. Carenado SR22 GTSX Turbo This is not the first SR22 GTSX Turbo from Carenado. In fact this is an upgraded version of the aircraft that was released four years ago in March 2016, the review is here: Aircraft Review - Cirrus SR22 - GTSX Turbo G1000 HD Series by Carenado The aircraft itself back in 2016 was very good, but it was lumbered with the internally very poorly Carenado developed Garmin G1000 avionics system. It had many features, but the system was extremely very inefficient that translated into a painfully slow interaction with the avionics, in time Carenado would completely dump the idea when Laminar Research released their built own default Garmin G1000. The original SR22 from Carenado was under the HD (High-Definition) moniker. But this was still back in X-Plane10 and not with the more highly refined current Carenado and X-Plane11 dynamics. Here the SR22 is upgraded and you notice the dynamic differences immediately from the more slightly semi-gloss version back in 2016, detail is far significantly higher as well of what is essentially the same aircraft. It is amazing what faster computers and a more highly refined process can do to the same design, it just also highlights the extraordinary quality of the original modeling and textures. But make no mistake it is still exactly the same as the original in every area, It has just all been just better defined. Lovely wing doors are still well done, and give ample access to the cockpit when open. It feels far darker and more glossier in the cabin. Carenado cabins are always dark and foreboding anyway and there still isn't much lightness or brightness in here to cheer you up. Again the seating materials are exactly the same, but don't look so much under the newer high-powered gloss treatment. The instruments and panels are all angled and set out around the flying left seat pilot. The right hand seat pilot can fly the aircraft with a yoke and rudder set, but the instrument screen panel and the switchgear would then be all offset to them. Overall the aircraft has minimum switchgear and controls, just provided are the basics you simply require for flying the aircraft and nothing more. That does not mean the aircraft is not well equipped because it is, but unlike the older generations of aircraft then these modern versions have been refined to a higher easier flying level and one of the major attractions to modern pilots. Yoke or flying handles are unique, in their push/pull and twist actions, but they also clear a lot of space in front of the pilots. Here they are both beautifully rendered. Biggest change here is obviously the Perspective G1000 (which is now based on default G1000 of X-Plane)... gone is the slow and clumsy Careando G1000 to be replaced with the usual and now very familiar Laminar version. You also lose a lot of features noted in the earlier review but the speed and efficiency of the new displays more than makes up for that. Pop-ups are the standard Laminar G1000 PFD (Primary Flight Display) and MFD (Multi-Functional) display panels in a window format... ... retained though is the excellent ENG (Engine) mode screen. Note; the engine parameters viewed here is shown to be not running. Engine parameters covered are "Engine Power%", "Engine RPM", "Man In HG" (Manifold Pressure), "FFlow" (Fuel Flow), "Oil" Pressure and Temp. "Engine Temperatures" are covered in CHT ºF and EGT ºF. Anti-Ice Amount (in GAL) and Oxygen Pressure. Electrical output section covers both Current (A) and Bus Volts (V). The Fuel section displays "Fuel Qty" (in GAL) for both tanks, and fuel calculation data in "Used" - "Rem" (remaining), "Time Rem" and "Range" on the remaining amount of fuel in both tanks. I found the fuel data really helpful in planning and in flight on managing your range and fuel tank selection. Air data in altitude and OAT (outside Air Temp). Notes include that the COM1 & COM2 are sited on the PFD, but most frequencies are here noted on the MFD, including the same COM1 & COM2 Frequencies, your active GPS/NAV1/NAV2, GS (Ground Speed Knts), DTK (Direction degree), TRK (Track) and ETE (Estimated Time Enroute). Pressing the RED button mid panel will convert both displays to the "Backup" function or "Get Home" situation, in that both displays are exactly the same in showing both PFD tools and MFD Engine parameters. I have always been a big fan of the design of the centre console. Instead of the MFD knobs being on the actual display they are all set out here for a much more ease of use and access on the centre console. Three sections cover (top to Bottom) MFD controls, Input keyboard panel and lower the AP (Autopilot) panel. It was always a great setup for creating flightplans with ease... but on this release the selection knob actually doesn't work, so you can't input anything or even select a saved flightplan? Not very good Carenado... as it makes the flightplan feature in the MFD totally useless? Lower is first the standard COM Radio and a Bendix/King KR 87 ADF radio, bottom panel is an Oxygen panel and Flap selection in: P - 50% - 100% Directly in front of the pilot are three lower standby dial instruments in "Airspeed", "Artificial Horizon" and "Altitude". All backup dials are very clear and well presented and a clever sited position of clear use. Main switchgear panel covers the Ice Protection On-Off, MAX or NORM Ice setting, Pitot Heat, Exterior lighting (Nav - Strobe - Land). Three knobs on the far right adjust the panel and interior lighting. First knob adjusts the instrument lighting, then the red cowl lighting and the last right knob covers the overhead spotlights. Nice big throttle lever dominates the lower console in look and feel. This "Single Lever Throttle Control” automatically adjusts the propeller speed through the use of the throttle lever. There is no separately-controlled propeller lever on the aircraft. To the right is the red knob "Mixture" lever with "Rich" to "Lean" adjustment. You can switch to each fuel tank via the switch, but have to press the red "OFF" panels to turn it off. Very nice tank gauges are set out above and are very clear for use. Sets of fuse breakers are on the left inside of the centre console (non-active). Menus There are three menu tabs on the lower left side of the screen. (A) is the Autopilot panel, but this is a significantly reduced pop-up menu panel from the earlier version, the MFD controls and Input keyboard panel are now missing and in now leaving only the AP part of the panel visible. This is a huge loss because I used this pop-up a lot to programme or input the flightplan (the older extended panel version is shown on the right). Standard Carenado in the (C) or Views/Volume menu has the standard internal and external views plus three views for the Throttle and Switches and the Avionics, the volume slider is up/down on the side and point of view slider across the top. Lower tab is the (O) or Options tab that covers Window and instrument reflections, Static elements in mostly just tags and bollards. Pilot, Passenger and left side baggage door of which all doors can be separately opened and closed, both main doors can also be opened by the latches inside. Single pilot has again been replaced by the more realistic newer twin pilots, and they will also disappear when you use the static elements. Flying the SR22 Overall there is the feel that there is not much difference in performance between the earlier and this later X-Plane11 version of the SR22, but Careando have changed the engine dynamics for XP11 and the flight physics have also been updated and optimised for XP11 standards. The 310 hp (231 kW) Continental IO-550-N piston engine has a lot of power to climb up to the 25,000ft ceiling available. But with a rate of climb of only around 1000fpm (official is 1,250fpm) that is slow for such an altitude, however it is here the Turbo comes into its own and more importantly it is the extra turbo performance boost you need as you go higher. The aircraft's ceiling is 25,000 feet, but it's easy enough to estimate that at an average of close to 1,000 fpm for the entire climb would take between 25 and 30 minutes from sea level to FL 250. So you would never really do that height as you would waste too much performance just getting up there. Top speed in that upper thinner air is impressive at around 215knts but the average speed is usually flown around 12,000ft which is then set around 194knts in the cruise mode. Range is 1,049 nmi (1,207 mi; 1,943 km) with reserves at a setting of 65% power. Lighting The SR22's lighting was very nice, it still is to a point with the white overhead lighting,and also still that RED hue that is also available and both are adjustable... and note the modern feel to the Whiskey Compass. But the roof rear cabin lights now don't work (they were also + manipulator adjustable), so that earlier lovely light filled cabin feel is now gone and has been replaced with complete darkness? Externally the three LED landing lights have been upgraded and are better, the rest is basic navigation, strobe and rear facing white lighting. _________________________ A few notes on the SR22 XP11 on a flight from the Gold Coast (YBCG) to Brisbane (YBBN). The SR22 has a castor front wheel, so it is not steerable, well sort of. Like we found in the original review in to change direction on the ground you had to have a bit of speed up, or if not then the castoring front wheel will lock. So you are putting on a lot of power to move quickly forward and then quickly reducing the power when pointing in the right direction. It maybe realistic in to trying to match the real world free castor nose, but it is also difficult and not very realistic in the simulator... in the end your turns are more shonky than real. A more halfway approach would have made the turning action a little more realistic. I really like the Cirrus aircraft, it is the right size, the right power to go distances and a very modern aircraft... easy to fly as well. But with this Careando version you are not getting the features and depth it deserves in this upgrade, it is nice, it is easy, but you get the feeling of wanting more and not less which is fact of what you are actually getting for the same money.... dirty as well, notice the amount of carbon coming out of the exhaust. The bugs keep coming as well... the pop-up AP menu panel works fine, but the centre console AP panel has areas that don't work, like with the V/S (Vertical Speed) wheel? vFlyteAir's version of the SR20 that X-PlaneReviews reviewed here, is far better in most cases than this SR22 Carenado release, but the SR20 also has not had an update or upgrade since v2.6 and April 2018 but it is X-Plane v11.20 tested and out of it's original X-Plane10 release version. The famous Cirrus built in safety feature of a parachute called the "Cirrus Airframe Parachute System" in case the engine goes wonky or you forget to switch over the fuel tanks. It is set out on the roof and you can pull off the cover and pull the handle. Unlike the VflyteAir SR20 version were as the parachute does actually physically work... here you are just sent to the closest airport runway in an instant. The parachute system in real life has been used and deployed 79 times in carrying or saving 163 survivors. Sounds are really quite good and has the highly customised FMOD sound package, consistent and 180º dynamic. But there is an unusual high-pitched noise coming from the centre console (radio?) but in most cases it is hidden via the main engine sounds, but overall I found them all and the range very good. Flying into YBBN (Brisbane) RWY14 and you realise the SR22 is a nice general aviation machine to travel around in, simple enough for the budding new pilot, but deep enough for the professional as well. A nice approach speed full flap was around 80 knts with a slow throttle reduction down to 74 knts that allows a slow descent down to the runway... 71 knts is touchdown speed... stall speed is around 60 kn (69 mph, 110 km/h) flaps down. You can't run off the speed completely as you need some to keep that front castoring front wheel in vogue, so you tend to leave the runway quite fast, and then even speed down the taxiways and then taking corners as you go. A note the vFlyteAir SR20 is very much the same in the castor, but it will hold a wheel to turn and you can rotate on that to turn the aircraft... overall it is a requirement for a speedy taxi or moving quickly around on the ground. Librain The librain rain drop effects are also now active for the SR22, and very good they are too. The plugin is required. Liveries There is one blank and five liveries... four are exactly the same as the original, but one that was once a flat Grey is the same registration N6693C but is now a lovely chrome metal. _______________________ Summary The Carenado Cirrus SR22 Turbo was released released four years ago in X-Plane10, and this is the upgraded version for X-Plane11. The SR22 is light modern four-seater aircraft that is one of the most popular aircraft in production today, and to a point Cirrus has taken on and even beat the dominating big three general aviation manufacturers of Cessna, Piper and Beechcraft with a far more modern and composite aircraft. In reality this XP11 version of the Carenado SR22 is just a total revision of the earlier aircraft. The basics in the modeling and design are exactly the same, but refined with the newer XP11 dynamics and PBR textures (deeper colours and more gloss) and better sounds. Biggest change is the dumping of the original if highly featured Carenado Garmin G1000 avionics for the Laminar Research default G1000 system, but with the twist of the fully featured ENG (Engine) mode screen. The Carenado Garmin G1000 avionics was in reality a slow, heavy and clumsy package that had more bugs than a beehive, but it was highly featured as noted. The default G1000 by comparison is quite basic, but still light, familiar and easy to use. Release version of Carenado's SR22 is quite buggy and mostly related to the MFD (Multi-Functional Display) interface centre console. A lot of the buttons and switchgear don't work, and the flightplan can't be either accessed or even created?. Worse is with the removal of the same panel of MFD controls and Input keyboard panel are now also missing and in now leaving only the AP part of the panel visible in the menu so there is now no other options of input available. Internal lighting has been ruined as well with now no rear spot lights in the cabin either. The SR22 is also still extremely tricky to turn and taxi on the ground. This new XP11 release feels like a one step forward and two steps backwards from Carenado. Yes the bugs will be fixed up and that will make the aircraft easier to use overall, but a release in this condition with glaringly obvious issues is surprising for this developer, but overall the Cirrus SR22 is a nice aircraft and nice one to fly regularly, and overall this release feels like a version update more than an totally refined upgrade except for the PBR effects. __________________________________________________ Yes! the Cirrus SR22 - GTSX Turbo G1000 HD Series XP11 by Carenado is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : SR22 GTSX Turbo HD Series XP11 Price is US$34.95 Special Features Full interior and exterior PBR. 3D interior and exterior with MANY details. Rain effect support* (dynamic drops movements). * Requires downloading Librain plugin: Click Here Customized FMOD sounds. Carenado Perspective G1000 (based on default G1000 of X-Plane) Features Full VR compatible Specially designed engine dynamics for XP11. Flight physics optimized for XP11 standards. Physically Based Rendering materials and textures throughout. PBR materials authored with industry-standard software used by the film and gaming industries. Realistic behavior compared to the real airplane. Realistic weight and balance. Tested by several pilots for maximum accuracy. Requirements X-Plane 11 (Fully updated) Windows, Mac or Linux 4GB VRAM Minimum- 8GB+ VRAM Recommended Current and Review version: 1.1 (March 25th 2020) _____________________________________________________________________________________ Installation and documents: Download is 296.93mg and the aircraft is deposited in the "General Aviation" X-Plane folder at 880.30 mg. Installation key is required on start up and is supplied with the purchased download file. Librain (rain effects) plugin is required, get it here and install in your plugins folder: Click Here Documents supplied are: Carenado Copyright.pdf SR22T Reference.pdf SR22T Performance tables.pdf SR22T Emergency Procedures.pdf SR22T Normal Procedures.pdf Recommended settings XP11.pdf Carenado G1000 SR22T.pdf X-Plane G1000 Manual.pdf ______________________________________________________________________  Upgrade Review by Stephen Dutton  30th March 2020 Copyright©2020 : X-Plane Reviews   (Disclaimer. All images and text in this preview are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications:  Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 1TB SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.41 Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro US$69.90 v1.07 : LIbrain rain effects - Free Scenery or Aircraft -YBCG - Gold Coast Airport 1.0 by tdg (X-Plane.Org) - Free -YBBN - Brisbane Airport 1.0 by tdg (X-Plane.Org) - Free
  3. First Quick Impression : C90 GTX King Air HD Series XP11 by Carenado The Beechcraft C90 is the stalwart aircraft of the King Air series, certainly there is a few of them for X-Plane and even Laminar Research's default C90 King Air is a basic but always a nice flying machine, so why buy another one? Well Carenado have not one but now two Beechcraft C90's for X-Plane11, the standard version C90B, but now here is the GTX version. The GTX is a accumulating part of a three version lineup above the standard C90. The C90GT came with the PT6A-135A engines, 750 shp flat rated to 550 shp, for better climb and cruise performance, the C90GTi came with the "glass cockpit" Collins Proline 21 avionics suite and the GTX is the combination of both of those versions plus the winglets now added as factory-standard, and with the maximum Take-off Weight was increased to 10 485 lb (4756 kg) for better full-fuel payload flexibility. Carenado C90 GTX The C90 GTX is the executive version of the C90 range, more faster, more powerful, but carries less passengers in only six seats, plus two crew. Carenado modeling and quality abound, you expect the best and again you get that high quality detail here. Notice the lovely panel ripples and detailed riveting, best in the business and very authentic, the days of flat sided fuselages are now well gone. Engine cowlings with chrome inlet engine inlets and chrome spinners are are also excellent as is the double huge heated trumpet exhausts. Nice NACA Ducts and pressed metal louvre air-vents are also very good and are the C90's signature look. The GTX winglets are also well crafted, but the static wicks tend to droop and are static, remember how not long ago Carenado static wicks used to flicker in the airstream, well that sort of detail doesn't happen anymore. But the modeling is very good, note the rear lighting assembly, tail and elevator detailing and so overall this is a very nice C90 King Air. Cabin Executive also means corporate grey interiors and Carenado don't disappoint here, you get a lot of blacks and dark greys in the cabin. The teak wood highlights are very nice and contrast well with the beige upper cabin trim. Nice seating details include built in ashtrays, seatbelts and great leather textures. Cabin comes with twin animated pop-out tables to work out on your next business deal. Over all the cabin fit-out is very good, but a little dark inside. Cockpit The same theme follows through into the cockpit, dark colours with beige highlights. It is all very well done, with the usual gauges replaced here with the three display (Two PFD - Primary Flight Displays and one left central MFD - Multi-Function Display or NAV/MAP) of the Pro-Line 21 avionics system. The C90 XP11 version had a beige panel, so that tends to lighten up the instrument panel, but the all dark panel here does feel more authentic to a professional flying office environment, and it feels more modern as well, overall I like it. Highlights are the lit yokes, they look and feel the part, but you lose the auto-trim function on the left handle over the C90B version. The standard King Air twin fuel panel is the same, but both wall panel circuit breakers (fuses) are now colour coded, and they look very nice, but they are also static and don't work. Pro Line 21 Avionics Main attraction to the GTX is the Pro Line 21 avionics suite. This is the third aircraft from Carenado with the Pro Line 21 after the Falcon GX50 and the 390 Premier Jet, however the layout here is the same three panel display like in the 390 Premier. The PFD and MFD both pop-out on scalable windows (press the top of each panel to open). Operations are via the centre DCP (Display Control Panel). The PFD has the standard glass cockpit layout of Speed and Altitude strips, Artificial Horizon, Vertical Speed and Rate of Turn built into the upper section, lower section has a built in Navigation and Map and COM1/ATC/UTC/TAT/COM2 strip at the bottom. MFD has Engine readouts top. Middle section covers flightplan waypoints: Distance, Section times and Route times and set lower in the MFD it covers: GS (Ground Speed), TAS (True Air Speed), SAT (Actual Air Temperature) and ISA (International Standard Atmosphere). Basically it is a select and change menu system. Press the selection you want to change on the DCP and frame keys and then move the Menu setting knobs, then press the centre of the knob to activate your selection... Only difference between the PFD and MFD is the MFD has the PLAN mode (arrowed) that works with the FMS to show you your flightplan, but the aircraft position (Aircraft Symbol) is fixed on the waypoint that you have selected, rather than showing you were you actually are on the flightplan? DCP gives you three other selections with REF (Speed References) with three pages with the third page used for settings... Second selection is the "NAV/BRG" button that will bring up the NAV SOURCE (FMS1/VOR1/VOR2) and Background (BGD) pointers for FMS/VOR1/ADF1 top and FMS1/VOR2 lower, again just select the required selection button and the select blue box band.... adjustment is again via the Menu knob. Pressing the RADAR button will bring up the TERR/RDR setting the same as in the menu option. Top of the MFD is the engine readouts, with ITT (Interstage Turbine Temperature) per engine and fuel temp, PROP, TQR (Torque), FF (Fuel Flow), (Fuel) Pressure, Oil Temp cº. The readout shows you your torque position and a nice rotation animation. The Pro Line 21 avionic panels all work in with the "Flight Guidance Panel (FGP) or autopilot... that is also a pop-out adjustable menu panel. FGP is quite comprehensive for a big twin aircraft with: FD (Flight Directors), CRS (Course) 1 & 2, VS (Vertical Speed), VNAV, FLC (Flight Change), NAV, 1/2 Bank, HDG (Heading), APPR (Approach), ALT (Altitude) YD (Yaw Damper), CPL and AP (Autopilot)... with full YD/AP DISC (Disconnect). A note on the 1/2 Bank, it works as it should, but you don't get any visual clues it is on or off in the PFD, ditto the YD indicator. Collins radio selector is very nice. Two pages with Com1/NAV1/ATC/ADF1 on the first page and COM2/NAV2/ADF2 second page. ___________________________ C90 GTX in the air Any King Air is a nice aircraft to fly, the C90 is the most basic of the series and you can't go past that Carenado feel and quality. The C90 office is a nice place to be, with a great set of testable large panel of annunciator lights. Laminar Research's basic FMS used is okay, but not very authentic or very versatile as an FMC, I found that there is a requirement to start this C90 up from only the desktop, otherwise the bugs creep in like with no route line on the Pro Line 21? the lighting behaves badly as well and the sound goes plain weird, sounds are good but only average. Externally the C90 sounds good, but if you zoom in closer to the aircraft the change in range is not great, and sometimes you get odd sounds and even clicks and pops, and sounds are missing in parts of the cabin as well... in some angles you feel you are watching the start of the Alien movie with it's spooky space sounds... it is all very odd. .... blinds are animated, but restrictive in their movement and are not visible externally (unlike on the C90B)? The lighting is odd as well. King Airs have that very comprehensive roof lighting panel, but a lot of the knobs don't seem to work? It looks very nice though with the glowing blue drop down and the yoke notepad lighting... .... each side of the instrument panel and side panels can be faded in or out to your taste and the roof overhead panel is adjustable as well, but the main cabin downlight ((Flood) is on but doesn't shine anywhere? Cabin is now single selection spotlights over the seats and tables... remember on the older C90B from Carenado, then all the individual spotlights could be switched on/off but were also adjustable to shine them in the direction you wanted too? You seem to be getting far less for more money in terms of features in the GTX... Externally the aircraft lighting is very poor? Main front strut Taxi and Landing lights don't work, wingtip recognition lights are extremely weak as it the Ice lighting and the barely visible tail light? Navigation, Strobe and beacon lighting is fine. You do get some very nice vortice effects off the wings and off the top sides of the fuselage, and these effects are in addition to the nice heat engine outputs. You have with the GTX a maximum cruise speed 274 kts over the 266 kts of the C90B and a max altitude 30,000 ft, the range is 903 nm, so the GTX is 8 kts faster but the range is slightly down than with the C90B (940 nm). Flap selections cover three positions UP (Flap) - APPROACH - DOWN, Approach speed is around 130 knts, and fully down is 95 knts, stall is around 83 knts. Note the ILS alignment option on the backup Artificial Horizon mid-panel. I found a nice descent speed of around 90 knts, and the aircraft very stable in that phase... ... with around 86 knts on touch down. Beta reverse works well and is very powerful, but I needed the "Hold Thrust Reverse at Max" setting to make it work correctly under my joystick trigger. Sounds are again patchy, the reverser sounds over-ride the normal sounds and it feels odd, strange as Carenado are usually very good at getting these transition sounds correct. Menu There are the usual Carenado three tabs in the left side down corner. The three tabs are noted as: A ) is for the lovely authentic Collins Proline 21 FGP pop-up Autopilot panel, that is quite screen filling large but can thankfully be moved and scaled to a smaller size. C ) Is the standard Carenado ten preselected Views, Field of View and Volume panel. And O ) is the Options panel.  Options include Window and Instrument reflections. The static elements provided here are still very basic with only two cones, wheel chocks and flag/pitot covers and some nice engine inlet covers, but you can only have all or nothing. The highly realistic pilot and co-pilot animated pilots in flight uniforms do disappear when you activate the static elements. Other menu items include left and right opening twin engine access doors (one per engine) and left side main entrance door... overall the menu and selections are the same set up as the Carenado C90B. The livery Selector is now on the options panel than from usually the Carenado tab. Liveries There is one blank and Five liveries with the C90 GTX, four are all U.S. Registered and a lone German registration. ______________________________ Summary This is the GTX version of the King Air C90 series. Over the standard C90 aircraft the GTX has the upgraded PT6A-135A 750 shp engines, Pro Line 21 Avionics and the factory winglets, the layout is also executive class in detailing and trim. The usual Carenado modeling and detail abounds here, and yes this is a very nice aircraft. It flies very well and looks very good as well. Fit-out includes all the GTX features including the Pro Line 21 avionics, more powerful engines and the winglets. Cabin is created in a corporate design of a lot of blacks and greys, with a beige trim, all very nice. The Pro Line 21 is very good with a lot of menu options, but it is not study grade in depth and detail, awkward knob controls also creates mis-steps in tuning the Pro Line in detail. Obviously converted from the Carenado C90B XP11 version, but what you get here is really the stripped out version? Lighting is downgraded, sounds are badly managed and there is a load of bugs from the poor external lighting, internal lighting detail, sounds, FMS routing, and considering Carenado had their excellent C90B as a base it all feels quite buggy to fly and use, but an update should fix up all the bugs. Menus are as noted on other recent Carenado reviews are now feeling limited and quite basic. If you already have the Carenado C90B you would see the differences between what is basically the same aircraft. Yes I like the GTX, it is great with the Pro Line 21 avionics and who doesn't love more power, but overall the C90 GTX is not the best Carenado they can do, worthy, but not excellent. _______________________________ The C90 GTX King Air HD Series XP11 by Carenado is now available from the X-Plane.Org Store, and is also available from Carenado directly: C90 GTX King Air HD Series XP11 Priced at US$37.95 Special Features Full interior and exterior PBR 3D interior and exterior with MANY details Rain effect support* (with Librain Plugin) Customized FMOD sounds Carenado Proline 21 RealityXP GTN750 support (sold separately) Features Full VR compatible Specially designed engine dynamics for XP11. Flight physics optimized for XP11 standards. Physically Based Rendering materials and textures throughout. PBR materials authored with industry-standard software used by the film and gaming industries. Realistic behavior compared to the real airplane. Realistic weight and balance. Tested by several pilots for maximum accuracy. Included in the package 5 HD liveries +1 HD Blank livery C90 GTX Normal Procedures PDF C90 GTX Emergency Procedures PDF. C90 GTX Performance tables PDF C90 GTX Limitations PDF Carenado Proline21 PDF Carenado RTU PDF Flight Guidance Systems PDF Recommended Settings XPLANE 11 PDF Requirements Windows XP – Vista – 7 -10 or MAC OS 10.10 (or higher) or Linux X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 340 MB Current version and Review version : 1.1 (February 27th 2020) Installation and documents: Download for the C90 GTX King Air HD Series XP11 is 340mb and the unzipped file is deposited in the aircraft "General Aviation" X-Plane Aircraft folder at 429.70 mb. Download for the required LIbrain rain effect plugin (add into the aircraft's plugin folder) Documentation: Huge amount of documentation, with ProLine21 introduction, Laminar FMS manual, Performance and reference tables. Carenado Copyright.pdf Flight Guidance System.pdf Carenado C90_GTX_King_Air Normal Procedures.pdf Carenado C90_GTX_King_Air Limitations.pdf Carenado Proline 21.pdf Carenado C90_GTX_King _Air Emergency Procedures.pdf Carenado C90_GTX_King_Air Performance tables .pdf X-Plane FMS Manual.pdf Carenado RTU Manual.pdf Recommended settings XP11.pdf ______________________________________________________________________  First Quick Impression Review by Stephen Dutton  6th March 2020 Copyright©2020 : X-Plane Reviews   (Disclaimer. All images and text in this preview are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications:  Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 1TB SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.41 Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro US$69.90 v1.07 : LIbrain rain effects - Free Scenery or Aircraft - KDAB - Daytona Beach International by Aerosoft (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$28.99 
  4. Aircraft Review : Cessna 208 Grand Caravan EX XP11 by Carenado When Carenado first appeared in releasing aircraft for the X-Plane simulator, we were obviously very excited. Because for the first time X-Plane had access to not only one of the very top tier of FSX developers, but also their experience, quality and features of which where at the time a huge step forward for the simulator. Those first few releases however were from Carenado's back catalogue, and although good (compared to what we had at the time) they were still a little dated with their heavy (older) graphic textures. It was however in Mid-2012 that things really changed with Carenado releasing the C208B Caravan. Not only was the C208B a sensational aircraft, multi-usable but also it was a more modern version of currently released aircraft. The results of course speak for themselves as the Caravan was a sales success and not only cemented Carenado as an X-Plane developer per excellence, but also provided the way in sales for Carenado to see the results of creating aircraft for the X-Plane platform was actually a profitable exercise, the rest as they say has been one of the greatest success on both the developer and user sides in the simulator's history with a current number of around 53 aircraft in being released for the platform. Carenado followed the initial release of the Caravan with an add-on to create a "Super Cargomaster" version, but in the FSX catalogue there was also an "Executive" version, but that layout was never over the years released for X-Plane, why is one of the biggest mysteries, because if you already had one of the most successful aircraft releases, then why not follow them on with more (profitable) versions? Part of the long deferral could be put down to Carenado not having a decent G1000 avionics package of which FSX had, but X-Plane at the time didn't. A project to create a G1000 avionics system system resulted in a poorly written and framerate crushing package that was neither very good or even usable. But when Laminar Research released their own X-Plane default G1000 package for X-Plane11 then the chances of releasing the "Executive" variant was always going to be resurrected, and finally here it is. Cessna 208 Grand Caravan EX XP11 Outwardly you would be very hard pressed to find any difference between the latest updated Caravan HD XP11 series, certainly externally. The excellent hi-res textures, incredible glass (shape, reflections) metal detailing (note that amazing exhaust and nose spinner) and every quality detail is still all here and they are excellent. Menus Carenado provides you with their usual three tabbed menus on the left lower screen that can be scrollable hidden. A ) is for the pop-up window of a Garmin G3X Hybrid Autopilot which can be scaled for size. C ) Is the standard Carenado ten preselected Views, Field of View and Volume panel. And O ) is the Options panel. Options include the usual Window and Instrument reflections. The Static elements provided here are still quite basic with only two cones, wheel chocks and front flag pitots, engine inlet covers and tail support. Doors opening include rear passenger door and separate front nose baggage door, and there is also the choice of changing the liveries without going to the main X-Plane menu. The original Caravan had the lower "Cargo Pod" and it featured "Opening Doors", but the EX version also has the extra feature of a Liquid Ice (storage) Protection Tank. I usually fly clean, or without the extra drag (which is well modeled) of the bulky cargo pod, but many will like it. The now familiar twin highly realistic pilots do also disappear when you activate the static elements. As noted frequently now, I find this old fashioned Carenado menu very restricting, it is still an all or nothing approach, and when parking I need the chocks, but not the engine or pitot covers, and a more separate selection with a "Weight and Balance" feature are now the normal rather than these old fashioned basic element sets. The cabin layout was always going to be the main differential from the utility Caravan of which I really like. Two forward, four seats in a club layout and a tight right jump-seat at the rear gives you a seven passenger seating layout... ... all in leather and wood trim of course, it is all very well done, but feels slightly dated in the texture detail, Carenado have done better, so these chairs must have come from the FSX version. Twin-tables are nicely animated, but the small video screens are inert and blank. You do feel for the poor soul in the tight jumpseat, it looks uncomfortable, and the panel makes it look like a confession box. Cockpit At first glance it looks the same as usual from the front chairs I have spent countless hours flying the C208B... but obviously it is a very different avionics layout. The Garmin G1000 avionics pack in the standard two left and right PFD (Primary Flight Display) and the single central MFD (Multi-Functional Display). The white panel background is gone to replaced by a boring grey, I loved the white modern panel look, but there you go. There is a nice Garmin logo detail on power up... .... and the only significant panel changes are the lower backup instruments to cover Airspeed, Artificial Horizon and Altimeter, a torque dial FT-LB. the instrument and cockpit/cabin lighting knobs has been moved from the left panel to the lower centre panel (the older lighting knobs didn't actually work very well either) All the G1000 panels pop-out as windows (resizing can be fiddly), but you can go as small or large as you wish... the larger size display is very good for setting up your route.... .... but I found the knobs (manipulators) on the pop-out didn't work, so the adjustments still had to be done with the knobs on the main panel display (arrowed). This is the standard default G1000 system with Standard speed and altitude ribbons with built in vertical speed are really good with the rate of turn indicator and all set within the huge Artificial Horizon with built in FD (Flight Director) pointers, as are the radio and autopilot settings in the top banner. Insert (MAP) is switchable and with a good range, but I rarely us it. All lower keys access ALERTS, NRST, TMR/REF (Timer) and of course the Wind strength and direction with comes with three settings, and the same three switchable DME/GPS/VOR1/2 backgrounds with all their points shown are on the heading rose dial. I earlier found these menu driven systems quite confusing, but is now far more used to them, but however at times you can still get lost in overriding key settings. Central MFD has a left side system panel that covers: Engine readout Torque, ITT (Interstage Turbine Temperature ), Prop RPM, Oil Pressure and Temp, Fuel quantity is for both tanks, RPMFuel Flow PPH (pounds per hour), Electrical Bus Volts and Battery amps. A-Ice supply in GAL and the Flap and Elevator position is noted on the right. System switch will give you more data to cover including: Fuel Calculations to show Fuel Flow GPH, GAL USED, GAL REM (Remain) and can be reset, and lower is a full set of Electrical Gen Amps, Alt Amps, Battery amps and Bus Volts. The flightplan view can also be switched from WIDE to NARROW to your preferences There is a lot of depth presented here in these avionic tools, but you will need to read the supplied Laminar Research G1000 manual that comes with the package to get the full total use out of these avionics. The Radio panel is as usual selections set between the displays on the left, but the usual G1000 autopilot panel is missing. The Executive has however a separate Garmin G3X Autopilot panel center top of the MFD. Flying the Executive Starting the Caravan with its PT6A-42 (uprated from to 675shp to 867shp in the Executive) is still an event, you press the start switch and watch the ITT pressures build until the starter kicks in with a whine. Full Customised 180º FMOD sounds are as brilliant as they ever were, with depth and detail that you expect from the Caravan. I am fully tanked to the brim, with a full 285.40 kgs per tank with a total 570 kgs and a 3874kgs in full fuel load and gross weight (Max weight is only 3995kg) so I am heavy for the flight from Brisbane (YBBN) to Hervey Bay (YHBA) a distance of 138nm. Alert box or the Central Annunciator System (CAS) will tell you what items are normal or need attention, but without a panel manual from Carenado, it is hard to work out which switch is which... I never did find the De-Ice switch or the Alt switch (which was I think correctly set) but the CAS alerts continued? These annoyances were on the original Caravan as well, so we just sort of got used to them, internally it very similar to taxi. I set the flaps to 15º because of the heavy fuel and passenger weight, but the setting allowed the Ex Caravan to pitch itself into the air at only around 70knts, so from then on I never set a flap setting for take off and it felt more realistic at around 110knts... .... Obviously I retracted the flaps as soon as I had a level flying aircraft, but I was surprised on how much pitch (get the damn nose down!) trim I needed to control the aircraft in a level flight. The Ex Caravan has been flown and assessed by real Caravan pilots, but it feels basically the same aircraft as the original version to me in feel and operations but you do have more power available and it is noticeable, and it also confers to the current X-Plane11 dynamics.... maximum climb rate is set at 1,330 fpm (405 mpm) The Caravan however has always been a spectacular, feely aircraft to fly... that is why we love it so much. You can hide the yokes, but as they are set very low on the panel there is no need to vanish them unless you want access to the lighting panel. Menu driven interfaces can be messy things with wrong branches to nowhere and sometimes resetting flightplans is a messy operation, certainly when you need the pop-out and only the panel adjustment version works... the text is too small to read, so you use a combination of both the pop-out and the panel knobs to reset a route, but it is hard work to do while flying the aircraft... ... then to activate the flightplan was even more palaver, with getting the route activated, OBS set and correct CDI aligned, it should work first time, but the messy approach can make it hard to activate your route... I recommend to know your way around the menu maze and the G1000 procedures to do an action before you do some serious flying, once the procedures are noted (through the maze) it does get easier with use. The Garmin G3X Hybrid Autopilot is with the top row of buttons in normal view hidden from your finger operation (you can push them not so realistically through the glareshield) so the pop-out panel is usually required... .... it is a hybid panel because on the real G3X there are no course knobs on each end of the panel, but I would rather have the course adjustment than realism, and a few quirks on the pop-out are for one the bank (limit) button doesn't show if it is on or off, so the only way to check is to use it and see if the bank angle changes, another annoyance is the VS (Vertical Speed) roll works only on large increments (around 150 ft) in adjustment, so the arrows (50ft) adjustment on the panel version is a better tool to adjust your VS angle. So overall you always focus on the panel versions of any adjustments than the pop-out panels for the finer movements. The Caravan always had that cab-forward in the windscreen position, and one position I really like... ... the executive lounge in the cabin, it is a very nice place to be, the windows are large for great external viewing of which the Caravan excels. Sounds as noted are very good, but there are again a few quirks... adjusting the external (very loud) and internal (too low) sounds with the sound menu has no effect? and internally in the cabin some areas (mostly to the left side) the sounds disappear. Settle in and it is very nice place to fly up here in the Executive, you can go as high as 25,000 ft (7,620 m) (oxygen remember), a maximum cruise speed 195 ktas (361 km/h) and a range of 964 nm (1,785 km). There is a significant difference in performance if you have the cargo pod attached, and Carenado provide a full set of performance tables to cover the differences. Approaching Hervey Bay (HBA) it was getting into the latter part of the day, the feeling and aircraft were wonderful. Note the excellent "Narrow" view Flightplan setting. Coming into YHBA on RWY 11 in the late day is a tricky business, as the low summer sun is directly in your eyes! Flaps are two stage in 15º and 30º, and they come in with quite a kick unless you get the speed right (yes you will still float). 80knts (even a bit less) for 15º and 68knts for 30º, today I want a slow approach because of the bright sunlight to find the runway as there are no aids at HBA. You could use the animated blinds, but I found them too dark and they blacked out too much of the approach? So you just have to remember your instincts, plus I know HBA quite well. Finally I get an angle on YHBA's RWY 11... final approach speed is around 63knts to 60knts depending if you want to flare or descend, stall is 55knts. I find I use a lot of rudder movement on approaches, but otherwise just use a slight flare and your down... .... you still have to sort of thrust up the power and get a bit of a run to make the steering turn for you, if not the aircraft won't turn around... .... and you need to keep that power while turning until you are facing the other direction, then lose it again as quickly, it becomes a learned trick. The Caravan in analog or G1000 avionics is still a great aircraft, all you want to do is refill with fuel, and just return to your original departure airport again. Lighting The Executive's lighting is average, basically it just on or off even with six adjusters There are two adjusters for the text and line highlights and one for the backup instruments, but the actual G1000 displays are just bright and fixed... There is some nice centre console and side console lighting, but the pilot and co-pilot dome lighting is full on or dark, even when using an adjuster knob? Rear cabin is the same with five spot lights on each seat.. again on or off, gone are the days of flexible animated moveable spot lighting and individual light switches... and missing on an Executive interior as well? External is fine with the basics. Twin taxi and landing lights in the end leading edge are LED, strobe (not halogen), navigation and tail beacon... ... there is however twin down service lights under the forward inner wing, which look great at night (arrowed). The Executive also comes with the excellent Librain (rain) plugin for realistic rain effects, really good here and it works on both the cockpit and cabin windows. Liveries One blank and five liveries are all American registered, and all workman like, they are all not particularly exciting either, you don't get say the exciting GoTropical livery like you had with the original Caravan version. __________________________ Summary The release of the Cessna C208B Caravan cemented and gave Carenado a platform for success in the X-Plane simulator. It was a brilliant and a high quality aircraft for it's time in mid-2012, it was followed by a Super CargoMaster variant that only added in to the flexibility and experience of flying a very unique utility aircraft. Carenado also released later an Executive version, but only for FSX as that platform only had access to the G1000 avionics suite. So with the release of Laminar Research's default G1000 system, Carenado has finally after six years released the Executive aircraft for X-Plane, with the same seven seater club seat arrangement and that G1000 avionics suite. Over the years the original Caravan has had some significant upgrades, not only for the different X-Plane versions, but also for the updated X-Plane dynamics and features, it is very good, as it usually is by Carenado, but the years have not been totally kind to the aircraft either and as updated as it is, it now has a few gremlins and quirks that have crept in. This release of the "Executive" version haven't so much updated the aircraft either, it is really the original Executive with the latest X-Plane updates and in X-Plane11 performance, so yes it is very good, certainly with the default Laminar Research G1000 system, but those gripes are still there, but the Executive version also brings along some of it's own... the manipulators on the pop-out panels don't work, and the internal lighting is a backward step with no adjustment, limited liveries, manual and average menus. Note the G1000 needs some study and practice before use to get the very best out of the system, as a lot of the great features are hidden behind menus. Don't get me wrong as the Caravan C208B in any variant is an excellent simulation and well worth the purchase. Carenado deliver great quality, high detailed modeling and with this version the higher performance with a great value price, you won't certainly be disappointed with any Caravan purchase and in context it is a brilliant aircraft to fly. Still a highly recommended purchase. _____________________________________________________________________________________ The Cessna 208 Grand Caravan EX XP11 by Carenado is NOW available! at the X-Plane.OrgStore and directly from Carenado C208B Grand Caravan EX G1000 Price is US$34.95 Notes: For WINDOWS users: Please ensure that you have all the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables downloaded and installed (click here) Features More powerful engine of 867HP G1000 GPS cockpit Special Features Full interior and exterior PBR 3D interior and exterior with MANY details Rain effect support* (dynamic drops movements with Librain ) Options of cargo pod and liquid ice protection tank Customized FMOD sounds Customized X-Plane default G1000 Customized CAS system Default G1000 autopilot Features Full VR compatible Specially designed engine dynamics for X-Plane 11 Flight physics optimized for X-Plane 11 standards Physically Based Rendering materials and textures throughout PBR materials authored with industry-standard software used by the film and gaming industries Realistic behavior compared to the real airplane. Realistic weight and balance. Tested by several pilots for maximum accuracy Included in the package: 5 HD liveries + 1 HD blank texture C208B EX G1000 Normal Procedures PDF. Emergency Procedures PDF C208B EX G1000 Performance tables PDF. C208B EX G1000 Reference PDF Recommended Settings X-PLANE 11 PDF Requirements: X-Plane 11 (fully updated) Windows, Mac or Linux 4Gb VRAM Minimum - 8Gb+ VRAM Recommended Current and Review version : 1.1 (Dec 26th 2019) Download Size: 360 Mb Installation and documents: Download for theCessna 208 Grand Caravan EX XP11 is 360.20mg and the unzipped 447.20mb file is deposited in the "General Aviation" X-Plane folder with this aircraft version X-Plane11 only. Documents C208 Grand Caravan EX Normal Procedures.pdf C208 Grand Caravan EX Emergency Procedures.pdf Recommended settings XP11.pdf C208 Grand Caravan EX Performance Tables.pdf X-Plane G1000 Manual.pdf Carenado Copyright.pdf ______________________________________________________________________  Review by Stephen Dutton 7th January 2020 Copyright©2020: X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 1Tbgb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.40 Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro v1.13 US$69.90 : WorldTraffic 3.0 Plugin - US$29.95 Scenery or Aircraft YBBN - Brisbane International by tdg (X-Plane.Org) - Free - ysfsim's WT3 ground routes for YBBN are here YHBA - Hervey Bay - VOZ by Barry Roberts (X-Plane.Org) - Free
  5. News! - Released! : CT182T Skylane G1000 by Carenado Carenado have released the X-Plane11 version of the CT182T Skylane G1000. It is really hard not to be confused with their earlier Cessna release of the C172 Skyhawk G1000 in March 2019. Visually and with the same G1000 avionics install they could be noted as very much the same aircraft. The Skylane is a four-seat light aircraft with fixed landing gear, powered by a fuel-injected 230 hp (172 kW) Lycoming IO-540-AB1A5 piston engine, gross weight of 3,100 lb (1,406 kg) for take-off and 2,950 lb (1,338 kg) for landing. It was certified on 23 February 2001 and, as of July 2015, it is the only C182 variant now in production. The earlier Skyhawk has only a Lycoming O-320-D2J (160 hp (119 kW) engine and a top speed of 125 kn (143 mph, 231 km/h), so this newer Skylane however will propel you at 150 kn (170 mph, 280 km/h)... so what you are buying here over the Skyhawk is speed, and lots of it. Special Features of this totally upgraded XP11 version include NEW Full interior and exterior PBR (Redone completely), NEW 3D interior and exterior with MANY details, NEW customized FMOD sounds and the Laminar Research Customized X-Plane default G1000. Other Features Include: Full VR compatible Specially designed engine dynamics for XP11. Flight physics optimized for XP11 standards. Physically Based Rendering materials and textures throughout. PBR materials authored with industry-standard software used by the film and gaming industries. Realistic behavior compared to the real airplane. Realistic weight and balance. Tested by several pilots for maximum accuracy. Recommended System Requirements Windows XP – Vista – 7 -10 or MAC OS 10.10 (or higher) or Linux X-Plane 11 CPU: Intel Core i5 6600K at 3.5 ghz or faster. Memory: 16-24 GB RAM or more. Video Card: a DirectX 12-capable video card from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel with at least 4 GB VRAM (GeForce GTX 1070 or better or similar from AMD) 310MB available hard disk space Included in the package 5 HD liveries. 1 HD blank texture. CT182T G1000 Normal Procedures PDF. CT182T G1000 Emergency Procedures PDF. CT182T G1000 Performance tables PDF. CT182T G1000 Reference PDF. KAP140 Autopilot PDF. Recommended Settings XPLANE 11 PDF. If you have read the X-PlaneReviews review of the Cessna 172SP SkyHawk XP11 by Carenado Then you would know I absolutely loved this little aircraft, it was a gem, so I am very curious on how this more powerful C182T Skylane will compare... ________________________________________ Priced at US$34.95 the CT182T Skylane G1000 is now available from Carenado Now Available here from Carenado Images and details are courtesy of Carenado ________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 13th October 2019 Copyright©2019: X-Plane Reviews
  6. News! - More Images : Fokker 50 by Carenado Ohhhh, it is starting to get now very exciting now as Carenado has put out more images on Carenado's facebook page of their forthcoming Fokker 50 to X-Plane11, and the aircraft is now labeled as "COMING VERY SOON!!" aggghh I can't wait... The original set of released images are also shown below... Still feature details have yet been released, but the FSX/P3D version does have Flight1 GTN 750* integration so I would expect that, price on the FSX/P3D version is US$44.95 and that feels about right for X-Plane. The F50 was the refinement of and the successor to the highly successful Fokker F27 Friendship and 213 aircraft were manufactured between 1985 and 1997.... the aircraft is still in service with a few airlines around the world, and also soon in X-Plane11. Images are courtesy of Carenado Announcement via Carenado's Facebook page ________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutto 19th August 2019 Copyright©2019: X-Plane Reviews
  7. Aircraft Plugin Review : REP for Carenado PC-12 XP11 by SimCoders Simcoders have changed their focus back now to Carenado aircraft for their next REP or Reality Expansion Pack, this is the Pilatus PC-12 in it's XP11 guise... and a very nice choice it is. Powered by the powerful single Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turboprop engine (the PT6A-67B, 1200 shp), and the PC12 is certified for single-pilot IFR operations, and a great aircraft to use as a base for the expansion pack. A full review of the XP11 version of the Carenado PC-12 is here: Aircraft Review : Pilatus PC12 HD Series XP11 by Carenado SimCoders REP - Reality Expansion Packs The idea of these packs are to bring a bit more of the everyday running of a GA light aircraft to life. Basically if you have used one REP pack then they are all the same with just the aircraft they are attached to different. Simcoders have an installation notice in the package, to read the manual? In reality it is not hard to install, one folder called "REP" is installed into the aircraft's Plugins folder (not the X-Plane/resources/plugin folder) and the other files are just positioned in the aircraft's root or main folder. The REP plugin does however still show in the main X-Plane/Plugin menu when you drop it down from the header bar... and asks you to "Enable Package". This "Enable" is really an authorisation process and the licence key provided with your download is inserted into the pop-up panel and you then activate (internet connection is required) the plugin via the "Ok" key. When verified then the pop-up panel will note for you top reload the aircraft. I will always note to do a complete desktop start of X-Plane in these sort of aircraft restarts, this makes sure the full systems are reloaded (inline) correctly. When activated the REP menu then changes to a different menu format and you now have twelve separate items in: Settings Wear out to Check Fuel Price at Airport Show Checklists Show weight & balance Toggle walkaround mode Toggle tow mode Show maintenance report Engine autostart toggle static elements disable package About I have coloured the sections so you can note the different area separations because I am not going to go down the list in order. About: They like themselves do SimCoders.... Disable Package: The "Disable Package" option allows you to uninstall the REP package on the PC-12. Settings: REP "Settings" shows all your options available on the PC-12 There has been a lot of changes since the earlier REP packages and this shows here in the settings menu which is different from the earlier version but easier to use. In the earlier settings panel there was only six settings were as now there are twelve settings (up from the usual 3) that you can choose from: Enable the plane damages* Show Failure messages* Show tips Show side menu on mouse hover only Save and restore aircraft status between (flying) sessions Save and restore the windows (sic) positions between sessions Enable hypoxia effect (blackout) Roll axis drives ground steering Use US Customary* (originally noted as "use imperial or metric units") Wind sound level 0-100 Advanced Settings Use advanced steering Smooth brakes Use Carenado panel to control the static elements Tab Menu: There are six tabs to use on the left side of your screen and they match the same menu selections on the drop down menu. The six tabs to use on the left side of your screen, you can have then slightly present, or hide them completely with the settings option. And they are in order: Kneeboard Mass & Balance Walkaround Tow Maintenance Report Automatic Engine Start Kneeboard The "Kneeboard" has three pages of references: Normal Operations, Emergency Procedures and (Speed v) References. The kneeboard pop-up does have a quirk in annoyingly popping up all the time when you press a tab on other menu items, once or twice is fine, but then it gets constantly annoying coming up in your face. Mass & Balance The aircraft setup menu is very good. You have "Load Stations" for pilot & passenger weights, baggage weights and fuel weight (Fill) and all the settings are reflected on a graph of Mass and C.G. (Centre of Gravity). Loading the aircraft is quite easy with the panel filled in, when done you just press the "Apply" button to lock the settings in. You get a "Landing C.G. prediction in flight time and fuel flow and an aircraft summary of your weights in Empty, Payload, Fuel, Takeoff, Minimum Takeoff and Takeoff Centre of Gravity arm (which I think is runway length aim?). You can select from either kgs to lbs on the lower left tab. "Fill Tanks" will fill both fuel tanks to full, but here with the full tanks it puts me over the aircraft's weight limits and hence the red warning. Walkaround The "Walkaround" feature is very good and to a point the heart of the REP package. There are actually three walkaround modes... one for "Lights Check" and one for "Pre-Flight" and another for the later "PostFlight", but to the usual users of REP packages you will notice the walkaround aircraft diagram has been dropped. You can toggle all the light switches on or off by pressing the "Toggle Lights" tab and then use the "next" to go around the aircraft to check the aircraft's lighting with the tail beacon, both leading edge (navigation/strobe), all wing Landing lights and front wheel strut taxi light. The "Lights Check" starts and finishes with the OHP (OverheadPanel). "Pre-Flight" is the main Walkaround of the aircraft. In reality it is same feature here of all the REP packages from the start, but it is very good. Here you move externally around the aircraft via the same (Next) tab and can go back to the previous check point by pressing the "Previous" tab. Some points are cleverly animated in that by pressing the tab you can move (or test) the rear tailplane and rudder... the same can be done with the ailerons and flap flight control surfaces. Static elements can be added or removed like with both wing and tail tiedowns, chocks and pitot covers as you move around the aircraft. There are display gauges on the walkaround to note Tire Wear, Oil quantity and Condition (the lighter the oil colour the better the oil is)... The slight odd anomaly with older REP packages has been fixed with the static elements? If you loaded the older REP with engines running the chocks and static elements are still in place? And to remove them you had to shutdown the aircraft, and then do the full walkaround to the chocks, and then restart the engines to fly? Now there there is the tickbox in the settings to "Toggle static elements" ON or OFF, a nice fix like I recommended. Fuel Contamination (again the lighter the better) and pitot probe temperature. Static elements cover all probes and engine inlets. It is overall a very good Walkaround system, and the walkaround works in with the later tab of "Maintenance Report". The "PostFlight" runs the Walkaround again but sort of in reverse to close up and shutdown the aircraft and add in the various static elements, you can see as well any wear and tear the flight has taken on the aircraft. Tow The "Tow" feature is quite basic but works really well. Selecting "Tow" will put you on the front of the aircraft and then you use your joystick to move the aircraft in forwards, backwards and left and right.... just don't forget to unlock the park brake? Maintenance Report Like the Walkaround you can maintain the PC-12 with this feature... The maintenance clipboard is set out slightly different here for the Turboprop than the piston aircraft... systems are now grouped in like: Electrical System, Avionics, Instruments, Pressurisation Systems, Landing Gear and Braking Systems and Economy System. Areas that need attention are noted in RED and a click will do the job. There are seven pages in the report and it is quite comprehensive Last page "Economy System" has the option to activate the "F SEconomy" or the standard "Standalone System". So the maintenance feature is a pretty comprehensive report and gives you high access to the aircraft's functionality. If you select the "Standalone System" you go to a different sized clipboard with the repairs required... then you will get the bill shock! You have options to accept the "Normal" price or the "Quick Fix" price, either way you will need money in your account to fix the broken PC-12? or you can opt out via the "Disable the Economy System" There is a big connection here to the FSEconomy system, and so you have to be a part of the virtual money earning application to fix the aircraft. Automatic Engine Start There is realism and there is also the "drive you up the wall factor" and starting the engine in a REP pack was certainly in the latter category. But here we now have an automatic engine start feature, and it goes through the process of starting the single Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turboprop engine (the PT6A-67B, 1200 shp) engine and tells you via the banner bar on what part of the process is happening. There is still that realism factor, and it can be realistic or a pain depending on your mood. If all your maintenance is up to date and your account is now empty the aircraft will do the full start up procedure for you, and if you have any maintenance issues outstanding then you are going nowhere until you fix them. Wear out to: you have four options of aircraft wear; Brand New, Privately Owned (New), Privately Owned (Old) and Flying Club. Settings set the aircraft into one of the categories set out, but the Flying Club setting has the most hours and a tired aircraft. Aircraft has to totally shutdown to adjust the Wear settings. Check Fuel Price at Airport: This selection is again connected to the FSEconomy system to pay for your fuel. Realism 101 It is just not the external aspects of the PC-12 that are effected, but also so are the dynamics... There is also in the package Realistic taxi behavior, realistic stall speeds & behaviors, realistic climb speeds, realistic cruise speeds and better flying characteristics with the more (set) realistic Weight & Balance. These earlier Carenado's have an urgency to have too much power to taxi smoothly (or slowly) it was one of the real annoyances of these otherwise perfect aircraft. The high taxi speed has been nulled a little here with the new enhancements, but with the mixture set at idle and the throttle at idle you still have to use the brakes now and then to contain the speed, it is however far better than the jack rabbit feel of the none REP PC-12. The PC-12 has a different throttle mixture and built in propeller arrangement, and this custom package adjusts to that, so on ground idle, the first 30% of throttle directly controls the propeller pitch and does not increase NG at all and the custom propeller governor recreating all supported prop modes, the electric auto-feather included all now use the newer X-Plane11.30 governor features. Sounds in the earlier REP Packages were an advantage, but that feel is slightly nulled now as Laminar Research now uses the excellent FMOD 180º sound effects to well "great effect". Simcoders notes that the custom system highlights and is better than the default Carenado sounds, areas covered are Engine ignition, Engine pins, Engine exhausts effects and Fuel pumps, Electric Gyros, Avionics effects, Dynamic touch down, Dynamic ground roll and Dynamic wind. The problem with these sounds that they are good, but you have no control over their volumes except for the wind noise, overall I feel they are yes an improvement, but not a highly noticeable improvement over the now very good Carenado sources. Ditto the featured fuselage wind, landing gear wind and Independent touch down sounds that is used with the SimCoders "Headshaker Plugin", as these again were a great early set of features. But most users now have or use the XPRealistic Plugin that does the same thing but also better and more effectively. But that is not saying it is not a good set of features because they still add in a better dimension to otherwise what is a basic aircraft. Aircraft roll and takeoff sounds with the more "arrrrh, thump, thump" of the retracting gear is far better than the Carenado sounds, as is the wind noise, but you will need to take a little of the wind noise to be more realistic. If you are hard on your aircraft then the REP won't be kind to you? damages are and can be triggered by the pilot actions or poor piloting skills which is based on real world data and can target every system in the aircraft and this is all meant to teach you how to correctly manage the aircraft. You get the more realistic stall speeds & behavior, realistic climb speeds, realistic cruise speeds and realistic weight & balance and in flight you feel and see the differences, the PC-12 feels more relaxed and immersive than what I remember it was before. On release users didn't warm to this Carenado PC-12 aircraft very much and it sold quite slowly, personally I couldn't understand that as I really liked it from the first flight... the non-adjustable and sometimes glaring instrument lighting aside, it is a great PC-12... I think now more are warming to it and understanding more what a nice aircraft this really is... There is secondary fuel flow behavior, realistic lag and custom ITT evolution, correct fuel consumption with better and more realistic engine temperatures, these items are more noticeable on the PC-12's engine displays if you compare to the default version, and the numbers don't lie. Be careful on those landings? the landing gear can be damaged by hard landings and with over-speed operations and the the brakes and tires are damaged if not managed correctly and will have to be replaced... it is an expensive exercise while using the REP pack. Even when your flying day is over the REP will still be working on items like if you leave the power on then the battery will discharge unless you turn it off and that is even if you leave it switched on and close X-Plane? Start X-Plane up again and you will have a dead battery to contend with, just sit and watch the numbers and the battery goes dead very quickly. And that is with also all your current persistent aircraft wear and tear that is recorded and every single switch and lever position is restored when you reload the aircraft as is the the engine and oil temperature which are also restored basing on the time passed. In other words the aircraft is in exactly the same condition (or worse) when you come back to the aircraft for another flight and you certainly don't get a newly set aircraft to fly in, and overtime those hours and the wear and tear will add up in the Maintenance Report and will require attention. Summary What the Simcoder's REP or Reality Expansion Pack does is take a standard aircraft and then supercharges it and gives it a load of features and actions that are not available on the standard aircraft, they also fine tune the aircraft as well to be far more exact on the real machine's performance numbers And the REP does a really good job in this case with the PC-12 and it covers a huge multitude of areas in performance, wear and tear, damages to the aircraft and fluid use. The effects on your systems are also covered in every aircraft area from the electrical systems, Oxygen and mechanical wear and tear on wheels and tires, overall the system coverage is quite extensive and you will need to look after and maintain the aircraft to a certain standard if you want to fly it regularly just like well really a "real" aircraft. The REP has come a long way as well since the earlier versions that were just a little too invasive and made the aircraft just a little too realistic in that it got in the way of actually flying it. The better current menu management really helps here now as does the "auto" engine start up that helps in simply starting the engines, but there is the need for more control interaction as well in menu's, like with the custom sounds FS Economy is now heavily intergrated with the REP package but can be enabled/disabled on the fly, earn your virtual money to keep the PC-12 in the air with payment earned for maintenance and fuel. This REP package is certainly very comprehensive and it goes a long, long way in bringing the PC-12 to life and with far more features and actions than what the aircraft actually has when it comes from Carenado (which was pretty good then). I wasn't a big fan of the earlier REP packages, but this one here is now actually very good on the PC-12, and Simcoders have made the REP's more user friendly and not as invasive as their earlier packs. So if you like an immersive and realistic feel of running of your Carenado PC-12 to a higher more realistic degree, and yes this package does go very deep, then you will love this plugin. The REP-Reality Expansion Package is better than ever and lifts the Carenado aircraft into a more far complex and detailed aircraft for you to intergrate with... ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! the SimCoders Reality Expansion Pack for Carenado PC-12 is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Reality Expansion Pack for Carenado PC12 XP11 Price is US$19.99 The PC12 XP11 by Carenado is required for this add-on. It will not work on other aircraft Features: Ultra Realistic Flight & Ground Dynamics * Realistic stall speeds & behavior * Realistic climb speeds * Realistic cruise speeds * Realistic Weight & Balance * Realistic taxi behavior Complex Damages System * Triggered by the pilot actions * Based on real world data * Target every system in the aircraft * Meant to teach you how to correctly manage an airplane Economic System * Can be enabled/disabled on the fly * Earn virtual money when you fly * Use virtual money to buy fuel and do maintenance/repairs * Realistic fuel prices around the World * Fully compatible with FSEconomy. * More info at https://www.simcoders.com/reality-expansion-pack/economy Weight & Balance Tool * Load the airplane and check the C.G. and weight limits at takeoff and landing * The airplane behavior changes when the C.G. moves Popup Kneeboard * Complete normal operations checklist * Complete emergency operations checklist * Complete reference tables (speed, fuel consumption etc.) Simulation state saving * Every single switch and lever position is restored when you reload the aircraft * The battery may discharge if you leave it on and then close X-Plane * When X-Plane is launched, the engine and oil temperature are restored basing on the time passed Maintenance Hangar * Engine maintenance tab * Electrical systems maintenance tab * Landing gear, brakes & tires tab Interactive Walkaround * Cockpit checks * Lights checks * Aileron, rudder, elevator and flaps check * Tire check and choks removal * Pitot tube check * Engine cowl check Interactive towing * Push, pull and steer using the joystick * Towbar simulation Realistic PT-6 Engine Logic * Secondary fuel flow behavior * Realistic lag * Custom ITT evolution * Custom throttle dynamics (on ground idle, the first 30% of throttle directly controls the propeller pitch and does not increase NG at all) * Custom propeller governor recreating all supported prop modes, electric auto-feather included * Custom hot-start behavior (and damages) * Correct fuel consuption * Realistic startup procedure * Automatic startup procedure available to help newbies * Realistic engine temperatures * The engine parts are damaged if not managed correctly Stunning sounds * Fuselage wind sound * Landing gear wind * Independent touch down sounds Realistic Landing Gear * The landing gear is damaged by hard landings and overspeed operations * The brakes and tires are damaged if not managed correctly Electrical & Avionics System * Realistic Battery * The avionics are damaged if on when the engine starts/shuts down Native Virtual Reality Support * Complete support of new X-Plane SDK 3.0 * Menu visible in VR * Windows visible in VR Learn with the in-flight tips * A non invasive tip with a suggestion about the conduct of the flight is shown when you are not flying the airplane properly * A non invasive tip with a suggestion on how to recover the problem is shown when you damage the airplane Custom simulation of Hypoxia * Tunnel vision * Hard breathing Developed with love * Coded by real pilots * Very easy on FPS * Written in C++ with no compromises ______________________________________________________________________ Requirements : X-Plane 11 Important: The PC12 XP11 by Carenado is required for this add-on. It will not work on other aircraft Current and Review version: 4.21 (July 26th 2019) ______________________________________________________________________ Installation : Download is 16.3mb which is unzipped and is inserted to the Aircraft/Plugins folder and root folder. Key authorisation is required. Documentation : includes REP - User - Manual There is an Installation "read Me" but just notes to see the manual? ______________________________________________________________________ Plugin Review by Stephen Dutton 28th July 2019 Copyright©2019: X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.20 Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro US$69.90 : XPRealistic Pro v1.0.9 effects US$19.95 : WorldTraffic 3.0 Plugin - US$29.95 Scenery or Aircraft - LSZH - Airport Zürich v2 by Aerosoft (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$27.99 - LEBL - Barcelona Airport XP11 by JustSim (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$21.00
  8. Aircraft Review : Falcon 50EX by Carenado The Dassault Falcon family goes back to the early sixties with the release of the twin-engined Mystère 20, but with early deliveries set to Pan American it was marketed as the "Fan Jet Falcon" and the name stuck with a rename of Falcon 20 and it is under this guise that Pan American Business Jets Division placed orders for a combined total of 160 Falcon 20s. It was for it's time the Falcon 20 an exceptional aircraft with a 750 km/h (405 knots, 466 mph) cruise speed at 12,200m (40,000 ft) and a range of 3,350 km (1,808 naut mi, 2,080 mi). Obviously you are going to build on success, so the next step was for a more larger faster and longer range aircraft. To achieve this the aircraft that became known as the "Falcon 50" was to add another engine, and to make it a TriJet, and it came for the time of the mid-seventies the first of the really global transcontinental business jets, it was fast at Mach 0.86 (1,015 kph) at full speed, with a cruise set at 488 kn; 903 km/h (Mach 0.85) and a longer range of 5,695 km (3,075 nmi), but remember the FA50 is still an old design and three dated turbofans were not the most fuel efficient compared to current engines like on the Falcon 6x which can do 10,186 km (6,329 mi; 5,500 nmi) 5,100 nmi at Mach 0.85. The FA50 can still do the distance from London to New York, but you will get there almost on dry tanks... The fuselage cross section and capacity is similar to the FA20, but the FA50 had a far more advanced wing design and this aircraft is the 50ex version with the updated TFE731-40 engines Carenado Falcon 50ex It would have been hard to follow up the Carenado Cessna Citation S550 for mid-sized private jets, it was and still is a stunner of a aircraft for X-Plane11. So to follow that exceptional act then Carenado has to deliver an aircraft of the same quality and detail to at least match that standard, and that is a tough high target to achieve, and so that is the question we are asking here in this review, is the Falcon 50 in the same league. Falcons are very distinctive and very French in design, sharp nose with an late fifties cockpit window layout, straight fuselage with a low cross Caravelle style tail, the trijets are even more iconic, but the three engines do make the aircraft look a little rear heavy. But you are not going to deny that Carenado have not done an exceptional modelling design here, as this is a beautifully represented Falcon 50. Complex shapes are dealt with ease, you will find no sharp modelling corners, or lazy quick circles here, it is a well defined design in the ultra category, and so it should be in this price range, you pay for it, but at least here the Carenado delivers, note the nice leading edge lighting assembly, wing mapping (raised rivets and lines) and flap track housings. All undercarriage components are all really well detailed, not only the usual hydraulic piping and struts (main gear is a simple leg support with an attached hydraulic ram) but with smaller detail with clips, bolts and steel foundry shaped assemblies. Front wheel strut is excellent with high detailing including chrome hydraulic ram components. Internal wheel bays are well kitted out and detailed as well, all round perfection. Cockpit windows are late fifties - sixties style five window designs, very Falcon and visibly different from the more standard four glass design of the later Falcon 7X series. Note the small hidden wiper assemblies. A glass is Carenado perfection, front and side designs in quality, reflection and shapes. Fuselage shaping is also high in detail and the excellent paint reflections are of a very high caliber and all this comes with Carenado's dynamic reflections, realistic metal and dielectric materials... in other words it is very good. The central engine is the only one with a thrust-reverser, it is a clamshell design and in action it looks excellent in animation Menus Menu system is standard Carenado lower left screen three tabs, the three tabs can be mouse scroll hidden The three tabs are noted as: A ) is for the lovely authentic Collins Proline21 pop-up Autopilot panel, that this is quite screen filling large panel, but can thankfully be moved and scaled to a smaller size. C ) Is the standard Carenado ten preselected Views, Field of View and Volume panel. And O ) is the Options panel.  The Proline21 Autopilot panel is different (larger) than the one on the Premier 1A, and it is quite large in default mode on your screen, it can of course be scaled HUGE, or very small, but scaling too small can make button actions hard to use. Options include Window and Instrument reflections. The static elements provided here are still very basic with only two cones, rear wheel chocks and flag/pitot covers and some nice "FA50ex" engine inlet covers, but you can only have all or nothing. The highly realistic pilot and co-pilot (and new) animated pilots in flight uniforms do disappear when you activate the static elements. left side is the main entrance door... there is also a nice well detailed "HOBART" GPU (Ground Power Unit). The livery Selector is now on the options panel than from usually the Carenado tab.  You have the option of the original wing tip (square) or the newfangled high curved winglets, the superb winglets are an obvious choice. Cabin and cockpit Entrance to the Falcon 50 is via a single left hand forward door with built in stairs, it is animated either via the menu, or the handle internally (arrowed below)... design with nice chrome rail-handles is excellent, in v1.1 the animation has been slowed down a little for more realism, the door looks and moves now like real. Cabin fit-out is all dark woods and heavy leather, it is a very cigar lounge feel, four club seating forward, one single seat aft and a three seater settee to the right side and so that is a passenger seating layout of eight. Cabin fittings and details are excellent, with chrome highlights and highly soft looking cushions to hug... ... a nice touch are the two passenger screen monitors, both fixed, but look great... all the blinds are animated, but I found them a bit in areas overtouchy to use, but still a very nice to have. Odd for Carenado is that the tables don't fold out, more odd is they look like they are created that way and the folded up panels are also there positioned inside, but I couldn't get them work if they do? so I am going to say that they do actually work. There is a folding door to open to access the cockpit... .... to the left as you go in there is a pilot's storage area for books, jackets and other bits and pieces, note the dangerous looking axe? Top is the entrance lighting knob, and an audio panel that has two working knobs. First look into the cockpit is breathtaking, with such overwhelming quality and detail. Armrests flip up to get in to the seats, but you know it will still be a very tight fit. In the left seat and the glareshield overhang is huge, and really well done but it is all very black and dark with no power connected. First look forward reminds me of Concorde with the shield in the full up position. Pressing the EXT Power button with toggle the external GPU, and flick the main battery switches and the effect is "oh wow, oh wow" this is one nice cockpit in lighting and detail. The instrument panel lighting highlights the built in glareshield grab handles and the huge centre mounted park brake handle, very nice and the overhead panel turns into a rainbow of ergonomics... excellent! Instrument Panel Twin authentic yokes have built in electric trim and can be hidden. Yokes hidden then that exposes the four display Proline21 avionics system introduced on the Carenado Premier 1A... ... There are for both pilots a PFD (Primary Flight Display) and a MAP/NAV MFD (Multifunctional Display), both can be popped out but only the PFD and MFD two from either side... other central display panels will also pop-out includes , three engine parameters, backup Artificial Horizon, Fuel/Temp and hydraulics/ VIB N1 - N2 (engine vibration indication). The PFD has the standard glass cockpit layout of Speed and Altitude strips, Artificial Horizon, Vertical Speed and Rate of Turn built into the upper section, lower section has a built in Navigation and Map and COM1/ATC/UTC/TAT/COM2 strip at the bottom. MFD has Engine readouts top, route information lower and the same Navigation and Map layout lower with a GS/TAS/SAT/ISA strip at the bottom. Several points since the debut release of the Proline21, the PLAN function (arrowed right) now works (Yeah!) to see and layout your flight plan, and the text does not overlap. Unlike the Premier where as the DCP (Display Control Panel) which was set vertical between the displays, here on the FA50 it is set both sides up on the glareshield next to the autopilot... BARO, MENU/DATA, TILT/RANGE knobs. The default screen shows: FORMAT (ROSE/ARC/MAP), TERR/RDR, TFC and a PRESET (quick switch) setting on the left, you can adjust on the DCP panel via the "MENU/DATA" knob for either PFD or MFD, switching can be separate with ROSE in say the PFD and ARC in the MFD or vice versa. Selecting the "NAV/BRG" button will bring up the NAV SOURCE (FMS1/VOR1/VOR2) and Background (BGD) pointers for FMS/VOR1/ADF1 top and FMS1/VOR2 lower, again just select the required selection button and the select blue box band.... adjustment is again via the DCP MENU knob There are altogether three (pages) settings of References that can be accessed by repeatably pushing the Menu REFS knob. Pressing the RADAR button will bring up the TERR/RDR setting the same as in the menu option, the TERRAIN feels far better but is quite bright (Red or Blue) and can make the flying and navigation details hard to read, I probably wouldn't use it, except in the RDR - Radar mode. Overall this latest version of Carenado's ProLine21 system is certainly far less buggy, and more functions work than with the release version and expect the same fixes to be translated back over to the Premier 1A. ProLine21 Autopilot panel is excellent, standard layout and easy to use, and note the comprehensive engine fire panel for the three engines. Lower centre panel has Alieron, Rudder and Stabliser positions panel left and SLAT/FLAP positions right, in the middle is a comprehensive annunciator lighting panel, with test and bright and low light settings. To note the speed knobs (arrowed) for adjustment in the PFD. Three lever throttle assembly is a work of art, and seriously detailed, and note the working springs on the stop selection (arrowed below left), lift the red levers to shutdown the engines (switch off fuel flow).... as there are three levers you lose the versatility of a two lever operation with a throttle system (Saitek X56), so you have to lock them all together, shame but it is what it is.... .... single central thrust-reverser lever is again a work of animated art, and you have to understand how it works. X-Plane key setting "Toggle Thrust Reversers" with activate it, but to use it you then use your throttles... the reverser lever moves but the throttle levers stay in position, do the opposite to store the clamshells.... it is a work of art to use. Centre console has top left Anti-Skid, right cabin pressure adjustment with pressure dump (nicely done). The standard Laminar FMS panels and radios... radios can be tricky to set (Transponder is really tricky), so get used to setting the two page (COMM1/NAV1 - COMM2/NAV2, ADF and Transponder) settings on the ground before flying, if not you will struggle later, the radio also pops-out for ease of use. Note a second set of DCP panels. Rear centre console trim Aileron, Rudder and Stab adjustment switches and a really lovely Air Brake lever (arrowed)... right is the Flap adjuster: CLEAN - SLATS - S+FLAP 20º - S+FLAPS 48º, and the flap knob is gate animated to lift and click (very nice). Rear console is the cabin pressure dial There is another cabin pressure dial low left on the pilot's side on the instrument panel, and a clock above on each side. Side consoles have Gyro Align, radio selections and tiller (left), right is oxygen controls and a little OPEN - CLOSE lever (arrowed)? This will move the right side window blind forward for use or stow it away, very nice, but there is not one on the pilot's side (boo... ) but the left blind is still animated and can be used, both rear cockpit windows have animated blinds. OverHead Panel (OHP) is excellent, areas including Electrical, Fuel System, Bleed Air, Engines, Conditioning, Anti-Ice APU, Heating, Exterior and Interior lights are all colour coded, lighting knobs are each side... .... huge circuit breaker field is also colour coded, but none of the breakers are active. Note the really lovely styled overhead DOME lights. Lighting You were expecting the lighting to be good in the Falcon 50, and "boy" you are not disappointed... it is amazing. You have the two overhead DOME lights in the cockpit and two map lights that are highly adjustable, all the panel lighting is breathtaking. If you able to restrain yourself and tone it all down a little, it looks even better and more realistic... note the side spot light. No problems in finding that right lighting for the best takeoff or landing ambience, lovely in here.... roof ergonomic rainbow panels are... UNBELIEVEABLE! Cabin lighting is also exquisite, it is all really nice lighting... ... with main overhead track lighting and eight adjustable spot lights for individual seating positions, there are two overhead entrance lights as well. But there is a quirk? The main cabin lighting will only work with the DOME lighting in the cockpit? so to have the cabin lit in flight means the cockpit is brightly lit as well (fine in the day but annoying at night), the switch position is wrong because there is a three way switch position on the "cabin" lighting for OFF- PAX - ALL, this could be used to move the lighting away from the dome lighting, the adjuster for the lighting doesn't work either, so there is a real missed opportunity here to have it all. From the exterior viewpoint it is about as great as you would want it to be, the entrance night view is excellent. note the nice tail lighting. Flying the Falcon 50 At Zurich the FA50ex is all primed up with block fuel of just a slight over 3000kgs with a TOW 13662 kgs, the luxury cabin awaits the passengers, the route to Barcelona is really quite short at 551nm, but you will fly high (32.000ft) and fast at mach m80. You have a built in APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) but except for the one (arrowed) electrical gauge it is hard to tell it is running... Starting the engines is very easy, fuel-shut off set to throttle lever idle, set all the bleeds to Auto and then just press the engine start of which engine you want to start, I am still going right to left or Engine 2, 3 and then 1, you may want to start the central engine first... a red light on the engine start says it is in start up operation, then just watch the engine gauges do the work, it is all very Auto. The systems in Starter Logic, Fuel System, Bleed Air System, Avionics busses, Hydraulic Logic are all custom designed and highly realistic, but overall this is a very automatic aircraft to use system wise, so that makes it easy for early simulation users, wanting system depth, but not with all the palaver of working through deep system networks. It is very quiet in the cockpit, so you are a bit removed from the engine start up aurally, but externally it is very good with those 180º dynamic sounds, and three Honeywell TFE 731-40 turbofan engines, poring out 3,700 lbf (16.46 kN) thrust each is going to sound good isn't it... well yes, really good. Don't forget that you have full oxygen tanks as the FA50 uses the new Laminar oxygen system, very realistic. Slat operation is excellent, and you can override if you want to. A light fuel load and only three passengers means I am quite light, so the Falcon will move quite easily with a slight push of the throttles, the aircraft is very nice and easy to move on around on the ground. Power up and all that three engine thrust kicks in, and so you move.... engine particle effects are very good, all very hazy and thrusty. Throttles T/OFF markings are noted on the engine outputs to show where to set the throttles for the best thrust ratio and that works fine. As noted you can set all the speed Ref's (arrowed) and they are spot on, rotate v2 is around 140knts, but you feel it earlier as the nose wants to lift... .... so you have to be careful not to over rotate, then secondly keep that pitch in check as you climb out, it is not you will be fighting against the aircraft, but just don't let the pitch runway from your control... official rate of climb is 2,053 fpm, so 2000fpm is easily acceptable, but "wow can she climb". The gear retracts with a thud... and I love the way the front gear retracts forward, the animations on all gear assembles are excellent. Those central mounted speed knobs are very easy to use, but they are only for showing the speed selection only, there is no auto-thrust here, so the idea is to set your speed target and aim for it with the throttles. The FA 50 is quite nice in the air once the wings are cleaned up, but my gut says the flap extension made the aircraft pitchy, and a little bit loose on the centre, but once you get full clean control it is quite nice.... It is very, very easy to get two PFD certain selections mixed up... you can select a preset "FMS/NAV1/NAV2" from the PFD, but you may think this buttom selects the FMS, but it doesn't as it "PreSelects" not selects, so you maybe actually switching it out, when you want to switch it in, it was a mistake I didn't make on the Premier 1A, but somehow kept on doing so here? Note the fuel detail in FF (Fuel Flow), QTY (Quantity) and Fuel. You can say what you want, but the FA50 is a super nice looking aircraft in the air. Over the Alps at FL320 and you are soon at the south french coast, which the Mediterranean Sea then shows up on the radar, standard ceiling is FL490 14,936 m (49,000 ft), so you have a lot of altitude flexibility. You have the ProLine21 autopilot panel that pops-up, but I didn't really need it as the glareshield panel is quite easy to use and handy... so I never used it? Your fingers are just twitching to use that exquisite air-brake lever... go on I know you do, so a 2000fpm descent into Barcelona was an excellent excuse to twiddle with the lever, the air-brakes are tiny but effective. Approch into LEBL - Barcelona's RWY 02 is via BISBA STAR - BISB4N, but it didn't compute the route well on the FMS, so I added in a go around route that followed the STAR close enough via SLL - BISIS - TOTKI - BL620 - Approach. 6000ft was now slowly reducing to 3500ft as I turned at BISIS... ... and you have to love those splendid Falcon wing shapes against the water. You can cruise clean at 250knts, but then it is quite a fall to Slat speed of 200 knts, then again to 190knts for approach and S+20... ... Gear down, thunk, thunk and you are going for the lower landing approach speed, the marker Vrefs are there (arrowed), but you have to find your own points to avoid that steep nose down approach angle most business jets like, I found 116 knts to be ideal and flying nice and slow, but in also keeping the pitch in check.... Flaps at full 48º are slightly draggy, but you have a lot of power to play with, again you have to keep that nose in check on finals. Approach external lighting is good... central twin mounted landing lights and nose-wheel taxi. Wing (ice) lights are good as well with twin red beacons on the belly and tail, standard nav and strobe lights and the nice tail lighting (see below). Over the fence and I am again very aware of not letting that nose get too high on me, my gut says it will just sit there high in the air as the wheels touch, so my flare is very highly controlled, a bit of pitch to slow the aircraft, but not enough to lose the nosewheel... stall speed is 95knts. Nose is a touch up on contact, but it is almost a three point landing, and it feels like a very good landing inside... I'm happy with that. The single thrust-reverser is not that powerful, compared to the usual twins, but the operation is great to use (note the "Green Deployed" light) and it does slow the aircraft of which you will need 658 m / 2,159 ft roll-out. Air-brakes have to be activated manually, but certainly help in slowing down the aircraft... note that using the air-brakes on the ground activates more spoilers than the air-brake function. I will note it took me a few maybe three flights to really get the full feel of the Falcon 50, yes it is easy to use, and yes it is easy to sort for a flight, but you do need to get into a sort of flying groove with it, the first flights maybe even messy, but the more you fly the FA50 then the more confident and together you are with the aircraft. Librain water effects work here as well, they look great internally, but are a bit odd in showing through the fuselage externally... with Librain it is still a refinement process that you have to accept. But to note the wipers are small, and you get only a very small gap to find that runway in the wet and dark... that will test your skills. FA 50 wing and night lighting IS amazing... Liveries You get the usual blank white and six liveries. Three are European and three are US registered including the display aircraft N502EX. Quality of all are very good, but except for the hard coloured red and black aircraft the style is all very similar of wavy stripes Summary Nobody does these large business jets better than Carenado, the Citation S550 was a killer machine and this great Falcon 50ex is certainly on par with the earlier aircraft so it would be now hard to choose between them. The design and detailing in this aircraft is some of the best out there, it is sublime in what you get now for your money, in every area including sound it is simply outstanding. The Carenado ProLine21 is also improved and has had a few bug fixes as well, it is still not totally absolutely perfect yet, but it is now at least in the very good category, and note you can use the RealityXP GTN750 support (with 3D panel display support) in this aircraft and it is VR refined as well. Lighting is excellent inside and out. Systems including Starter Logic, Fuel System, Bleed Air System, Avionics busses, Hydraulic Logic are deep and all custom made for the aircraft, but there is a lot of auto-procedures to help with the ease of flying the machine, however it is still an aircraft to learn and fly and requires a few to many flights to really get proficient on the Falcon 50. Negatives, not many and just a very few bugs, like the tables are not animated (missed and will be fixed) , ProLine21 in areas still in development and the librain is still in need of refinement, the oddly connected cockpit and cabin lighting, and I will note the now standard Carenado menus do now feel outdated, and all circuit breakers are all hard. The review is full of words like... outstanding, excellent, exquisite and so yes this Falcon 50ex from Carenado is an amazing aircraft, and it is very well priced for all the ultra detail and systems that you get here. There is a sort of proud ownership that you get with these outstanding aircraft, you stand or sit inside there wondering how far simulation has come in the ultra detailing and sheer quality you now have available in X-Plane11, but here is a business jet to certainly savour and to enjoy in for your personal use for years to come. _______________________________ The Falcon 50EX by Carenado is now Available at the X-Plane.Org Store, and is available from Carenado directly as well: FA50 EX XPLANE 11 Priced at US$39.95 Features: High-end 4k PBR (Physically-based Rendering) graphics throughout, with ultra-realistic materials rendition (Dynamic reflections, realistic metal and dielectric materials, etc.) Fully customized in-depth annunciator logic/aural warning logic/throttle logic with functioning latches. Optimized for VR. Custom Proline21 avionics system, all featuring detachable pop-up windows Integrated FMS with detachable pop-up window (Laminar default) Custom Autopilot with detachable pop-up window Rain effect support* In-depth FMOD sound design implementation, including distance effects, realistic turbine reversal effects, etc. RealityXP GTN750 support (with 3D panel display support) Custom electrical system/Starter Logic/Fuel System/Bleed Air System/Avionics busses/Hydraulic Logic Extensive VR support Extensive HDR lighting with gimballed 3D lights and dynamically illuminated ice lights for amazing night lighting effects Includes pressurization and oxygen system End-user customizable via Manifest.json file. Goodway compatible Engine design optimized for XP11.30’s jet engine model Support for “librain” plugin (Requires separate plugin install) Librain support also includes visual ice effects on windows. Requirements X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB VRAM+ Recommended Download Size: 580MB Current and Review Version : 1.1 (July 23rd 2019) Installation and documents: Download for the Falcon 50ex XP11 is 551 Mb and the unzipped file is deposited in the aircraft "General Aviation" X-Plane folder at 741.30 mb. Download the LIbrain rain effect plugin (add into the aircraft's plugin folder) Documentation: Huge amount of documentation, with ProLine21 introduction, Laminar FMS manual, Performance and reference tables. Carenado FA50EX Emergency Procedures.pdf Carenado FA50EX Normal Procedures.pdf Carenado FA50EX Performance Tables.pdf Carenado FA50EX References.pdf Carenado FA50EX Version History.rtf Carenado Proline 21_FA_50.pdf Carenado Recommended Joystick Settings XP11.pdf Carenado RTU Manual.pdf Credits.pdf Recommended settings XP11.pdf X-Plane FMS Manual.pdf Carenado Copyright.pdf ______________________________________________________________________  Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton  26th July 2019 Copyright©2019 : X-Plane Reviews   (Disclaimer. All images and text in this preview are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications:  Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.31 (v11.30 is required for this aircraft) Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro v1.11 US$69.90 : WorldTraffic 3.0 Plugin - US$29.95 : LIbrain rain effects - Free Scenery or Aircraft - LSZH - Airport Zürich v2 by Aerosoft (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$27.99 - LEBL - Barcelona Airport XP11 by JustSim (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$21.00 
  9. News! - Released! : Dassault Falcon 50 EX by Carenado Another Biz-Jet, and this one is from Carenado and it is the Dassault Falcon 50. The FA50 could be categorised in with the Carenado Citation S550, in the the same Biz-Jet context, but the Citation was a seriously nice aircraft, so the FA50 will have to be really, really good to match it. The FA50 also comes with the same Collins ProLine 21 avionics system that was previewed here in the 390 Premier 1A XP11 Review Extensive Feature list Includes: High-end 4k PBR (Physically-based Rendering) graphics throughout, with ultra-realistic materials rendition (Dynamic reflections, realistic metal and dielectric materials, etc.) Fully customized in-depth annunciator logic/aural warning logic/throttle logic with functioning latches. Optimized for VR. Custom Proline21 avionics system, all featuring detachable pop-up windows Integrated FMS with detachable pop-up window (Laminar default) Custom Autopilot with detachable pop-up window Rain effect support* In-depth FMOD sound design implementation, including distance effects, realistic turbine reversal effects, etc. RealityXP GTN750 support (with 3D panel display support) Custom electrical system/Starter Logic/Fuel System/Bleed Air System/Avionics busses/Hydraulic Logic Extensive VR support Extensive HDR lighting with gimballed 3D lights and dynamically illuminated ice lights for amazing night lighting effects Includes pressurization and oxygen system End-user customizable via Manifest.json file. Goodway compatible Engine design optimized for XP11.30’s jet engine model Support for “librain” plugin (Requires separate plugin install) Librain support also includes visual ice effects on windows. Included in the package 6 HD liveries. 1 HD Blank livery FA50 Emergency Procedures PDF FA50 Normal Procedures PDF FA50 Performance Tables PDF FA50 Reference PDF RTU Manual PDF Carenado Proline 21 Manual PDF X-Plane FMS PDF Recommended Settings XP11 PDF Recommended System Requirements Windows XP – Vista – 7 -10 or MAC OS 10.10 (or higher) or Linux X-Plane 11 CPU: Intel Core i5 6600K at 3.5 ghz or faster. Memory: 16-24 GB RAM or more. Video Card: a DirectX 12-capable video card from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel with at least 4 GB VRAM (GeForce GTX 1070 or better or similar from AMD) 1.0GB available hard disk space ________________________________________ Priced at US$39.95 the Falcon 50 is now available from Carenado Now Available here from Carenado Images and details are courtesy of Carenado ________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 12th July 2019 Copyright©2019: X-Plane Reviews
  10. Aircraft Review : 390 Premier 1A XP11 by Carenado 2019 is turning out to be the year of Regional aircraft and Business Jets. Both categories have languished in X-Plane for years, but as the General Aviation category is now becoming a heavily crowded market place then these more marketable aircraft are now coming on stream, and X-Plane users are lapping them up in their thousands. And why shouldn't you in this extremely high quality and but short range designs era, as these aircraft are fulfilling in a major set of class holes in your simulator flying experience. Carenado have also been at the forefront of these releases, and now bungling them out on even now a monthly basis. The earliest E50P Phenom 100 HD was to me slightly flawed, but the Cessna Citation ll S550 was sensational in every department. In regional aircraft then the astounding Saab 340 XP11 is still up to this point of the year the aircraft of 2019. The announcement and successful anniversary release for the FSX/P3D users of the ATR42 also shows no bounds in regionals and hopefully it will be fast tracked to the X-Plane platform. So here comes another if slightly smaller private jet in the Beechcraft 390 Premier 1A. If it looks like a modern day Hawker then your eyes are not deceiving you as the aircraft was a Beechcraft/Hawker design and the updated second generation the aircraft was actually called the Hawker 200, but with the Beechcraft/Hawker bankruptcy the production of their business jets ceased in 2013. Review note: Since starting the review Carenado have updated the Premier 1A to v1.1, those notes are included here, but I have left the original notes intact to see the changes. 390 Premier 1A XP11 First impressions are of another excellent design and high quality machine from Careando... are you even now becoming a bit accustomed or even expect this sort of level of standard of quality... for the money yes, but never take the high level we know and accept for granted in that we should all admire of how good we all have it with simulation design now at these ultra levels. The Premier's design is quite basic or very clean sheet, so details are minute here but are still extremely well done. I always look not for the obvious because that is.. well obvious, as most releases in this category are expected to come up to that detailing standard, in say fittings, modeling, aircraft construction elements and so on... What you are looking for are the skilled elements, like here with the well conceived lovely concave shapes around the twin Williams FJ44-2A Turbofans... ... it is an area easily missed, but it gives the aircraft a perfect realism look from certain angles. The wings chord profile is X-15 razor thin and again really hard to model for realism, but again they are really well done here and it all comes with those lovely chrome leading edges. Landing gear is simplistic in assembly, but again it would have been easy just to have done a strut and a few pipes to cover the detail, but again there is a lot of depth to the modelling when you dig down close to the high detailing... .... you have to love the attached cover plate on the front gear strut... simplicity in itself. All gear movements and animations are the usual first rate. Carenado glass work is always sublime and so it is here, perfect fit and all the great reflections are the norm. Note the realistic inner glareshield. Side windows are perfection as are the pods for the Williams turbofans, again to note how hard it is to get that shape realistically correct and the excellent chrome inlet cowling... masterpiece. T-Tail design and detail is perfect with nice trim tab detail and all the correct tiny aerodynamic air flow surfaces. Again note the lower shaping to the wing root around (and part of) the entrance door, lovely. Menus While still external of the aircraft we will look at the menus... There are the usual Carenado three tabs in the left side down corner. The three tabs are noted as: A ) is for the lovely authentic Collins Proline21 pop-up Autopilot panel, that is is quite screen filling large but can thankfully be moved and scaled to a smaller size. C ) Is the standard Carenado ten preselected Views, Field of View and Volume panel. And O ) is the Options panel.   Options include Window and Instrument reflections. The static elements provided here are still very basic with only two cones, wheel chocks and flag/pitot covers and some nice "Premier 1A" engine inlet covers, but you can only have all or nothing. The highly realistic pilot and co-pilot (and new) animated pilots in flight uniforms do disappear when you activate the static elements. Other menu items include opening twin nose and left rear baggage door and left side main entrance door... there is also a nice well detailed "HOBART" GPU (Ground Power Unit). The livery Selector is now on the options panel than from usually the Carenado tab. An unusual option here is the "false" window. This will put a fake fourth window on the cabin, it does look good, but obviously fake. Internal Cabin The drop down built in stairs are beautiful... perfection. Once inside the cabin all you can say is "oooooh", and "ahhhh nice!" It feels all very good in here. Expensive leather and wood fittings abound, this is a rich persons world... or someone with the aims to pay for it all. Seating is a set of wide club four seats and another single row set behind... .... but it is an extremely tight fit knees wise if you don't get the club premier seats, and you don't have a window close either... ... the clubbies have animated fold out tables as well on both sides. Nice detail is the reflective (mirror) panels that look extremely realistic... Click on the doors to open the animated four section moveable panels, behind is a large hand luggage holding area, a bit of a wasted space with the larger external baggage area. forward right is a very small galley area for storing odd bits, but the cabinet is not really usable for meals in flight except for snacks and a few bottles of wine, there is no toilet on board, so you need go anyway very easy on the wine! All window blinds are animated, either by moving them directly, or by the catch on the lower window frame... .... cockpit separation doors are noted to be open on takeoff and landings, the doors all have a very nice veneer wood finish. Cabin lighting is very nice, but confusing? There is excellent ceiling lighting that is noted as "Aisle", but the switchable "Cabin OVHD" lights don't do anything? it should be the other way around, as for the aisle lighting it should be on the floor or lower areas for the emergency exit? "Galley" light doesn't do anything either, mostly this light is used to illuminate the entrance? The rear baggage area is dark as well and for the update v1.1, nothing has changed here? There are however eight lovely separately switchable and animated spot lights over each seat, and the no smoking and seatbelt signs also work. Cockpit You click on the separation doors to open them (right side panel).... On first viewing the cockpit feels tight, smallish. It is first worth looking at those separator doors, they are four separate panels that move on tracks and glide inside each other, the animated detail is well done here. This instrument panel comes with the Collins ProLine21 avionics system, and a first here in this avionics system for X-Plane. The ProLine 21 layout here is a three screen display with one PFD (Primary Flight Display) for each pilot and an offset centre single MFD (Multi-Functional Display). The panel layout is quite simple... each far right and left are the radio panels with the ProLine control panel between the left PFD and the MFD and another more right for the Co-Pilot PFD. Centre right are three backup instruments that cover: Airspeed, Artificial Horizon and Altitude, below is a large panel of annunciator lights, then a CTL22 serial tune control unit (COM1) and an altitude pressurization control panel. Marked lower panels cover (left to right) Oxygen (Pressure/dial), Hydraulic (Pressure/dial), Static Source, Air, Ice Protection, Landing Gear, Electrical, Fuel and Environmental. OVHD (OverHead) Panel is all the lighting switchgear for: Instruments top, test (very good), internal lighting and lower row external lighting. Centre console is again quite simplistic in it's layout.... Top are two default Laminar FMS's but have been modified (okay squished to fit) the console. Then are the twin engine ignition and start buttons, Double Throttles, Flap lever UP - 10º - 20º - DN (30º) and handbrake. Rear are electric Pitch (left), Roll and Rudder Trim (right), and then a manual (working) gear release... The Throttle levers have very nicely done metal levers to allow the engine (fuel) cutoff position. Turn on the power (battery/GPU) and things look very nice. The ProLine monitors might need brightening up to see them via the tiny rocker switches. Panel lighting is gorgeous with the drop down lighting... Yokes can be as usual hidden, but the trim switches don't seem to work, with the complex switchgear set out behind on the panel. Both the ProLine PFD and MFD pop-out for use and are highly usable for custom cockpit fit-outs. The Collins ProLine 21 is from the FSX/P3D version in a new Carenado plugin unit architecture (called pre-fabricated unit) that should make a plug in and use situation into inserting into the different complex simulator systems. This would save huge amounts of time in transferring components from not only from different simulators but also into different aircraft. The PFD has the standard glass cockpit layout of Speed and Altitude strips, Artificial Horizon, Vertical Speed and Rate of Turn built into the upper section, lower section has a built in Navigation and Map and COM1/ATC/UTC/TAT/COM2 strip at the bottom. MFD has Engine readouts top, route information lower and the same Navigation and Map layout lower with a GS/TAS/SAT/ISA strip at the bottom. The ProLine selection panel will pop-out for use.... the default screen shows: FORMAT (ROSE/ARC/MAP), TERR/RDR, TFC and a PRESET (quick switch) setting on the left, you select the item by the button besides the menu and then adjust on the panel via the "MENU" knob (BARO adjustment is the the top knob and RANGE is the lower knob). Here I have switched from "ARC" to "ROSE" (lower right). Pressing the "REFS" button will bring up the speed references... You can adjust any speed reference via selecting the button and again adjusting via the menu knob. There are altogether three (pages) settings of References that can be accessed by repeatably pushing the Menu REFS knob. Selecting the "NAV/BRG" button will bring up the NAV SOURCE (FMS1/VOR1/VOR2) and Background (BGD) pointers for FMS/VOR1/ADF1 top and FMS1/VOR2 lower, again just select the required selection button and the select blue box band.... adjustment is again via the Menu knob Pressing the RADAR button will bring up the TERR/RDR setting the same as in the menu option. Engine MFD readouts cover: N1 - ITT (Interstage Turbine Temperature) per engine and fuel temp, N2, FF (Fuel Flow), (Fuel) Pressure, Oil (Pressure) and Engine Temp cº. The ProLine 21 is part of the Autopilot system and the panel is the standard layout for autopilot glareshield panels, notable is the Vertical Speed adjuster is on the handy left and not the usual "just out of reach" far right position. Pop-out panel is huge. The ProLIne21 is very good, but there is still a few quirks in there, press the selection REFS and NAV/BGD buttons together and they used to overlap badly but now fixed in v1.1, however change one display and they all change together if you press the REFS button of which is not required on the MFD, so all displays are currently sorta locked together (You can however have the ROSE mode on the PFD and the MAP mode on the MFD), Press the NAV/BGD - RADAR buttons on the Co-Pilot's selection panel and it pop-up's the 2d selection panel (oops!), the PLAN mode on the MFD does not work? (No STEPS on the FMS) and neither does the PPOS and the FMS/ADF/VOR pointers all look a bit basic than professional and certainly with the duel VOR2 pointer. So it all feels a little under developed at this point in time, but the basics do work. Cockpit lighting Like in the cabin the switching of the cockpit lighting is all a bit weird? Switch on the main MASTER switch and you get a left OVHD spotlight? if you use the adjuster it will dim the spot, but also kill everything else on the master switch? Switch on the DIM/BRT and volla! the right hand spot comes on? Press the CKPT (Cockpit) FLOOD and... nothing? confused?, well shouldn't the main cockpit flood light the cockpit and the DIM/BRT adjust that?, and why not leave the spots just on the adjuster knobs? One more for fun!... press the CABIN OVHD and the lower panel dial lights go out? There is a knob on the top of the yokes, so do they light up Saab 340 style... well nope, a missed detail but now fixed in v1.1 (below) hurrah! red lighting is nice too. For the update v1.1, the updated cockpit lighting is still all quite confusing? turn on the master switch and you still get the two spot lights, but the DIM and BRIGHT now works (below right)... hint it is still the CKPT FLOOD that should control these spots and not the master! However the adjustment knobs do now turn down the spots without turning off the MASTER switch (above left), so there is an improvement there, the lower sub panel dials now stay on all the time? again hint... it is the SUBPNL & PED adjustment knob to do that job? and turning the knobs should not at any time switch off the rocker switches? Everything overall is here to work fine, but not in the way you operate the different lighting functions. Lighting testing (above right) is excellent including the full set annunciator lights. Overall you can make the lighting work to your taste, but it could be better (and certainly easier) to use. New Command interaction As X-Plane moves beyond the earlier basic interaction with knobs, wheels and levers with VR (Virtual Reality) and homebased cockpits, then the actual interaction with these manipulators and buttons are changing as well. The Premier 1A is also introducing a new background system that moves these interaction qualities forward in creating a standard layer between the action (push or turn the knob/button) and the X-Plane command of that action. In other words the action is now Command based and not Manipulator based, and this new layer of interaction can be used and accessed by home cockpit builders, SmartCoPilot or any 3rd party software. It also creates a Generic set of Commands that can be easily switched from aircraft to aircraft (do you see a common theme here... drop in components and in being highly swappable between a large variety of of aircraft). The Commands besides doing the actual operation can also be synced with different sounds and actions and making them more highly realistic. The Commands will also be available on systems, so a push of a button on a electrical bus will show the correct load on that bus. This Premier 1A doesn't yet use the full range Commands that will be available in the future, but currently 80% of the click spots can be viewed and their preferences can be changed by looking them up in the Manifest.json file. This also then allows them (SimPit, 3rd Party) to customize and re-program the cockpit's main interactions as they see fit. This is future tech and will be a boon for simpit designers and of course VR, and for more realism in the cockpit, currently on the Premier it is still very much in their early phases of development, as VR especially is still very quirky, but the new tech is now built in there. Librain water effects The aircraft has the Librain water effect feature, it is now far more better intergrated with no floating water, and well fitted into the glass areas. ________________________________ Flying the Premier 1A Once the passengers and their luggage are aboard and both the baggage and main door are closed... time to start the Williams turbofans. Flip up the engine ignition switch and just hit the start button, the engine autostart will do the rest. You still need the power cart (GPU) connected while you start one engine, but once you have engine generator power you can activate it and disconnect the external cart, the second turbofan can be started from the power drawn from the running engine. The start up is excellent in sequence, but sound wise it is just a "humm" in the cockpit, externally the sequence start is very good... This is a simple aircraft to set up and fly, just release the brake and give the throttles a small movement and your moving... ... speed references are easy to select, there are also noted on the actual speed strip but it is a good idea to still familiarise yourself or if required to adjust them before takeoff. Push up the throttles and you finally hear the power and noise of those twin Williams FJ44-2A Turbofans that produce 2,300 lbf (10.23 kN) thrust each, and yes you will get that push in your back. Most times you want to push the throttles to the wall, but that is not required here, although you do seriously feel the heavy fuel load in weight which here is set at 3,268 lbs. It will make the aircraft a big sluggish in wanting to clear the runway. v1 is 115 knts, and v2 135 knts I always add +10 so 145 knts and you rotate... VFTO is noted at 140, but 145 knts is fine. niiicce.... and you climb out nicely. I'm following SID EXMOR 1Z to clear Bristol (EGGD) that will take me north, then east before the long route south to Nice (LFMN). You are not working overtime to cover the flying as the Premier is quite a simple aircraft to fly, all you have to do is focus on the heading and watch the climb-out, the aircraft pretty well does the rest. Now on the flightplan when I need to turn sharp north at EXMOR the Premier banks like a fighter jet... note the nice route turn (curve) on the MFD MAP display. North of Bristol I head up the River Seven, then head south to ODH (ODIHAM VOR), I selected the 1/2 bank in so not to scare the passengers a second time in the tight turn, and it works but the "1/2 bank" selection does not show on the PFD? neither did the pointer data for VOR 2, the pointer moved in the lower NAV screen, but the details in of which VOR is selected and distance is not displayed? Turn south done it was time to climb to FL340 cruise altitude from the 8000ft departure altitude... You can set the flight level altitude and it when attained the ProLine will hold that selected altitude, but you have to do the throttle work yourself, in choosing the correct climb power and then as you reduce the vertical speed the correct .M (Mach) speed to not overspeed the aircraft, small adjustments are required enroute as the fuel burns off is also required. There is a marker you can set as a speed reference (arrowed) and it works fine, the Premier doesn't hunt around the speed, so it is easy to keep the speed within the marked limits. Like the non-selectable PLAN the PPOS (Present Position) on the MAP doesn't work either on the MFD (arrowed above right), and you really needed that one. There was issues with the Transponder setting ATC Ident button not working, this has been fixed in v1.1 Once at altitude you settle in for the ride, the Premier more "humms" along more than powers, but it is a very nice place to be... speed is set around M.76, the Premier has a top speed of 523 mph; 454 kn (841 km/h) max cruise or M.80 and a range of 951 mi; 826 nmi (1,530 km) Max Payload or 1,709 mi; 1,485 nmi (2,750 km) in a ferry range, Ceiling is 41,000 ft (12,500 m) and you should burn around 1.67 lb/mi (0.47 kg/km). In the rear you can join in with that glorifed air of the rich, the well very rich, celebrities (the real ones not the cheap influencers)... or my choice "Rock Stars"! As I pass the Eiger (hint) it is time to go down, throttles back and a descent down towards MUS (Nice Cote D Azur NDB) and the NISAR 6R STAR arrival. As the jet hits the cooler off the sea air the particle effects look amazing... .... wing speed brakes are a flip switch on the console, there tiny as well, but do a nice job... I didn't require them here as I could contain the speed easily. At MUS (NDB) I selected the APP button... to line up LFMN 04R ILS (109.95 MHz) But there is no "APP" sign in the ProLine header strip? it does show the Approach ILS details on the lower selected NAV1, but the selector hides a lot of the info, so you need to go to the default screen to see the data... Adjusting the final approach speed to the flap selection is a bit of an art form, the line on the speed tape will show you where your flap speed is and the VAPF (extended/maximum speed for flaps) marker, they are good references, however the Premier is a little tricky in balancing the speed to flap position, I personally handing these low speeds fine but had to work at it, but it might be a bit tricky if you don't know or feel the speeds well... full flap 136 knts is a nice approach speed, dialing down to 120 knts VAPF on the GS.... 92 Knts is stall. ... familiarality will certainly really help here. When you collect the ILS, the GS (GlideSlope) marker does at least illuminate (arrowed below left). I wasn't very impressed with the landing lights? It was pitch black until you were over the runway. The landing lights are positioned tight together under the fuselage and maybe it is hard to get the beam spread right, the external wingtip lighting is only "Recog" or recognisable lights, that could be used as taxi lighting as well... any thing helps here. Even though your landing speed is quite low, you don't have any helpers in rubbing off the speed except the ground friction, no thrust reverse or speed brakes activate (you could click the speedbrake switch manually) so your only choice is to run off the speed by using a long runway before finally touching the brakes, any braking before or under 40 knts is not recommended unless you want to leave the runway too early and at the wrong angle. Make sure you attach the ground power before shutting down the Williams turbofans, as even at this parking slow taxi pace they sound amazing. Job done and rich listers are ready for a few days on the French Riveria, in the cabin it is very comfortable and warm.... I know where I would rather be. I explored the external lighting back at Bristol... The odd fade of external lighting on rotation around the aircraft has been fixed in v1.1 (shown below). The central landing lights though still peak weirdly through the aircraft's nose... (Ice) wing lights are excellent as is the lower fuselage beacon and the set navigation lights. Liveries The Carenado quality Hi-Def livieries make up the visual show of the ultra detail 4K and all are extremely good, with PBR burnt in effects as well with Dynamic reflections, realistic metal and dielectric materials There is one blank (White) and only five designs (if quite all the same in detailed whirly, liney striping), they are all however very good. __________________________________ Summary Currently Carenado in brand new (not updated re XP11 releases) designs have recently focused totally on Regional aircraft and Business Jets, with the Saab 340 for the former and the Citation ll for the latter, and both were outstanding. The Premier 1A is a small business jet from Beechcraft/Hawker and was built between 2001 and 2012, with 292 examples coming off the production line. So the Premier is a very modern and slick little aircraft. It looks brilliant with excellent modelling and has the extreme detailing that we would note now as "Ultra" detail... detail externally and internally is faultless, it is certainly a lovely little machine. Sounds are excellent with realistic FMOD high quality doppler 360º sounds, oh yes and they do all round sound very good. There are also custom electrical system/Starter Logic/Fuel System/Bleed Air System/Avionics busses/Hydraulic Logic systems with the current XP11.30 pressurization and oxygen systems. Two new innovations are also intergrated on this aircraft... the new (for X-Plane) Carenado ProLine 21 three display avionics suite and the new Command interaction for more custom commands for home cockpit builders, SmartCoPilot or any 3rd party software applications. But those two new intergrations are also the main contrary points in the aircraft. Both are very early in their development and in areas it shows. Lighting in switchgear and application internally and externally is a mess, you can sort of work around them because the lighting still looks good, but in reality they should have been far better in their intergration. The ProLine 21 is also very good, but there are a lot of areas still in need of development and a lot of the visual commands (VOR2, APP and 1/2 Bank) that are still missing, some needed commands don't work either, and the screens are still not yet totally independent of each other. Again like the rest the ProLine21 works and works fine, but you miss the detail and tools to fly the aircraft in an expert manner, this also v1.0 and the early review copy... a few areas were fine tuned and sorted in the v1.1 update, but the ProLine21's deeper detail will however only come more in time... in other words "it is early days". Overall for a private jet the Premier 1A is from a pilot's view quite a simple aircraft, that is not to say there is not a depth of simulation here, but in the way modern aircraft are a very much a computerised and refined way of flying aircraft. In flying the Premier is a very nice aircraft and in areas needs skill, but overall you can very nicely wizz around the planet and be a Global Superstar at the same time... once the early quirks are tuned out of the Premier as a simulation and then as an aircraft it will be completely excellent. _______________________________ The 390 Premier A1 XP11 by Carenado is coming soon to the X-Plane.Org Store, and is currently only available from Carenado directly: Premier A1 XP11 Priced at US$39.95 Features : High-end 4k PBR (Physically-based Rendering) graphics throughout, with ultra-realistic materials rendition (Dynamic reflections, realistic metal and dielectric materials, etc.) Fully customized in-depth annunciator logic/aural warning logic/throttle logic with functioning latches, optimized for VR. Custom Proline21 avionics system, all featuring detachable pop-up windows Integrated FMS with detachable pop-up window (Laminar default) Custom Autopilot with detachable pop-up window Rain effect support* In-depth FMOD sound design implementation, including distance effects, realistic prop reversal effects, etc. Custom electrical system/Starter Logic/Fuel System/Bleed Air System/Avionics busses/Hydraulic Logic Extensive VR support Extensive HDR lighting with gimballed 3D lights and dynamically illuminated ice lights for amazing night lighting effects Includes pressurization and oxygen system End-user customizable via Manifest.json file. Goodway compatible Engine design optimized for XP11.30’s jet engine model Support for “librain” plugin (Requires separate plugin install) Librain support also includes visual ice effects on windows. Requirements Windows XP – Vista – 7 -10 or MAC OS 10.10 (or higher) or Linux X-Plane 11 CPU: Intel Core i5 6600K at 3.5 ghz or faster. Memory: 16-24 GB RAM or more. Video Card: a DirectX 12-capable video card from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel with at least 4 GB VRAM (GeForce GTX 1070 or better or similar from AMD) 570MB available hard disk space INTERNET CONNECTION is required for installing this product. Current version and Review Version 1.0 (April 30th 2019), updated version v1.1 tested Installation and documents: Download for the Premier 1A XP11 is 473.60 Mb and the unzipped file is deposited in the aircraft "Regional Aircraft" X-Plane folder at 656.40 mb. Download the LIbrain rain effect plugin (add into the aircraft's plugin folder) Documentation: Huge amount of documentation, with ProLine21 introduction, Laminar FMS manual, Performance and reference tables. Carenado Proline 21.pdf Flight Guidance System.pdf Carenado 390 Premier 1A Emergency Procedures.pdf Carenado 390 Premier 1A Normal Procedures.pdf Carenado 390 Premier 1A Performance tables.pdf Carenado Copyright.pdf Credits.pdf General Information.pdf Recommended settings XP11.pdf X-Plane FMS Manual.pdf is required to use the new feature. ______________________________________________________________________  Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton  3rd May 2019 Copyright©2019 : X-Plane Reviews   (Disclaimer. All images and text in this preview are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications:  Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.31 (v11.30 is required for this aircraft) Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro US$69.90 : WorldTraffic 3.0 Plugin - US$29.95 : LIbrain rain effects - Free Scenery or Aircraft - EGGD - Bristol International Airport by Pilot-Plus + (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$22.95 - LFMN - Nice Cote d'Azur Airport (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$18.50 
  11. News! - Announcement : 390 Premier 1A by Carenado Carenado have announced their third private jet for X-Plane in the 390 Premier 1A. This is after the Phenom 100 and the S550 Citation ll. Personally I wasn't very partial to the Phenom 100 as it had a few idiosyncrasies that I really didn't like and one annoying feature on shutdown that was never fixed, and for a private jet it was very even extremely slow. The Citation ll though was a masterpiece, their best at the time (only the Saab 340 is better) but not only wonderful to be in, but fly... so here is the new Hawker... opps! Premier. It is no suggestion the Beechcraft 390 Premier looks like the Hawker line of private jets, because in reality it was a Beechcraft/Hawker design, and created to compete with that same Cessna Citation. So some pretty images... The biggest speculation is if the Premier 1A will have the custom Original ProLine 21 System that has had ears burning, I will stick my neck out and say yes, and it will be the first custom ProLine 21 for X-Plane (The system is also noted for other already released aircraft). It was noted that Carenado have been working on this custom ProLine 21 for a fair while, and yes the FSX/P3D version does have the system. The FSX/P3D is priced at US$39.95, so expect that same price point and all the relative features. Carenado also did a big ho-ha on their 20 years anniversary, but it was only FSX/P3D that got any champagne and bubbles. The announcement was for the ATR 42-500 and boy what a nice aircraft this is... I thought for once a duel anniversary release in X-Plane11 would have been a nice statement of the ATR42-500, but alas no, we still will have to wait (years) before we get the chance to savour the aircraft, that point was made even more callous in the fact of how good the Saab 340 is.... here is the pain! X-Plane is also still waiting for the Fokker F50... oh well. Images are courtesy of Carenado ________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 23rd April 2019 Copyright©2019: X-Plane Reviews
  12. Aircraft Review : SAAB 340 XP11 by Carenado As a design studio then Carenado was always categorised very firmly into the General Aviation category. And even when they released their medium twin-engined six to ten seaters like the Dornier Do 228 it was still very much positioned in the large general aviation division rather than into the small regional airliner category. There was still this boundary you thought Carenado would not really ever not pass over, and the reason was that to go up into the next category required a major shift away from the way Carenado designed aircraft. Small airliners required a very different kind of application, because they push into the study grade territory and and with that comes all the required in depth features and systems. Certainly Carenado's GA aircraft had a lot of depth in systems and in fact the design studio was usually on the forward edge of those detail and systems. But a regional airliner is a totally different ball game, it has to deliver a much higher depth of intergration... So in reality there was always the thought that Carenado would always stick to designing what they excelled at and leave the next level of highly complex aircraft designs to other the studios that were better catered to designing these more highly detailed machines. But over the last few years Carenado have moved upmarket so to speak, as many of the lower GA aircraft once the domain of Carenado are now supplied by Alabeo, so the earlier noted Carenado's are now in the same quality and bracket in Alabeo disguise as Carenado moves upwards on to the more complex and larger aircraft territory, but airliners still felt like a level too far... That all changed with the release of the SAAB 340 for FlightSim (FSX/P3D), but for X-Plane that was still a dream too big to realise. The S340 was followed up by the F27 Fokker Friendship and the Shorts 360 (boxcar) so we knew that Carenado was serious about their future market... X-Plane however was still a maybe. But here is the X-Plane11 version of the SAAB 340... and with all that next level in intergration, and could Carenado really fly with the specialist airliner developers... it is a big question and the core of this review.... in one area though X-Plane's users knew straight off the line was that the SAAB would look brilliant in the better dynamics of the 11.30 simulator and in that thought they were certainly not wrong there. The point to make is that the development of the Carenado SAAB is very much up to date, with modern tools to create the very best detailing and getting the most efficiency out of the design... so yes the detail is very detailed and highly refined. Texture mapping is first rate in that shows every panel and rivet that holds the airliner together, but the real mapping detail is in the strengthened areas of fuselage that gives it body and realism... every area of detail is well covered and to highlight this is the small laminar flow airfoils on the tail and rear elevators. Panel design detail is first rate, but the PBR effects give you also a very realistic feel to the aircraft in their perfect shines and reflections, as noted Carenado use only the very best tools to get these dynamic reflections, realistic metal and dielectric material effects perfect... and it shows. Obviously there will be a lot of comparisons the the Leading Edge (LES) Saab 340, that has been around X-Plane as long as I can remember, always updated, but still dated by design. The debates will go on forever and as I don't have or use the LES Saab 340 then I can't compare it to the Carenado version either. But what I do know is that this SAAB 340 from Carenado is "State of the art" in X-Plane and to all the current 11.30 dynamics and effects. Undercarriage detail on larger aircraft are often the make or break of detailing (the correct animations are important as well). In this area the SAAB is outstanding, highly detailed, but the highlight is if you poke your head under and into the front gear bay. Crafted assembles of major components are excellent and highly detailed. Chrome features are exceptional and the distinctive SAAB ribbing on the fuselage is also very authentic... note the lovely landing light housings. To a point this sort of high quality detail was not going to be a surprise from Carenado, as they have produced some of the best quality for years now, but it is also very nice to see and feel it anyway. Carenado Menus One of the limitations Carenado faces is that it's menu system is still the same as it was from day one, three tabs in the left side down corner... there are two now known issues, space for items and VR support. Here even with a far larger aircraft that demands a lot of feature choices, it is all really just still the same. The three tabs are noted as: A ) is for the lovely authentic Collins Aerospace APS-85 pop-up Autopilot panel, that can be moved and scaled to size. C ) Is the standard Carenado ten preselected Views, Field of View, livery Selector and Volume panel. And O ) is the Options panel.  Options include Window and Instrument reflections. The static elements provided here are still very basic with only two cones, wheel chocks and flag/pitot covers and some nice "SAAB 340" engine outlet and inlet covers, but you can only have all or nothing. The highly realistic pilot and co-pilot (and new) animated pilots in flight uniforms do disappear when you activate the static elements. Other menu items include opening the rear baggage door... .... opening internal cockpit door and the selection of a nice "HOBART" GPU (Ground Power Unit). The GPU is important here as the SAAB 340 has no internal APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) to provide power or pressure to start the engines, if you shut down the engines you are then only on short span battery power, so the GPU is usually required to be operating before you shut down to continue the aircraft's power supply, same with starting the engines and the GPU cart is required until the running engine provides power to the systems... Once one engine is supplying power you can then disconnect the GPU and start the second engine from the first. SAAB's are noted to go dark inside if there is no GPU available on landing. There are two selections to first open the Passenger door.... then another section to fold out the built-in air-stairs Both detail and animations are first rate, very authentic. Finally on the options menu is the selection of liveries that can be changed from the menu. Cabin The SAAB cabin is a huge surprise.... first though is that you can open and close the passenger door manually and also manually extended or retract the air-stairs. Pressing a point on the left part of the crew headrest will animate the stairs down or up... the retracted air-stair is certainly well crafted here Opening the main passenger is easy by touching the door lever, but it is a bit hard to close it again if you are not in the right position to move the lever with it hidden... you aim for a spot on the wall, but in your own position you have to be close to the door and turned before the active area works, in most cases the menu selection is far easier. The cabin looks really, really well done... love the nice shape and detail of the seating... ... but use the cabin lighting panel left of the doorway, and the "wow", then becomes "WOW" astounding! Window drop lighting, overhead strip lighting, seat number row lighting, galley lighting and illuminated "EXIT" signs all create a cabin to die for. You jaw is down, but now it will now hit the floor with a thump.... The overhead passenger drop lights are all individually switchable, so is calling the Flight Attendant, and the blinds can also be moved down (or up)... ... seatback meal trays can be lowered, armrests moved and so can the seatbacks to a reclining position... ohhh heaven! Only one word of warning... ... now if you spend in flight a considerable amount of time making the passengers very comfortable, dropping shades, switching on the overhead lights, lowering meal trays, slipping back the seats and adjusting all the armrests, then be aware that there are no global settings to get the cabin back ready for landing, and every single former adjustment will have have to be totally redone. So yes do so and certainly make the paying punters happy, but not for every seat and every light. Best airliner cabin now in X-Plane, yes certainly, but only just a whisker past FJS's B732 Twin-Jet v3. Cockpit Open the cockpit door and the distinctive SAAB lighter tone cockpit is all there. Detail is excellent, fine detail is excellent... ... Carenado can sometimes go to a darker more overwhelming set of beige tones and contrast in many of their aircraft, but that aspect is certainly not present in here, as they get it all perfectly right. Yes you can detail very well a C172SP (which Carenado also do very well), but this is on totally another scale The level of quality and realism is always going forward, but once you see almost no areas that "could" be created by a 3d tool, then you have the ultimate realism... the reality of the cockpit just takes over. Detail can be interesting areas, take the rear cockpit air-vents and the lovely overhead lighting... ... all beautifully crafted and created, and nice touch is when the cockpit door is closed you can drop down the jump seat, the pilot's and first officer's armrests are also animated. Seat detail is astounding, with chrome lifters and the knob lever to raise or lower the seating position in detail. Nice yokes can be hidden, also have built in AP disconnect and working trim switches. The overhead panel (OHP) is surprisingly large for the size of the aircraft, but all the different system areas and switchgear work. The pedestal is also very comprehensive and well detailed. Lets power up. OHP panel colourful Annunciator lights can be set to BRIGHT or DIM, both look authentic, but both settings look brilliant at night... Pedestal is excellent, but the standard X-Plane default FMS is a bit glaring. The real S340 uses the UNS-1K Flight Management System, which is a lovely bit of kit, so this FMS is a bit of a compromise as the XP default FMS is a compromise anyway, it looks not very professional and a bit gaudy as well... the RealityXP GTN750 can also be fitted and if you can afford the high price then that would be my option... but still the Universal original would still be my overriding preference. The Collins Aerospace APS-85 pop-up Autopilot panel is part of an extensive system set out all around the instrument panel, the (A) menu pop-out panel is a good way to see all the system in one location, but at least it is totally authentic. Note the older style radio frequency Collins digital units... the lovely throttle levers and mixture levers are all excellently reproduced here. There is "GUSTLOCK" on the throttles that is released by a switch in to use the lever to lock the yokes forward... when in operation the rear elevators are also locked down. Environmental controls are all mostly automatic, but well replicated here.... Flaps settings are UP - 15º - 20º - 35º. There are two friction levers for the levers that affects the pressure on the throttle movement, try them out at different points to get the best feel results, but as I use a Saitek throttle it affects the speed of the throttle movement... the full friction setting can seen to give quite a slow reaction to the movement. Instrument Panel The full instrument panel looks complicated at first glance but it is not, but there are a lot of small areas and switches that you need to study and know of their operations. The SAAB 340 is not an easy aircraft to jump into and expect to fly without first some study. These are mostly related to warnings and small actions to certain operations. The SAAB has the dual Electronic Attitude Indicator (EADI), and the Electronic Horizontal Situation Indicator (EHSI) instrument system (NAV) as it's primary flying instruments. Many would call it an early glass cockpit layout. Most selections to adjust either display is on the DCP selection panel above right (arrowed). EADI has the Artificial Horizon, Rate of Turn, Turn Coordinator, Pitch and Flight Director operations. ILS and Fast/Slow indicators and AP modes are also displayed. All instruments are Collins instruments inscribed. The EHSI NAV covers heading, Nav1/Nav2 and GPS functions, with VOR1 and VOR2, ADF pointers... the aircraft has two Course pointers with the second pointer connected to the secondary OBS VOR2/ILS dial below left (arrowed). A secondary VOR/ADF pointer instrument is left centre. IAS speed (knts) is top left and Attitude Indicator, Vertical Speed Indicator is right... A clock is far left. Center panel left are the backup instruments for Artificial Horizon, Speed and Altitude. The MFD85 Weather/MAP screen is bottom, but it is basic. There are two sets of Annunciator panels, left the L&R Engine and the larger grid Annunciators. With so many warning lights it does get confusing, certainly as the Master "Warning" and Caution" lights are always going off and pointing to something somewhere, so study and even printouts are required to use all the different annunciators correctly. Engine dial readouts are comprehensive... Engine - Torque, Temp, RPM %, Pressure, Oil Temp and Fuel flows... Middle four dials cover "PROP" RPM, and Prop Pressure and Oil Temp. Both lower dials cover the twin Fuel Quantity. The SAAB has Four Fuel tanks (two either side of each engine), but the are counted as one each side of 2,803 lbs capacity with a 5,606 lbs total capacity. Each half has an XFEED valve to level those two sets of tanks, to level each side there is a CONN Valve that balances the twin sets of tanks across the aircraft. Top right centre is the gear lever with a manual release and lock, Flap indicator and lower a very nice control position indicator. Second Officer position is quite simple, with just the same EADI and EHSI and other main flying instruments in the same arrangement. The only difference is that the pilot's OBS VOR2/ILS dial is replaced by a nice "Fuel Used" counter that can be reset. Autopilot panel glareshield is standard, with the main AP sections centre, with the VOR 1 and VOR 2 frequency radios on either side... Each end is the EHSI NAV DCP panel to set the various functions for each pilot and second officer, it is again a bit complicated and study is required to understand all the complex choices that you have. You have both Rose and ARC heading (below) modes available... Altitude selector is middle top. Side panels are excellent. Pilot's side panel has the Park Brake top, Then a "Flight Recorder" number that can be set, lower is a nice XMIT radio panel that is adjustable by sliders... Tiller Wheel/Knob is set bottom. There are extensive circuit breaker panels but Carenado don't still do active circuit breakers. Second officer's side panel has Oxygen pull top (Oxygen supply pressure gauge is on the upper panel side), TAWS Flap and Rudder Overrides, Pusher disarm... then the "Cockpit Voice Recorder" panel, lower is the same XMIT Radio selection panel. Systems The working aircraft systems on the S340 is comprehensive... From the top of the OHP and left to right is first the "ICE PROTECTION" Then "FUEL" with the noted XFEED and CONN valve switching and the main AIR COND (Conditioning) panel. Lower are the Fire pull handles and Extinguishers. Centre OHP is "ENGINE" covering AC Heat and AC Gen switching, "PROPELLER" (Manual Feathering), AC/DC Electrical Panels and secondary AIR COND Bleed panel (most can be left on "AUTO"). Lower/Front OHP is "STAB & WING", Engine START and the main DC ELEC (Electrical) Panel and main Electrical switchgear, including the EXT PWR and Generator selectors. Far right is another nice set of Annunciators to cover the aircraft's current situation, like open doors and status... Far front OHP is all the 'EXT LIGHTS" lighting, and CABIN switchgear and individual wiper switches. INT (Internal) LIGHTING panel is mid lower panel. Almost every system, switch or selection works as real... there is no doubt this is the most comprehensive Carenado aircraft ever created for X-Plane. If your eyes are not yet glazed over by the sheer amount of system detail you have to absorb, you can now see where the study factor comes in. In a rare publication (for) Carenado they have created a "Systems" manual for this S340, it is not as deep as a formal manual, but it will get you out of trouble and you can download the manual here : Carenado Saab 340B for XP 11 Systems Manuals.pdf and there is also a Carenado Saab 340B for XP 11 Flight Tutorial v1.0 tutorial as well. Provided also is a manual for the X-Plane FMS, and a layout of the DCP Panels. The Librain rain effect plugin is also on the aircraft. It was on the S340 that I first saw the librain plugin in action, and it looked a bit underdeveloped. But Carenado by version v1.1 (release) have done some more refinement and it is very good now. It is also featured on both the cockpit and cabin windows. There are however still a few quirks, one is that the bathroom window rain effects show hanging in the rear of the cockpit, that would be even scary in VR. Second is looking into the cockpit from the cabin you can see all of the rain effects of both of the forward windows? As development does go forward you can expect both areas to be addressed. Flying the Carenado SAAB 340 Spoke and Hub operations today takes us from Daytona, Florida to Atlanta, Georgia. This route is typical of the sort of services the S340 covers, with a maximum 34 passengers and crew. Ground distance is 357 NM and fuel load in lbs is 3692 lbs for a total weight of 27,995 lbs of a max weight of 29,300 lbs. (SimBrief routing). No APU means no hydraulic pressure either, so you have to set the pumps to work manually before removing the chocks, battery power is fine, but you are better on GPU power... Passengers in and loaded... don't forget you still need the GPU cart to start ("NO BAT START" will be extinquished). There is no PROP lever to set the Feather as it is automatic, and the feather position is noted on the Mixture lever gate... so set all throttle and mixture levers to start. Select the IGN switch to on (No 2 engine), press START R and wait for the whine... it comes and boy it is good, this is a brilliant startup procedure aural experience. With an engine providing power and the generator switched on you can now remove the GPU and start No 1 engine the same way as you start No 2... .... you can easily see the startup of the engine from the cockpit, which is rare mostly. Once both engines are settled and warm you are ready to go. Again the running and system sounds just waiting for the engines to come up to operating temperature is really realistic, the aircraft hums with the urge to go. Back in the cabin the experience is awesome and highly realistic from our usual passenger position (note all the seatbelt and EXIT signs), a look out of the window is also extremely real. The real S340 has a HOTEL mode or the engine is running but the gearbox can be disconnected and the prop braked and feathered… usually used for taxiing, as most passengers then freak out that only one propeller is turning while taxiing (most Prop regionals do this fuel saving trick anyway). But you can't brake the Prop here, so the best you can do is switch one Prop to manual and keep it totally feathered. You adjust the mixture on one engine to give the prop bite, but the point of contact is very on/off in too much power or nothing... You can find that sweet spot with one engine at full idle (feathered) and one engine doing the taxiing work and get a nice slowish taxi speed, but personally I would like far more adjustment at the PROP feather stage to stop the surge of power even from one engine. It is just far too full on or off for me, but there was that sweet spot (still a fraction too fast) to control the taxi speed. You can't even advance the mixture to full (MAX) until you are lined up ready to go, it is just too much thrust. I usually set the mixture levers at the hold point, but I couldn't here unless I wanted to visit the scenery. I did try in only starting one engine until I was approaching the taxiway hold point of the runway, then starting the other on the taxi, the effect was quite good, but on part of the engine start as the other engine's generator kicked in you lost your power to the instruments.... but I liked the idea. Note that all three altimeters (including the standby) have to have their pressures adjusted... With Flaps set at 15º, then press T/O INH button by the flap dial... there is the option to use the CTOT - Constant Torque on Takeoff; CTOT is a fancy system to meter fuel during takeoff and during an Auto Coarsen (optimized blade angle of 55 1/2 degrees) event. Turboprops can be finicky about setting takeoff power due to "torque bloom" as the aircraft accelerates, 90% is the recommended position but you can set 100% if the runway is short, the panel is located lower left on the pedestal, and the Auto Coarsen switch is MID-OHP. Speed bugs are adjustable on the IAS Speed dial, but there is a selectable bug as well for speed control in the EADI, which is great for setting both first your rotate speed and then your desired climb speeds. Carenado provides extensive performance tables for takeoff speeds and their weights, highly recommended and worth printing out. As you advance the throttles the range of the engine tones in change are simply amazing, the best I think I have ever heard. You get a different sound for a different engine condition, you really do feel the power and movement in the sounds. Pitch back around 100 +10 knts, and you clear the runway easily, but you have be really aware of right climb pitch and hold it tightly as the flaps are retracted and the speed builds, you need to really concentrate on your flying as the aircraft demands that to keep it all smooth and correct. As the gear goes up you get a very quick peak into the gear bay, and yes it is all very good in there. Feel and control is Amazzzzing, as there is so much feedback as you bank left to clear the airport... rate of climb is 10.2 m/s (2,000 ft/min), which really is a bit tight for a small airliner, you would expect around 3,000 fpm or even more... so you don't climb up as fast as you would think you do so, 1,800 fpm is the line before losing power. You will now need to turn off the CTOT, it is a bit tricky in increasing your power to a slightly higher level, then turning the CTOT off and then resetting the power back to 95% torque. It needs a little practice to get perfect and not lose power when you disconnect the CTOT. It is so easy to go onto the FMS route and wing it, but I want to Fly this aircraft, so I banked left (with permission) than go right to the flightplan.... I want manual control here for as long as I can have it, and it is short cutting the flightplan as well. Even in the cockpit the roar of those General Electric CT7-9B turboprops, 1,305 kW (1,750 shp) is very real, you feel the power as you climb. The S340 has been completely refined to the new 11.30 performance features and details, so power reflections and numbers are exactly correct to the real aircraft. The engine exhausts are poring out the burnt carbons courtesy of 11.30 particle effects, and yes they are very good and realistic. My jollies over I have to get back to and on to the flightplan... the Collins APS-85 pop-up panel is huge and it can easily fill the largest of screens, but thankfully it can be scaled right down to a workable size... Carenado note the APS-85 system as 2-axis, but the official system is actually 3-axis, it looks like a 3-axis system as well in the way you use it. The MFD85 map (weather) screen is positioned very low in the instrument panel, but you can pop it out and even resize it to use both the AP panel and the Map screen in one view (FMS screen as well)... certainly the pro users will scoff and do everything per the normal cockpit routines, but the simulation tools are there if you want them. The autopilot I named "Colin" was now doing all the flying... the A340's service ceiling is 7,620 m (25,000 ft), which again is a surprise but the same as the Dash, the Q400 version can go slightly higher to 27,000ft. Range is 1732 km (935 nmi, 1076 mi) and cruise speed is 467 km/h (252 knots, 290 mph) at 7,620 m (25,000 ft) (range cruise) - Max speed is 502 km/h (271 knots, 312 mph) (VMO) (IAS), 0.5 Mach MMO. Time to finally sit back and revel in the safe purr of the twin CT7-9B engines, all with the range of sounds that still astounds me... it is nice up here. Lighting As expected the lighting system in Carenado's S340 is complex, but exceptional.... Panel drop down lighting is adjustable as is the panel instrument lighting. Main cockpit lighting is via two overhead lights, both on via the "Dome" OHP switch, but either side can be switched on via either pilots side switches... Adjustable Yoke document holder lighting is absolutely gorgeous, it also highlights the yokes other text items. Two directly click on/off forward overhead spots are powerful and can be moved to shine on to the areas required. OHP is in flight mostly just an outline of the systems... note the battery temp, and the temp display can switch to three positions; L Bat/R Bat and Fuel temp. It is not what you want to see in-flight, but the annunciator warning lighting is very impressive. As expected the cabin lighting is extraordinary... ... as the realism factor is overwhelming. You can spend hours trying out the different lighting conditions in by the way you use the overhead seating lighting, the various window and overhead lighting selections to get the effect you want. I did however find an odd situation in that the rear of the cockpit was constantly lit... I wanted a fully dark cockpit and the adjusted instrument lighting for night takeoffs and landings, but no matter how many adjustments I made in the cockpit I made it was just always too bright? The worst was either side rear (below) and on the rear of the pedestal... I was about to give up and then I found the offending lighting... it was a lot of bleed from the galley light and it was coming into the rear of the cockpit, turn off the galley light and the cockpit finally went dark. I doubt Carenado can actually fix this bleed, but at least with the galley light turned off I can set up the instrument lighting perfectly for the night time operations (below). External lighting is very good as well. Beacon, Navigation and Strobe lighting which is all excellent as well as the engine positioned wing (Ice) lighting... logo tail lighting is really well done with the lights shaded outward..... ... highlight is the inner wing landing lights that illuminate the underside of the aircraft and give a brilliant view of the engines out of the cabin windows, a lot of users get very excited about these sort of features, but in this aspect you can't blame them. There is a single taxi light on the front gear strut. In flight Your aim is for a dull instrument and OHP. No warning lights or anything flashing will make you happy, but with so many different systems and switch positions it is harder to achieve nirvana than what you think it is. I personally would like more brightness on the EADI/EHSI displays, they certainly look good, but can be a little dull in some lighting conditions... you don't need a lot but something, and overall they look dull in context with the rest of the instrument panel. ET time on your EHSI is really your block to block timer and not to destination, very nice though and selected on the DCP panel. Blinds are animated and move to any position... handy. Arrival at KATL now had a wind and runway change, so my initial 27R was changed to RWY 10, so the flightplan was abandoned for a circuit approach to RWY 10. Final to KATL RWY 10 (IOMO) One speed bug can be set to control your speed in too fast or too slow on the EADI, the other bugs are set to your flap position speeds as required. 160 knts is flaps to 7º, and the approach speed of 140 knts is 15º flaps... gear down. You actually hear the hydraulic pumps working and thump.. thump as the gear locks into place. ... final speed bug sets the speed at around 118 knts and flaps at 35º, you can go straight from 15º flap to 35º without any due course. Speed control is tricky, but experience will help in getting the right numbers, my worries are always the full mixture speeds on landing, any adjustment lower and that on/off power causes issues and you stop, the other setting is far too much power and the aircraft is hard to slow down. Stall speed dirty (flaps down) in landing configuration is 82 knots. Control on finals is excellent, but you really have to work the yoke to keep the S340 straight, not big movements but tight small ones. BETA mode works well, set the X-Plane "Full Reverse Thrust" key/trigger to activate the BETA mode, the top blue annunciator lights note the reverse thrust is activated. Finding that idle/taxi speed was again a distraction, I sorta found something, but you needed the throttle set quite high to move and KATL has a lot of angled taxiiways that saps the speed... At the gate, remember to switch on the GPU before shutting down the engines... Liveries Carenado supply one blank livery for the S340 and nine branded, all of course are excellent and highly detailed... but two of the liveries in the airlines supplied have already gone bust? SAAB favorites are well represented, with excellent Loganair (Scotland), Flybe, Silver, Nextjet and REX Australia. 459 S340's were built between 1983 and 1999, but still 210 S340s are still in service with 34 operators around the world. So there is a lot of choice of brands to choose from. And the current fleet average is at 35,277 h and 39,446 cycles – a mean 0.89h per flight, less than halfway of its remaining life. SAAB has also extended the airframe life from 45,000 to 80,000 flight hours and 90,000 cycles and so the Saab 340 should remain in service for at least another 30 years. As the FSX/P3D Carenado version has been already released a few years, there is already a huge crossover of liveries ready available and with loads more coming to the X-Plane.Org near you... currently here are a few already released... with Norwegian, Westjet, American Eagle, Delta, Crossair (launch airline) and Air Rotatonga. Summary 2019 will be a banner year in X-Plane if you love regional aircraft. FJS are redoing their Dash Q400 to a high standard, SSG have their CRJ-700, X-Craft's has the ERJ-145, The JROLLON CRJ-200 is supposed to be also in redevelopment... but the first of the year's batch is now released in this fabulous SAAB 340 from Carenado, yes the Carenado version is not the first S340 in X-Plane as that title goes to the Leading Edge version, but this is the brand new and up to date 11.30 version were as the LES is an highly updated early XP10 version. This S340 version also certainly gives all the other regional aircraft a major high starting level to compete with as this S340 is already a class leader. The questions were out there in the fact that would a segment dominating developer house with general aviation would then be able to move into another far more higher and technical (study) grade category or just deliver their usual but in a far bigger size. That question is now without doubt here, as this S340 is an outstanding aircraft and I would note it as "Study" grade as the systems and details delivered are also very highly developed, but only a user with the full understanding of the aircraft's systems and quirks would only ultimately be able to answer the "Study" question. But make no doubt, in that this Carenado aircraft DOES require a lot of study to understand how it operates, it is highly complex and you will require a lot of time to really get everything worked out and operational, even in the few weeks of doing this review there was a lot of ground to cover and a lot to learn, so the aircraft is certainly not for the novice or users that have not had much experience in high level complex aircraft. In the design and details, the the S340 really does deliver and again in many areas it even sets the new higher standard. Quality here is simply outstanding a level above, but I always look to the side points and not the focus areas to see if the detail is covered and how well those areas are done. So the points of like hidden under the pilot's seat are as detailed as the artificial horizon instrument, and that is so why cabins are always and usually the benchmark. Why because they are really an add on factor and not the focus of the actual aircraft, if the developer has devoted as much resources to these side areas you can be fully aware the rest of the aircraft is going to be just as good. In the S340 this cabin is outstanding, and maybe now even the best airliner cabin in X-Plane, as the detail is excellent, but so also are all the amazing features, if this area can reach such a high standard the rest is simply a no-brainer. The attitude to a highly developed cabin is always going to be controversial, from my perspective they bring a whole concept to the simulator, a whole compete airline that adds in a different dimension... and yes I am a huge fan when they are so right as it is here.. Sounds are exceptionally good as well, and aircraft were you feel and hear sounds that reflect and adjust to the realism of the real world aircraft and you actually "believe" you are in that aircraft then the developer has delivered exceptional sounds, both the important areas in the cockpit to the cabin are all well covered as is the feel and noise of those lovely CT7-9B turboprops, the sounds and effects totally deliver here end of story. So are there any negatives? All the issues are really nit-picking rather than the glaring variety. Carenado sometimes delivers aircraft that have a poor range in the idle/taxi mode, and that is also the case here, as in this S340 it is very hard to find the sweet spot in a controllable taxi speed, so in most cases you are being pulled fast towards the scenery with heavy braking, as it is all very on/off and with no middle range to find the right taxi speed and the aircraft on landing finds it hard to translate down to a decent taxi speed with the engines either roaring or feeble in their power response, it takes the edge out of the full total entertainment factor. Light bleed into the cockpit from the galley is work-aroundable, but annoying and the now older Carenado menu system is 2D (No good for VR) and limited for an aircraft of this scale. The rest is pure perfection. Reading this extensive review and you will understand the depth and quality delivered here by Carenado with their S340, but even after all that in the sheer overwhelming detail and features presented here there is another one big final surprise... the price. US$39.95, and that is not a sale or reduced price either... it is the actual price. So the value is as outstanding as much as the aircraft delivered, my price on this aircraft with what you see delivered would be US$59.95, so it is priced US$20 below what in my case thinks is it's actual value. Big review and a lot ground covered with the Carenado SAAB 340, but it certainly delivered on all levels, certainly this an aircraft to savour and totally enjoy, but requires a lot of study and skill.... the highlight of 2019 by this date.... Highly Recommended. _______________________________ The SAAB 340 XP11 by Carenado is NOW available! from the X-Plane.Org Store here : SAAB 340 XP11 Priced at US$39.95 Features : Latest X-Plane 11 enhancements: Engine design optimized for XP11 new turboprop model Flight dynamics optimized for latest improvements in XP11 Ultra-High resolution Model High-end 4k PBR (Physically-based Rendering) graphics throughout, with ultra-realistic materials rendition (Dynamic reflections, realistic metal and dielectric materials, etc.) Includes 9 highly detailed liveries Extensive HDR lighting with gimballed 3D lights and dynamically illuminated tail logo and ice lights for amazing night lighting effects Extensive VR support with snap points in every passenger seat (All knobs, buttons, dials, handles, etc. also optimized for VR usage) Functional stewardess control panel Visible and functional Ground Power Unit All passenger seats support seat backs, table trays, arm rests, HDR reading lights, stewardess call buttons. Main door has optional retractable passenger stairs. Extensive Custom Systems Functional gust lock system Custom electrical system Custom Starter Logic Custom Fuel System Custom prop logic Custom Bleed Air System Custom Avionics busses Custom Hydraulic Logic (Requires, among other things, pressurizing brake lines prior to chock removal) Custom Electrical Temperature system Custom de-ice logic Custom independent windshield wiper logic (with functional off and park positions) Airspeed Indicator with "Barber Pole" and functional test sequence Support for "librain" plugin, including wiper support (Requires separate plugin install) Librain support also includes visual ice effects on windows. Ground steering (tiller) system Includes air conditioning, pressurization, and oxygen system Custom EHSI and EADI instruments and custom MFD85 with moving map, all featuring detachable pop-up windows Features reversionary logic for EHSI and EADI. Custom APS85 Autopilot with detachable pop-up window Integrated FMS with detachable pop-up window (Laminar default) Other features End-user customizable via Manifest.json file. Runs latest SASL 3.5.1 plugin software (optimized, improved features, and latest fixes) Goodway compatible RealityXP GTN750 support (with 3D panel display support High-end 4k PBR (Physically-based Rendering) graphics throughout, with ultra-realistic materials rendition (Dynamic reflections, realistic metal and dielectric materials, etc.) Fully customized in-depth annunciator logic Fully customized in-depth aural warning logic Fully customized in-depth throttle logic, with friction control, gate, flight idle and flight idle override. Fully customized Custom Torque on Take-Off (CTOT) system Fully customized pusher (anti-stall) logic In-depth FMOD sound design implementation, including distance effects, realistic prop reversal effects, etc Requirements X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4Gb VRAM Minimun - 8Gb+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 582Mb Current version and Review Version 1.1 (March 5th 2019) Installation and documents: Download for the SAAB 340 XP11 is 569.20 Mb and the unzipped file is deposited in the aircraft "Regional Aircraft" X-Plane folder at 805 mb. (there is no "Regional Aircraft" folder in the X-Plane aircraft folder, so just make one... you will need it anyway) Both the LIbrain rain effects is required to use the new feature. Documentation: Huge amount of documentation, with Laminar FMS manual, Performance and reference tables. Carenado_SF34_Version History.rtf Copyrights.pdf Credits.pdf DCP.pdf Recommended settings XP11.pdf S340 Emergency Procedures.pdf S340 Normal Procedures.pdf S340 Overhead Panel Layout.pdf S340 Performance Tables.pdf S340 Reference.pdf X-Plane FMS Manual.pdf Thranda also provide for download for the Carenado S340 a Flight Tutorial v1.0 tutorial and a S340B for XP 11 Systems Manual Carenado Saab 340B for XP 11 Flight Tutorial v1.0s.pdf Carenado Saab 340B for XP 11 Systems Manuals.pdf ______________________________________________________________________ Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton  11th March 2019 Copyright©2019 : X-Plane Reviews  (Disclaimer. All images and text in this preview are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications:  Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.31 (v11.30 is required for this aircraft) Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro US$69.90 : WorldTraffic 3.0 Plugin - US$29.95 : LIbrain rain effects - Free Scenery or Aircraft - KDAB - Daytona Beach by Aerosoft / Stairport Sceneries (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$28.99 - KATL - Atlanta International by Nimbus Simulation (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$23.95 
  13. News! - Aircraft Released! : Saab 340 by Carenado Carenado have released the Saab 340 for X-Plane11. Carenado was originally mostly always associated with the general aviation market. But a few years ago Carenado changed their direction upwards, with first to the big twin-engined six to ten seaters like the Dornier Do 228, but a true airliner, even a regional one, was not really an aircraft you would associate with Carenado. This SAAB 340 was the the first true airliner for Carenado when released for the FlightSim community a few years back, but for X-Plane it was not really on the table as a release (my guess is because of X-Plane11 and its very changeable performance and dynamics). But with the release of X-Plane11.30 then the situation has of course changed. The Saab 340 is no stranger to X-Plane as for the Leading Edge version has been available for years, Although well updated.... it is still an old X-Plane design. A quick first look at the Careando S340 says, this is a very nice aircraft. Cockpit is pure SAAB, but also very Carenado... if there is such a feel? The feature list is huge : High-end 4k PBR (Physically-based Rendering) graphics throughout, with ultra-realistic materials rendition (Dynamic reflections, realistic metal and dielectric materials, etc.) Fully customized in-depth annunciator logic/aural warning logic/throttle logic, with friction control, gate, flight idle and flight idle override. Custom EHSI and EADI instruments and custom MFD85 with moving map, all featuring detachable pop-up windows Integrated FMS with detachable pop-up window (Laminar default) Custom APS85 Autopilot with detachable pop-up window Fully customized Custom Torque on Take-Off (CTOT) system Fully customized pusher (anti-stall) logic In-depth FMOD sound design implementation, including distance effects, realistic prop reversal effects, etc. Functional gust lock system Custom electrical system/Starter Logic/Fuel System/prop logic/Bleed Air System/Avionics busses/Hydraulic Logic (Requires, among other things, pressurizing brake lines prior to chock removal)/Electrical Temperature system/de-ice logic Custom independent windshield wiper logic (with functional off and park positions) Airspeed Indicator with “Barber Pole” and functional test sequence RealityXP GTN750 support (with 3D panel display support) Extensive VR support with snap points in every passenger seat (All knobs, buttons, dials, handles, etc. also optimized for VR usage) Extensive HDR lighting with gimballed 3D lights and dynamically illuminated tail logo and ice lights for amazing night lighting effects Ground steering (tiller) system Includes air conditioning, pressurization, and oxygen system Features reversionary logic for EHSI and EADI. All passenger seats support seat backs, table trays, arm rests, HDR reading lights, stewardess call buttons. Main door has optional retractable passenger stairs. Functional stewardess control panel Visible and functional Ground Power Unit End-user customizable via Manifest.json file. Goodway compatible Engine design optimized for XP11.30’s new turboprop model Flight dynamics optimized for latest improvements in XP11.30. Support for “librain” plugin, including wiper support (Requires separate plugin install) Librain support also includes visual ice effects on windows. One of the huge features here is the highly dynamic cabin... Moving seatbacks, moving shades, custom overhead seat lighting, full individual cabin lighting and panel, call buttons and even moveable armrests and drop down seat table trays. Breathtaking! Included is : 9 HD liveries. 1 HD Blank livery S340 Emergency Procedure PDF S340 Normal Procedures PDF S340 Performance Tables PDF S340 Reference PDF S340 Overhead Panel Layout PDF DCP PDF X-Plane FMS PDF Recommended Settings XP11 PDF Has there been external stairs on a Carenado before? not sure, but there is now... Recommended System Requirements Windows XP – Vista – 7 -10 or MAC OS 10.10 (or higher) or Linux X-Plane 11 CPU: Intel Core i5 6600K at 3.5 ghz or faster. Memory: 16-24 GB RAM or more. Video Card: a DirectX 12-capable video card from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel with at least 4 GB VRAM (GeForce GTX 1070 or better or similar from AMD) 755MB available hard disk space First impressions really count... brilliantly done and that cabin is to die for. Systems and performance are tricky and require a lot of study to work your way around the cockpit, instruments and the autopilot also requires some study.. sounds are incredible, as they are very realistic externally but very good internally and again in the cabin, It will take time to learn and fly correctly, so don't expect that from the first flight, my thoughts are a semi-grade to full study aircraft. Price is noted as ... US$39.95 Now Available from Carenado ________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 20th January 2019 Copyright©2019: X-Plane Reviews
  14. News! - Incoming! : Saab 340 by Carenado Release is getting close for Carenado's next big regional aircraft for X-Plane11... the Saab 340 is a niche aircraft for commuter and regional hub and spoke operations, but that niche with Beechcraft B1900 is very tight market. Interestingly the Beech 1900 is not actually directly competitive with the S340 because the B1900 has only 19 seat to the Saab's 36, but they do the same sort of routings... After the huge success of the last major new design of the excellent Citation Jet then Carenado has "runs on the board" with the S340. No doubt most will compare the new S340 with the Leading Edge version, but although the Leading Edge aircraft has had a lot of updates throughout the years, it is now overall a far older design. Carenado have released some newer images to view over... Expect GTN 750 integration, full custom real world S340 FMOD sound, HD quality pro textures (4096 x 4096), also expect also 9 HD liveries and 1 HD Blank livery. The FSX/P3D version is priced at US$44.95, so I expect that price to be current for X-Plane as well.... release, well soon, but I would say later next week. Images and text are courtesy of Carenado ________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 23rd January 2019 Copyright©2019: X-Plane Reviews
  15. Aircraft Review : Cessna 172SP SkyHawk XP11 by Carenado As the Cessna 172SP is overwhelmingly the most popular general aviation aircraft in the world with 44,000+ built since 1955, you can expect then that X-Plane or any other simulator for that matter, has too represent the aircraft on their platform... In X-Plane there are quite a few, first and foremost is the default version from Laminar Research in both the analog and G1000 versions, plus the REP (Reality Expansion Pack) for this aircraft from SimCoders. AirFoilLabs also have a very deep version with the same sort of REP pack built in... and so did Carenado with their C172N Skyhawk II. So you have quite a choice of the same sort of C172 design, certainly the Laminar version has an enormous advantage in that it is delivered as part of the simulator and is free. So here Carenado have released the X-Plane11 (and 11.30 compatible) version, but it isn't anything like the earlier C172N. For one the new version is totally rebuilt even redesigned from the ground up and also changed with the (Garmin) G1000 avionics suite, and oddly enough it is the same Laminar system that is installed as the default aircraft. The analog dial version is now gone, as so also has the dual wheel/float versions... it is to say really that the original aircraft has been replaced with a more modern single version of the aircraft. I don't know if the older analog version will still be ongoing and in the future available, but currently it is still displayed on the X-Plane.OrgStore. Obviously it is an XP10 aircraft but the aircraft will still fly fine in XP11, but this aircraft doesn't take advantage of the XP11 features. So if you prefer the analog version, then the AirfoilLab version is your best choice, but it is deathly slow.... even with a tail wind! Cessna 172SP SkyHawk XP11 Obviously the point of this review is why pay for an aircraft when there is a pretty good free version, and it is a very fair point. Because at it's heart the C172Sp is a pretty basic aircraft in the first place. So it is hard to distinguish the differences, but they are there, you just have to look for them. I have always looked at aircraft of the genre in that you don't just buy them just to fly. You are in a way more of taking an ownership of them, certainly when it comes to vFlyteAir aircraft... it is a personal thing. More so if you actually fly a C172, or even more so if you want to fly a C172... or even have done so in the past the significance of ownership is going to be a factor in wanting the aircraft. So authenticity is then the main factor here in any purchase in to be as real as the same Cessna is in real life, and that is more important an aspect than what you think it is... more so if you want to spend your flying hours mostly restricted to only a few types of aircraft of which a real world or as a past life pilot would only do so. In that aspect then again the AirfoilLab's version would tick a lot of boxes. But as you get closer to the new Carenado version, something else again strikes you on how again the game has moved forward... to the normal eye this C172SP all looks the same outwardly, but it isn't... Outwardly developers have always wanted to create aircraft panels with detail, perfect rivets, screws and panel fit. But the realism factor can be a wide margin from flat panels with drawn rivets to the intricate detail... detailing. Careando have here gone that next step further in this aspect. Carenado panels were always very good, and highly detailed. But with a new process they are now taking the quality to another level and using the PBR materials to even a higher level than ever before, and with a better framerate to boot as well. Yes this process has been on most Carenado aircraft on all of their XP11 releases, but not to this newer level as 11.30 pushes the game out further. Note the shape of the tail-fin metal in the light, it is curved or bending as the metal shapes into being pulled or stretched across the aircraft's inner frame, the trick here is that the warping of the surface in an inner dent movement reflects that construction aspect as well as panel fit and outward bulges. Riveting is now not only the quality rivets, but it is in the dent itself it is as they create the fastening movement into the actual metal to more show realism... ... what is far more remarkable about these images, is that they are created in the X-Plane quality texture setting of "Maximum" and not in the top notch setting of "Maximum (no compression)" either. And as we will see the quality of this sort of detail at this setting is set out right throughout the aircraft, so in other words "you can have your cake (In lower quality settings) and eat it as well (with high sharp quality detail graphics). On an odd note though, the lighting wicks are now not animated and don't flicker in the wind, like they used to do on all Carenado aircraft. So all the detail is simply absolutely top notch, and as a highly realistic Cessna that you can almost touch... With the 11.30 new dynamic features you get of course particle effects, but to note that there is a difference between the effects in 11.30 and the actually adjusted effects in X-Plane11.30 as shown here... the C172SP was late in release in waiting for Laminar to go 11.30 final, but with that case then you get the effects, and the correctly adjusted ones by the developer now included... more on the 11.30 performance aspect later. The C172SO is a tiddler of an aircraft, so these effects are going to be minimal. However the hot exhaust is well done, you also get the odd small contrail off the wings and the wheel housings, wet conditions also brings flumes of spray off the propeller thrust, and all give the C172SP a bit more dynamic realism, but the point is that these new particle effects are finely adjusted for this aircraft, and not just with the switch over factor in using 11.30... and there is a difference. You get in the options the choice of the aerodynamic fairings, or the plain open wheels. Strut and assembly wheel detail is of course excellent. Cabin The internal cabin is all new, and reflects the more later variant of the C172 than an early model... nice soft leather seating with lovely dark grey plain weave inserts have the same materials reflected on the cabin walls..... One piece molded roof with fittings gives this standard C172 a more executive feel than a bare bones trainer.... note again the high quality and the sharpness of the detail.... with the quality texture setting that is still not at the full Max setting... ... but you can still see every single screw, every mesh screen and you can easily read any of the many notices set around the panel and cabin in sharp detail. Glass is marked or worn, but the excellent internal reflections deliver that realism required, and for once the reflections are not set as overwhelming... but perfect. Instrument Panel Although the instrument panel surround and to a point the instrument layout itself, it is exactly the same as any other C172 panel. The sharpness of everything is again very clear and realistic when laid out on that nice dark grey background, but also in a very clean if delivering a slightly new aircraft feel. The Garmin G1000 avionics suite does dominate the panel in selection and style. Both Yokes as per usual can be hidden or visual. From the outset the G1000 suite does not look exactly like the Laminar default version, because there have been some visual minor tweeks. It is the same system, but with the artificial horizon on the PFD (Primary Flight Display) being more authentic with the slight central zone being more lighter (brighter) than around the edges, If you remember (or it still is) the default G1000 system is still a very dark brown lower and hard blue upper horizon, which I never ever really liked... this version is excellent, but I will note the display lightness (non adjustable) in that the displays can be slightly dark at different lighting angles, but again it does look far, far more professional than the default G1000... it is branded as Garmin as well instead of G1000. The displays pop-out, but again they are different, in here using the X-Plane11 window layout than just the straight display pop out? You may not like this version as you have to adjust the blank background areas to fit neatly around the display screen, the default version is just as tricky as the G1000 panel can be pulled out of it's scale and shape, but it does look better without the top tabs... but there is a reason for this new pop-out change, as you can now also pop the window out now as a computer window to separate the displays from the simulator, and that is obviously for home cockpit builders or second monitor screens. Most are now very familiar with the default G1000 system, but it does still have a lot of depth. Standard speed and altitude ribbons with built in vertical speed are really good with the rate of turn indicator and all set within the huge Artificial Horizon with built in FD (Flight Director) pointers, as is the radio and autopilot settings in the top banner. Insert (MAP) is switchable and with a good range, but I rarely us it, and all this with those new background graphics... and all together this layout set out in this PFD in actually helps in to making this G1000 feel more realistic All lower keys access ALERTS, NRST, TMR/REF (Timer) and of course the Wind strength and direction with comes with three settings, and the same three switchable DME/GPS/VOR1/2 backgrounds with all their points shown are on the heading rose dial. I earlier found these menu driven systems quite confusing, but is now far more used to them, but however at times you can still get lost in overriding key settings. Two set items are the AP (Autopilot) buttons are down the PFD left panel side as well as the MFD (Multi Function Display), and it is surprising that most G1000 layouts don't do this, but habit means I still use the MFD buttons (the yoke covers some of the buttons on the left). Another item thankfully missing on the PFD is the engine monitor system display, again it crowds up the artificial horizon if set hard in place. On the MFD There has been some quiet additions that rounds the system out more. It feels now far more comprehensive. Engine readout covers RPM, Fuel Flow GPH (Gal per hour), Oil Pressure and Temperature, EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature ) and Vacuum. Fuel quantity is for both tanks. Lower is the Electrical Bus Volts M and E and Battery amps M and E. System switchover (data) covers top RPM, Oil Pressure and Temp. Fuel Calculations show Fuel Flow GPH, GAL USED, GAL REM (Remain) and can be reset. Lower is the same Electrical Bus Volts and Battery amps. All flight plans can be tedious to input, but they do then give you the data feedback. Any imported flightplans do work fine, but you miss out on the detail You can select either Narrow or Wide in the flightplan screen layout, I prefer the wide (unless I need the large navigation map) as it gives you a lot of detailed info on the display. The default G1000 always gave you more detail and airport information than most custom G1000 systems.... .... Terrain and coloured terrain elevations are all in the package, but overall there are far too many settings and uses for this review. Carenado do provide a full G1000 Manual (Laminar) in the set of documents with the aircraft, it is a long read (133 pages) but if you want to completely master the G1000 avionics system, then it is worth all the effort and time. Lower instrument panel is a basic C172 layout... Switchgear dominates, with main power and avionic switches upper left, panel lighting adjustment and external lighting switches below. Center are three backup analog dials that cover Speed, Artificial Horizon and Altitude. Lower panel is the starter switch, fuses, throttle and mixture levers... far right is the three stage flaps lever with UP - 10º - 20º - FULL positions with a nice graphic showing the flap extraction speeds. Two knobs cover cabin heat and cooling... One switch is interesting as it is noted as "Cabin PWR 12V" that has an outlet on the lower centre console panel, and a higher set switch that is the "Standby Batt" Standby Battery switch. Lower is the park brake handle left, rotating pitch trim wheel, and fuel selector on the floor. Fuel selection can left or right tanks or both, but there is a pull knob to shut off the fuel supply (in red). Menus The standard two Carenado menu tabs are on the left lower screen with selections: C ) Is for the standard Carenado with ten preselected Views, Field of View and Volume panel but included are now two views for each of the new G1000 displays. And O ) which is the Options panel. Options include Window and Instrument reflections. The Static elements provided and here they are still quite basic with only two cones, manual electric aircraft puller, engine inlet and flag pitot covers, but no chocks? The wheel "Fairing" selection is here as well. Door animations include both pilot and co-pilot doors and a small baggage door left rear (behind the rear seats). The twin highly realistic (and new) animated pilots do disappear when you activate the static elements. This classic Carenado menu system has been in operation for ages, and yes it is tested and true. But I am starting to find it a bit limiting compared now with other GA aircraft offerings of the same category. It is in the flexibility that you miss. If say you have the static options on then you get everything including the ugly puller, as there is no flexibility to say to just have the chocks, or the tie-downs or even the pilots off/on as it is simply all or nothing? Flying the C172SP XP11 If you had read my last review of the Faroe Islands. I did a twin hop from Gatwick (EGKK), and so my return flights it was my intention to go back via Sumburgh on the Shetland Island, because I had simply not been there for a long time. The aircraft in the review was FJS Q400, but I thought why not go back to Scotland (via EGPB) in the C172SP... which is really a dangerous thought with the Faroes being right in the middle of a weather hell on earth with the mid-winter North Atlantic at it's seasonal worse, it wasn't a choice I had a matter in? But low and behold the day (mid-January) was a lovely and with a brightly shining morning with a light 3knts breeze... good enough to give the C172 tiddler a chance of doing the open water crossing to the Shetland Isles... Fuel was 133kgs (as noted by SimBrief), but the actual block fuel was only 49kg for the actual trip, but 53kg extra was needed for any diversion? At least it gave you a security blanket. Pre-flight checks done and the 133kgs of fuel loaded, it was time to warm up the engine. You have to have the "Stby Batt" armed (for the extra heave to start the engine) and set the fuel selection to both tanks.. it took about 4 min running to get the Lycoming O-320-D2J (160 hp (119 kW) at 2700 rpm) up to the right temperatures. 11.30 has more functionality with carb icing and fuel flow with icing... but in the C172 you don't have a lot of control over that. So you have to be aware of the engine instruments to watch out for any inconsistencies, so this is not the review to convey or review those 11.30 changes, anyway a twin-prop would be a better aircraft to observe and document the effects. A bit of throttle and you instantly realise you don't need that usual Carenado high forward movement here to turn the aircraft, as the 172SP will turn almost as soon as you are moving, it all feels smoother as well. Note the PFD display, dull in the shade but perfect in the bright light. You still can't use wide movements to steer the Cessna, just slight intricate motions to keep it straight, again it does feel far smoother. Line up on RWY12 and a last check around the instruments. You still need that Carenado very slow throttle adjustment as you add in the power, as the C172SP will still pull heavily to the right under the prop thrust, you go from a little right rudder to a lot of right rudder to again a little right rudder as the speed builds, it can be still quite slippery almost yawing if you push in the power too hard, but there is an enormous amount of feel being fed back to you and far more than before... personally I like it a lot, the 11.30 dynamics are certainly better in this Cessna, but I am still doubting if Laminar have still got the ground friction numbers right, more time and different aircraft will build up that theory, but my first feel is no. 550fpm is the climb out rate and the aircraft feels sprightly for the 1160 kg all up weight. Handling... very impressive and responsive, I love the feel of the aircraft, as it feels about perfect. I am climbing up to 3000ft, then trimming the aircraft out which is easy (and to do the adjustment) and getting the aircraft stable. You only have a pitch trim, so you have to watch any drift to the left or right, but in reality, however when once trimmed out you can adjust even any direction with slight single finger movements of corrections... lovely. The flightplan takes the aircraft over the main island of Streymoy, but I want to go around the headland before joining up to the plan, it gives you a bit of a better sightseeing view as well... it is lovely up here in the crisp clean morning light. Once clear of the headland, I made a beeline for the flightplan line... Once on the right track I decided to climb up to 5,000ft, up out of any low cloud. SimBrief noted to stay at 3,000ft, but 5,000ft felt like the better option. Climb was at 450fpm, with the mixture high in not losing any speed, once I got up to the altitude I leaned the aircraft out and settled in for the long passage. In reality this is a very simply aircraft, certainly to fly, but that does not mean that you are getting a very dull experience in return, in fact it is quite the opposite as the aircraft is certainly very realistic to fly, but the feedback and even the depth of the G1000 instruments are as deep or as light as you want them to be... MFD is very versatile, with many map configurations and layouts... ... from full navigation screens to both narrow and wide flightplan views... note leaning the fuel to find the right balance is a bit of an art, but if you find the right point of just on the white band on the RPM you will find the rest of the fuel flow and engine temperatures will fall into place, depending of course on the weather conditions. Topo, Terrain and airways can all be shown and used... One odd thing is that the standard manipulators on the panel are different to the pop-out hand pointers? The hand pointers can be hard to use until you work out where the active areas are? Lower panel is a red button labeled "DISPLAY BACKUP" this changes the displays as if one display goes wonky, or blank... They change into an emergency "get you home" mode, with a black background and PFD instruments on the MFD, and the engine display comes on in the PFD, if you like this style then it is yours to use, but access to the panels are restricted.... it is only a get you home tool. Sounds Sounds are FMOD and come with the usual 360º doppler effect. They are of course very good, but the C172 does not come with a huge range of sounds, the bonus is of course they all sound really good, as they don't have those bad repetitive or droning phases that drive you so batso or annoy you. all in all the sounds covered the full spectrum that you want and you enjoy the aural experience. The Shetlands are now large on the map, so it is time to lower the altitude, and set below the cloud cover are the islands... when descending you have to work the throttle with a bit of feel and precision, so as to not let the speed runway as you descend and then rethrottle perfectly when you arrive at your altitude so as you don't lose too much speed... all management. I go to manual and fly neatly around the headland, Sumburgh's RWY 09 is quite tricky for an approach as it is snuggly positioned well back into a corner... .... at least the weather is good, it is a hard and even a dangerous approach in bad weather, which is usually most of the time up here. I am finding the manoeuvrability of the C172SP really nice, you get a certain flow that you enjoy the movements. I do find a big difference though between the older and newer 11.30 dynamics, and I will be honest I will have to adjust my flying skills to the new feel and flow, it does feel sensational though but requires more thought and yoke and rudder inputs, I have landed the C172 several times now, but I still don't think I perfected the feel, this is certainly not the aircraft but the changes in the aerodynamic performance, it feels though really great... My old style approaches are now landing me too high and too long? speed is correct under flap FULL, but the C172SP just won't descend or slightly floats in the final section of flight.... I feel I need to be more braver on the lower throttle speed. 60knts-58knts is the balance speed, go too high and you float, but go below and you start to stall (Stall is a low 40 knts).... tricky but fun. The numbers worked for you as well which shows that the simulation of the aircraft was excellent... I used in fuel 53 kg (SimBrief noted 49 kgs) but that was at 3,000ft and not 5,000ft, so my guessing with the extra climb and engine warm up is that the fuel use was on the number. It will be interesting too look back at this review when I have flown a few more types of aircraft that have been processed in the new 11.30 dynamics, but let me stress this isn't the Carenado C172SP here or even X-Plane itself, but me in adjusting to the new feel and dynamics, overall it is excellent, far more smoother to your inputs and I didn't get or feel that huge downward pull of the X-Plane landing phase... and maybe that is the answer in my landing hesitation in the fact I am always ready to counter that negative landing effect, and maybe it is now in 11.30 not as overwhelmingly strong a force as it was before? Night Lighting Internal and panel lighting is quite basic, but very good. You can get the right amount of lighting, but still have very good vision out of the windscreen at night, although the reflections can be strong... here again those slightly dull G1000 displays work to your advantage, and are not over bright in your face... very nice. There are two adjustable (map) lights in the roof over the front seats that illuminates the two front seats and the rear is illuminated by a single on/off switch overhead light. Externally again it is basic... navigation lights, tail beacon and twin in left wing lights for taxi and landing (SP version and above), for once they all feel nicely adjusted. The strobes are bright and sharp, but if you like your replays then fly with them switched off as they are static over bright and don't flash? Liveries You get the standard Carenado livery set with a white blank, then five all American registered designs. Quality as noted is extremely high (4K 4096x4096) resolution, but the designs are all a basic wave or flame on a white background airframe design... so overall they all come out a little boring, Carenado needs to get a little more creative, and add in a few more variations. Summary Don't even compare this Cessna 172SP to any other Carenado (or Alabeo) C172's, as for one it is all brand new from the ground up, effectively a new aircraft, the odd thing is it doesn't look it, until you really look at it's amazing skin and highly detailed design. The interior is all new and modern as well, and of course it comes with the latest Garmin G1000 avionics suite, but again even that default system has had some nice tweeks to make it feel all very non-default in look and feel. The 11.30 enhancements are also the a nice top layer of a very nice all rounded cake, as the C172 flies like a dream and so overall it is quite a nice if perfect little aircraft. But I will note the Carenado brand as a whole as it is in some ways related to this aircraft. No doubt any earlier Carenado aircraft were very high in the list of quality and design, and to a point they had that exclusive mantle to themselves. But Carenado have been around now for a few years, even in X-Plane, and make no doubt in many areas like the sheer quality on show here with is amazing C172SP. You are however now still starting and in getting the feeling that in areas Carenado are becoming too stiff in their packages. Notably in the menu's and features, and that many features that were also standard are now slowly disappearing, like here with the loss of the animated wing edge wicks or chocks, so overall the Carenado's are starting to feel quite basic and not as feature filled as before, and no doubt the opposition are closing in fast and delivering what Carenado don't, the Weights and Balance menu's, separate static elements, active fuses, and not only in supplying a few boring liveries and even a manual to work out the instruments... you sort of get the idea. So the main aspect of this review is why buy the same type of aircraft that is essentially available for free, and comes also built in with X-Plane, but believe it or not there is a significant difference. I'll come back to that ownership feel. Yes the Laminar C172SP is a nice aircraft, but it is quite basic and to be honest it doesn't have any intimate feel about it, not only in the flying aspect, but as an aircraft as a whole... fly this Careando version and you feel like you have signed the purchase papers for it, you will want to run your hands down it's flanks and say "it is all mine"... all MINE and "I love my little C172" and that it is a significant feeling to actually own it, and keep it in your life for the rest of X-Plane11 and even pay to have it all back again for X-Plane12. In other words it is perfect, in a Carenado sort of way... and you will fly it around for hours and hours of absolute joy and maximum simulation, and that is far better deal instead of being stuck in a boring default bland Cessna, even if it is free... Highly Recommended. _______________________________ The C172SP Skyhawk XP11 by Carenado is NOW available! from the X-Plane.Org Store here : C172SP Skyhawk XP11 Priced at US$32.95 Special Features Designed and Optimized for X-Plane 11 Fully VR compatible Full PBR (Superb material shines and reflections) Updated X-Plane default G1000 Features Specially designed engine dynamics for X-Plane 11. Flight physics optimized for XP11 standards Ground handling adapted for XP11 ground physics Physically Based Rendering materials and textures throughout PBR materials authored with industry-standard software used by the film and gaming industries Goodway Compatible Realistic behavior compared to the real airplane. Realistic weight and balance. Tested by several pilots for maximum accuracy Requirements X-Plane 11 X-Plane 11.30 is also required for this aircraft Windows, Mac or Linux 2GB VRAM Minimum - 4Gb+ VRAM Recommended Download size: 410Mb Current and Review Version : 1.1 (January 16th 2019) Installation and documents: Download for the C172SP Skyhawk is 390mb and the unzipped file deposited in the aircraft "General Aviation" X-Plane folder at 461.40mb. Documentation: Overall Carenado provide a lot of documents, including the full Laminar Research G1000 operations manual. C172SP G1000 Normal Procedures PDF C172SP G1000 Emergency Procedures PDF C172SP G1000 Performance tables PDF C172SP G1000 Reference PDF Recommended Settings X-PLANE 11 PDF ______________________________________________________________________ Aircraft review by Stephen Dutton 19th January 2019 Copyright©2019 : X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this preview are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.30 (v11.30 is required for this aircraft) Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro US$69.90 : WorldTraffic 3.0 Plugin - US$29.95 Scenery or Aircraft - Faroe Islands XP by Aerosoft - Maps2XPlane (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$45.99 - EGPB - Sumburgh Airport - EGPB 1.0.0 by Relicroy (X-Plane.org) - Free - X-Plane was converted to the "Winter Textures" by xflyer by the JSGME MOD
  16. Yes it is THAT time of the year again. Carenado's "I must have that before Christmas" sale is now on and you can get up to 50% off most lovely Careando aircraft. Some nice biggies are available here (and for X-Plane11 as well) including the Beech 1900D, King Airs B200 and C90B and the XP11 Caravan. All deals are available till December 16th, so update your hangar now, and have a "very Happy (Carenado) Christmas"... All the deals are here on the X-Plane.OrgStore. ________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 7th December 2018 Copyright©2018: X-Plane Reviews
  17. News! - Coming! - C172SP SkyHawk HD XP11 from Carenado Carenado have been publishing images of their next XP11 release which is the Cessna C172SP. This is not a totally new release from Carenado as their was the X-Plane10 version of the C172SP SkyHawk ll There are a few significant differences between the earlier XP10 version and this release. One this C172Sp XP11 is a single variant with no wheel/float/ski option (it was the N version), but it does come with the full G1000 (X-Plane default) avionics suite package. All Carenado XP11 aircraft comes with these features*: Features Optimized for X-Plane 11 State-of-the-art configurable FPS-friendly logic system Largely VR compatible Full PBR (Superb material shines and reflections Specially designed engine dynamics for X-Plane11 Flight physics optimized for X-plane standards Ground handling adapted for X-Plane 11 ground physics Physically Based Rendering materials and textures throughout PBR materials authored with industry-standard software used by the film and gaming industries X-Plane GNS530 (FPS friendly) Support for RealityXP's GTN750* (integrated into 3D cockpit, when available) *features noted are not official to this aircraft, but generic to all HD XP11 branded Carenado releases No release date or specifications are noted yet, but mid-next week would be a good guide. Price, my guess is around the mid-30's USD$. But already X-Plane already has a few good C172SP's available, with the Laminar (default version), Airfoillabs and the Alabeo C172RG Cutlass, so it better be good or above average to compete. Images and text are courtesy of Carenado ________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 6th December 2018 Copyright©2018: X-Plane Reviews
  18. News! - Coming! - Citation S550 from Carenado Carenado have announced their next release in the S550 Citation personal jet. In the personal jet category then X-Plane11 is seriously unfulfilled. Yes there is the lovely Challenger 300, and the now outdated Hawker 4000, but most jets released are in that VLJ (Very Light Jet) category and not in the larger medium sized aircraft. Carenado did release the Phenom 100, but I was very underwhelmed by the aircraft, as it was insipidly slow and had a few really annoying bugs that were never attended to, it looks nice though as all Carenado's do. It was also a big surprise for a leading edge simulator in that X-Plane had no Cessna Citations either as they are bountiful in the real world, but that hole maybe now be filled... Careando quality is to the usual high quality and the avionics package looks very good, with a semi-glass instrument panel, which is about correct for this generation and age of aircraft. Interior luxury is guaranteed to keep the one percenters happy as they are comforted and flashed to their next expensive deal making meeting No specifications or price is available yet from Carenado, but the Phenom 100 was US$37.95, and the price should be around that for the Citation, if slightly higher to the US$40 mark. Release date is also not noted, but expect soon, or in a week or two. Images and text are courtesy of Carenado ________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 8th October 2018 Copyright©2018: X-Plane Reviews
  19. Aircraft Review : C340 ll HD Series XP11 by Carenado We have all enjoyed that moment, it signifies freedom, and the chains have been cast aside for awhile. It is the end of another long day, and in my case a challenging aircraft to fly and review and there was still a few ends to tie up before the work is finished. Waiting patiently is the next review of Carenado's C340 ll, and so I load it up and pre-pep the aircraft for a flight from Shoreham EGKA on the Southern English coast to Dublin EIDW on Ireland's east coast. It is a simple route via VOR to VOR that is noted up and the whole exercise to just simply just to see what the aircraft is all about and how it flies... First VOR is SAM (113.35) and so after taking off from EGKA's RWY 20, I direct the aircraft to a heading of 290º and trim the aircraft up. My altitude is going to be 15,000ft, so the official rate of climb is 1,650 ft/min (8.38 m/s), but the C340 will easily sit on 1,500 fpm for the first 10,000ft until I reset it for 900 fpm for the last 5,000 ft or so, I get to altitude around SAM and then direct the aircraft towards BND (Boscome Down 108.20) and with the aircraft settled I head back to finish off the other waiting review. As I work the C340 ll purrs it's way over the western England and is heading towards Wales, a quick check of the VOR heading and fuel consumption and I head back and finish off the review... Soon I am done in the reviewing and all the work for the day. The odd thing in reviewing is that you don't actual have time to fly, yes you fly everything but always in the context of the review, so everything is focused on that aspect, and you are messing everything around or heavily changing X-Plane's settings to get the maximum out of the simulator and best performance out of the aircraft or scenery you are reviewing (worse if it is plugin). But now I am finally done for the day, and the C340 ll is still purring along at 180 knts and the indicated TAS ground speed of 220 quite nicely... It is all very nice indeed in here as well. Panel layout is very similar to the 208 Caravan, as that is a Cessna as well. In the rear it is a luxury four seat club layout, all soft pile white leather, and all very comfortable. It is an aircraft cabin that is not too over adorned with fittings, so it all feels clean, plush and modern. The work table is animated with two actions, one to open the top panel and two to pull out the table on the right side of the aircraft... .... but I am not in here to work, so I slide it all away again. Beacon VOR is next (BCN 117.45). Instrument Panel The cockpit is like the sportscar version to the Caravan's utility highset feel, but they are both still very familiar with the creamish backgournd and center pedestal arrangement, and the engine dials are set out here along to top slightly to the right compared to the Caravan's vertical twin dial arrangement. The pilot's instrument package is quite complex and heavily detailed. Standard Six instruments are Airspeed Indicator, Artificial Horizon and the Attitude Indicator positioned top, and the Turn Coordinator, Heading Dial with built-in Course Deviation Bar (CDI) centre and the Vertical Speed Indicator complete the lower set. Left of the SS is the OAT (Outside Temp) top and Astrotech Chronometer below. Right of the SS is the VOR 2 OBS and EDM JPI 760 digital readout and lean find display. Very top of the panel is the Prop anti-ice amp meter, Autopilot display and Bendix/King VOR 2 distance/speed/time display. Lower panel has a very nice and again a very similar set to the Caravan of annunciators that can be tested (arrowed left), lower panel is the oxygen dials and adjustable settings (arrowed right) to keep the cabin at the right pressure as you have a 29,800 ft (9,085 m) ceiling in the C340 ll, on returning back to the ground the system can be also be depressurised via a switch. Digital Fuel Flow readout for each engine and fuel remaining display is left and adjustable radar altitude dial is right. Copilot's side is quite sparse of flying instruments, and most positioned here are in the back up capacity. Airspeed Indicator, Artificial Horizon and the Attitude Indicator are central, with a heading (aircraft silhouette style) and Vertical Speed Indicator... a ADF pointer is left. Top right panel is a Alcor EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature) readout and Suction dial. The aircraft has a very interesting if complex fuel system. Main wing tanks are 50 Gal each and those tanks are the "(Wing) Tip Tanks" and not the in the wing tanks. The inner wing tanks here are the backup "Aux" tanks 31 Gal each, so you have to remember which tanks you are feeding from. On selecting the "Aux" via the floor positioned fuel selector, then if the inner wing aux tanks are selected there are two lights shown (arrowed) for each of the tanks above the fuel gauge, and the gauge is now showing the "Aux" quantity of fuel and not the main fuel quantity. All fuel on each of the wingtip tanks will crossfeed with the opposite tank, but the "Aux" tanks don't crossfeed, and the full fuel capacity is 162 US gallons. The "Aux" fuel pumps can be set to "High" or "Low" but when in flight it is best to switch over in the "low" boost setting to stop any fluctuations of fuel supply. Lower flap selection is noted as UP - 15º (168 kias) - 30º (124 kias) - 45º, and the flap selector can be hard to see from the pilot's position. The engine dials are all twin needle (L & R) with left to right Manifold Pressure, RPM, Fuel Flow... then there is a set of gauges for each engine covering Oil Pressure, CYL (Cylinder) and Oil Temperatures. Equipment stack is just the basics, with a standard issue Garmin 347 audio panel top and two X-Plane Garmin GN350 GPS system's (COM 1/ NAV 1 - COM 2 / NAV 2) below. Then there is a Bendix/King units KR87 TSO ADF and a Garmin GTX 320 transponder below. The crappy basic Bendix/King weather radar rounds out the avionics. The RealityXP's GTN750 can also be used if you have that option. The pilot's left side panel is for electrical. Internal instrument and avionics lighting sliders are lovely and easy to use, external switches are below. The landing light switch acts rather odd? It wants to be a three way but it is actually only a two way operation. This in case it is caused by me having a switch on my Saitek throttle for switching the lights on and off, but the lights also retract into the wing? so my throttle switch will turn them off, but I still have to throw the panel switch to retract the lights themselves, a three way switch would have worked better. There is a very nice Cessna branded AMPS/Volts meter that is switchable.  Right panel is the Air-Conditioner switches, Oxygen cylinder quantity and Hobbs hour meter. Note the very nice Bose branded headset interface. Twin yokes are both beefy and in the "I just want to hold them" category, beautiful is to be almost perfect... sadly or oddly for Carenado the usual electric trim thumb switches don't work?  Center pedestal is almost the exact same as on the Caravan. Top twin sets of levers to cover: Throttles, RPM and Mixtures, side large vertical trim wheel and rudder trim is set in lower and by a roll trim knob. Autopilot is very basic but thankfully pops-up and is also scalable. Two push/pull levers bottom opens or closes the engine vents, but use with caution and watch the engine temperatures. Lighting Lighting is very good, if beautiful as well.... importantly you have very clear instruments. Like the Caravan the instruments are lit indirectly, which gives it all a nice glow to the panel... ... and there is a nice blue glow created by an overhead blue light, and two overhead lights that can only be adjusted directly. There is switch called "Courtesy Light" but I couldn't see or find what it did? Cabin lighting is excellent with four fully adjustable spot lights and one for each seat. The rear entrance door had the odd reflections of the instrument panel? But otherwise the window reflections are excellent. External lighting is also very good with the now standard neon strobes, two offset beacons and navigation lights. When the wingtip landing lights are extended they reflect nicely on the underwing and tip-tanks... taxi light is built into the front wheel strut and switches off on gear retraction. But I am not at 15,000ft to do a review, the work today is now done.... ... nope, and this is my time. This is where we came in, I'm flying now as if I am driving home, that carefree moment that you are tired but happy the day is done, you are taking it all in, and now just flying in X-Plane as it should be. Below the English countryside passes by slowly, and the sweet afternoon light fills the cockpit... The C340 ll is doing all the work. It is time for reflection and the pure joy of flying without the stress, and the C340 ll is very much like that, it is calming and very easy to live with, "this is a damn nice aeroplane". X-Plane is behaving as well, no jutters, no pops... the weather is calm and comforting, it is just you and the sky and you feel it will all go on forever. Time for another heading change and this time at STU or Strumble (113.10) and the final hard turn towards Dublin and out over the Irish Sea... Quality is a known with Carenado, it is usually excellent and the C340 ll does also not disappoint here either. The industry-standard software used by the film and gaming industries is evident in the shine and depth of the Physically Based Rendering materials and textures throughout the aircraft, detailing is again first rate as is the lovely chrome spinners and pitot probes. Glass is reflective and perfectly formed, it is hard to believe now in that in the early days on how bad real reflective glass was, now we take this quality as normal. I really do like the look and feel of the C340 ll, as it is clean and sleek, it feels more like a twin-engined version of a private small jet in say a Lear than a GA. The C340 is nearly as quick as well with a maximum speed of 244 kn (279 mph, 452 km/h) and with those twin large bulbous wing-tanks you get a range of 1,406 nmi (1,606 mi, 2,603 km) at an economy cruising speed. But guilded moments can't last forever, as moments don't last either or they never do... Time to take control as Dublin is coming near. I set my descent at minus 1,400 fpm, but pull the throttles back over half way and the alarm goes off!, I need less speed than that? I Go into the circuit to land from the North on EIDW's RWY 16 and level off about 3,000 ft to roll back the speed. Dublin passes to my left... Turn to approach and heading 16º for the Rwy I drop the gear to get access to the flaps and to be able to lower my approach speed. Undercarriage detail is excellent, as is the extraction (and retraction) of the gear. The flaps are unusual in that they are under of the rear of the engine cowls, but a bonus is that one setting to 15º and the flaps act like airbrakes and control or slow the speed until you can get a more 30º setting and the slower 110 knts in speed, the transition of the flaps to speed is very good with no lift or stall. Internal construction detail in the flap box is very good and highly realistic, as is the nice rear cowl on the front landing gear strut... ... final transition to full 45º flap and a nice 100 knt final approach speed is again effortless, the aircraft is very stable on approach. Like all X-Plane11 aircraft, then throttle control is crucial, as even slight adjustments can gain or lose you height, but don't get me wrong the C340 ll is very easy to fly at this point, and you can put it down anywhere easily. 82 knots is stall but I was 80 knts and still in control to go straight into the flare. There is no reverse prop thrust, so it is a little hard on the brakes... or a long run off is needed to flatten out the speed. Dublin is very busy today... the Ryanair pilots strike must be finally over? Menus The C340 ll comes with the standard three tab Carenado menu. The menu tabs are on the left lower screen. A ) is for the pop-up Autopilot panel. This is a 2 Axis Autopilot panel which can be scaled for size. C ) Is the standard Carenado ten preselected Views, Field of View and Volume panel. And O ) is the Options panel. Options include Window and Instrument reflections. The Static elements provided here are still quite basic with only two cones, wheel chocks (front only) engine inlet covers and having no front flag pitot covers is being a bit mean? The twin highly realistic (and new) animated pilots do disappear when you activate the static elements. Doors opening include the main rear passenger door and four... yes four separate Baggage doors with two front nose lockers and those interesting lockers in the rear of each of the engine cowlings. Liveries One blank and four liveries is quite basic, they are all very good and very high quality, but all a bit samey. They include beige, Bluegold, gray and red. Summary Nice medium twin engined aircraft are numerous now in X-Plane and even Carenado's range is also now quite a large one. Do we really need another twin? of course we do... as this excellent Cessna is a real beaut of an aircraft. All the usual Carenado highlights are here in, great quality, amazing detail and loads of great features and aircraft interaction. Lighting is excellent as are the quality reflections and overall the C340 ll flies very, very well with the X-Plane11 dynamics. Overall it is a "damn" nice aircraft and in reality the review summed up the aircraft. I was tired, over the work for the day and just flopped into the aircraft. I flew it and actually rested as I enjoyed the aircraft immensely as it purred along over the south coast of England in sunny summer skies and took me away from the long day, it was shame that I had to actually land in Dublin... _____________________________________________________________________________________ The C340 ll HD Series XP11 by Carenado is a new release for X-Plane11 and is available here at the X-Plane.OrgStore C340 ll HD Series XP11 Price is US$32.95 This aircraft is noted as a new aircraft for X-Plane11, and not an upgrade from the X-Plane10 C340 ll version, so a full cost for ownership is required. The aircraft is directly available from Carenado as well.  Special Features Version 1.1 : Only for X-Plane 11 Support for RealityXP's GTN750* (integrated into 3D cockpit, when available) State-of-the-art configurable FPS-friendly logic system Fully VR compatible Full PBR (Superb material shines and reflections) Features Specially designed engine dynamics for X-Plane 11 Flight physics optimized for X-Plane 11 standards Ground handling adapted for X-Plane 11 ground physics Physically Based Rendering materials and textures throughout PBR materials authored with industry-standard software used by the film and gaming industries X-Plane GNS430 (FPS friendly) Goodway Compatible Realistic behavior compared to the real airplane. Realistic weight and balance. Tested by several pilots for maximum accuracy Requirements: X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 2Gb VRAM Minimum - 4Gb+ VRAM Recommended Version 1.1 (last updated August 23rd 2018) Download Size: 500Mb _____________________________________________________________________________________ Installation: Download for the C340 ll HD Series XP11 Series is 475.85mb and the unzipped file is deposited in the "General Aviation" X-Plane folder at 550.70mb. Key authorisation and a restart is required. Documents: There is Normal and Emergency procedures (checklists), excellent sets of reference and performance tables. But no full manual. There is a full manual of the C340 ll fuel system. C340 Fuel System.pdf C340 Normal _ Emergency Procedures - Performance Tables.pdf C340 Reference.pdf Carenado Copyright.pdf Credits.pdf Recommended settings XP11.pdf _____________________________________________________________________________________ Review by Stephen Dutton  25th August 2018 Copyright©2018: X-PlaneReviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.25 Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Environment Engine by xEnviro v1.07 US$69.90 : XPRealistic Pro v1.0.9 effects US$19.95 : WorldTraffic 3.0 Plugin - US$29.95 Scenery or Aircraft - EGKA - Shoreham - Brighton City Airport by NKdesign (X-Plane.orgStore) US$15.00 - EIDW - Airport Dublin V2 by Aerosoft (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$24.95 
  20. News! - Now Released! - XP11 Aircraft Upgrade for Carenado C340 ll Carenado have released the XP11 (X-Plane11) version of their C340 ll. Could the C340 ll be the forgotten aircraft of the Carenado range, could be as it was initially released way back in the mid-2013 and that is over five years ago. The C335/C340 Series was the Cessna reaction to Beechcraft's successful KingAir series and specifically the C90 or Model 90. The C335 was not quite so successful as it was unpressurized, but the later C340 was more spacious and had that pressurized cabin. The tail and landing gear were based on the Cessna 310's units, while its wings were from the Cessna 414. The internal kit out is quite modern (for the period) and the aircraft was powered by twin Continental TSIO-520-NB engines of 310hp (233 kW) each. Features Specially designed engine dynamics for XP11 Flight physics optimized for XP11 standards. Ground handling adapted for XP11 ground physics. Physically Based Rendering materials and textures throughout. PBR materials authored with industry-standard software used by the film and gaming industries. X-Plane GNS430 (FPS friendly) Goodway Compatible. Realistic behavior compared to the real airplane. Realistic weight and balance. Tested by several pilots for maximum accuracy. Included in the package 4 HD liveries 1 HD blank texture C340 Normal and Emergency Procedures PDF C340 Quick reference table PDF C340 Fuel System Description PDF Recommended Settings XPLANE 11 PDF. Recommended System Requirements Windows XP - Vista - 7 -10 or MAC OS 10.10 (or higher) or Linux X-Plane 11 CPU: Intel Core i5 6600K at 3.5 ghz or faster. Memory: 16-24 GB RAM or more. Video Card: a DirectX 12-capable video card from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel with at least 4 GB VRAM (GeForce GTX 1070 or better or similar from AMD) 615MB available hard disk space Note: this is a completely new upgrade to X-Plane11, so a full price is required, but the aircraft is valid for free updates throughout the X-Plane11 version run. Available here NOW at Carenado C340 ll Price is US$32.95 Images and text are courtesy of Carenado ________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 17th August 2018 Copyright©2018: X-Plane Reviews
  21. Aircraft Review : 690B Turbo Commander by Carenado The Aero Commander series is one of the great aircraft designs that came out of the early 50's. Like the recently reviewed Aerostar 601P, the Aero Commander is large twin and is also originally a Ted R. Smith creation. First thing to note is that this 690B Turbo Commander is not an upgrade of another Carenado Aero Commander which is the Shrike 500s of which is in fact a very different aircraft. The 690B has in differencal a new wing centre section and a completely different engine configuration with the twin Garrett AiResearch TPE331-5-251K turboprops engines moved further outboard, a changed flightdeck layout and the pressurisation system is upgraded for an altitude ceiling of 31,000ft. External Design Those Garrett's are very impressive, and very finely modeled here, they look and sound spectacular. Note the extravagant huge booming exhausts. The same high quality of Carenado design very is evident from the nose to tail of the this Commander, for some reason they just seem to get better and even more highly realistic, the trick is in the minor detail, here is it very extensive, almost every panel and rivet is accounted for with wear and the tear is also very well realised. This is because Carenado have used Physically Based Rendering materials and textures throughout and the PBR materials are authored with the same industry-standard software used by the film and gaming industries. For any new time developer wanting into the X-Plane game, the stakes now are certainly high and as with this sort of perfection you are up now up against such detailing in realism. Glass is also perfection, and all the surfaces have excellent reflection properties. Upper roof hatch style windows are heavenly, but they look even better from the inside, note the lovely window surround detail... You can of course spend ages noting every single aspect of this exterior, but it is almost perfect and again this is another new slightly higher level of quality through and through. Internal Design The cabin is just as highly detailed, but more to the earlier Carenado style than their latest aircraft, in other words it is a more very heavier look for the leather seating and trim. Detailing is in the "Oh wow!" territory, with a very custom style perfection. Layout is set out in a executive club seating arrangement, with a jump seat side right, and exit door side left, and internally it is certainly luxurious. You feel the internal thick cladding of the design, as the 690B had the extra soundproofing over the 690A. Animated tables pop-out from the side of the cabin enclosure for the each single side seating arrangement.... ... and the unusual window layout of a small, then the huge panoramic long window is amazing for the backseat fliers, and looking outside it comes with those huge powerful turbine Garrett's filling out your view, note the really beautiful reflective chrome on the spinners. This is an aircraft you want to spend a lot of time of inside, as the rear is as brilliant as the office up front. Cockpit Flightdeck instrumentation and systems are comprehensive, at first glance the layout looks very complex, and more a regional airliner setup than a large executive twin. Instrument panel is far, far more different than the 500s, the only points that are the same between the aircraft are only the position of the standard six flying instruments and again that is only on the co-pilot's panel. Yokes can be hidden, which is great as the ram style yoke covers a lot of the lower panels, but they are better for flying with in smaller spaces. Switches for map light and Ident actually do work as does the A/P disconnect (red button) Centre console is complex with just a set of throttle levers and combined propeller/mixture levers noted as RPM, note the throttle lever friction levers... ... Prop sync, taxi light switches are here with the park brake. Collins 106/107 Autopilot (A/P) is down low centre console, thankfully there is a pop-up in the menu. Overhead Panel (OHP) is just simply amazing in detail and use. Both Elevator and Rudder trim wheels are very authentic and to note those huge speakers, gotta be a great when just ferrying the aircraft, "Rock and Roll". All spot lighting in the aircraft are separately switchable and animated to focus the light, instrument brightness is separate for both pilots. Many rocker switches are three way with a clever arrow up and down and a hand finger to set the middle position. OHP switchgear is comprehensive, and even complicated as well. Areas include: Generator, Lights (Ext/Int) Ice Protection, Avionics, right and left engine starter panels, Landing lights and wipers. Ice Protection is again comprehensive and highly detailed with authentic amp switching, and there is full information on how to use the system in the provided "Systems reference guide". A note is warranted in the fact that all these sort of systems are currently being overhauled in X-Plane (see - FlightSimExpo 2018). So there is a good chance that these systems will become even more realistic and functional in the future, but this system installed here is still very well done. Personal mask oxygen panel is on the co-pilot side and as is the circuit breaker panel pilot's side, note the armrests are all animated for use. Instrument panel Flying instruments are a different setup on each side of the instrument panel. The pilot's side has the Collins semi-glass vertical mounted Artificial Horizon top and the Heading Dial lower. The co-pilot's layout is the same AH top and HD bottom, but they are standard instruments and that the Course and Heading knobs are opposite on each setup, and you sort of don't get used to the heading knob being on the left on the pilot's side. Airspeed Indicator and Turn Coordinator are left of the centre instruments and the Attitude Indicator and the Vertical Speed Indicators are on the right, both sides, but the Attitude Indicator is a different type style on each side. On the pilot's side the other dials covers a Clock, Cabin Climb Pressure and Cabin Altitude (pressure) in 100ft/1000ft, there is also a Radar Altimeter. Co-Pilot's side is again a Clock, main Fuel Quantity (all fuel tank is made up 22 individual fuel cells in the wings and fuselage that are interconnected to form a single tank of a total capacity of 384 U.S. gallons, (about 2,573 pounds of Jet-A). Suction and Reg Pressure dials and a Hobb's meter is lower center to the right. The centre of the panel with the avionics is a bit of a ergonomic design mess, so you have to note which instrument is which to find them, but there is a sort of system at work here. Top row and centre has an engine readout in a two - two arrangement, from left to right are the twin High-Pressure RPM dials then the Percent RPM 10-100 with an insert clock dial 0-9. Centre is a Fuel consumed counter (resettable in lbs) then the two large dials that covers both engines Oil temperature and Oil/Fuel Pressures. Far right is the Elevator and Rudder position indicators. Centre are the twin dials to cover engine EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature) gauges, then lower the engine Fuel Flow (LB/HR) dials. Lower centre panel is an ADF/VOR2 pointer, far lower right are two instruments to cover Hydraulic Pressure and Flap position in Up- 1/2 - Down with markings for 1/4 and 3/4. Avionics consists left of a standard pop-up Garmin GNS 530 top, GARMEN GMA 340 Audio Panel, Bendix/King KX 165 VOR2/NAV2 radio and NAV2 Bendix/King KX 64 DME receiver stacked below. Right panel avionics are a Bendix/King KX 87 ADF unit top, Avidyne radar (functional) centre and a Garmin GTX 327 Transponder/Clock bottom. The RealityXP's GTN750 can be used as an option replacing the GNS 530. Glareshield annunciator panel is first rate, but also again a little confusing to work out at first. Warning items are mostly concerning the turbine engine warnings and lever positions. Pressing the "Test" button on the left will illuminate the panel, but there are also other warning lights around the panel including: Fuel Temperature far left, A/P settings on/off and Fuel Flow centre. Lower panels cover left... Environmental (Oxygen Pressure) and Landing gear, Left Flap lever and circuit breakers right... ... I am surprised that by now Carenado still don't do active circuits, as they would do them very well. The systems here though are all very active and covered in the said "Systems reference guide", included are the: Electrical System with buses, Ice Protection, Fuel System and HP Limiter. So there is the need in this aircraft to study the systems and understand how they work to get the very best out of the aircraft. But there is the point to be made that developers are advancing to the very limits now of X-Plane's default built in systems, as to make a lot of the systems work, there are and certainly in this 690B compromises to the X-Plane system basics, and to a point Laminar Research have not done a lot of changes in these areas for years, hopefully with Phillipp Ringler now moving into the systems areas and more as X-Plane's avionics are now pretty well complete, we will now see far more attention on these system areas in the future. Ground Details and Menu On the ground the undercarriage is a work of art, and very well animated. Struts and links are all recreated with incredible detail, internal gear bay is just as detailed. Taxi lighting is on the strut, and only comes on if the gear is lowered. I'm not sure of the crack on the upper gear support? a detail, or wear and tear... anyway I wouldn't be flying this aircraft in real life with that there! Gear animation is simply first rate, and you can watch all the twist and turning action from the cabin windows, the link between the upper support strut and wheel assembly is again very well animated, here it is at full stretch holding the the two assemblies together Menus are the standard three menu tabs lower left of your screen and all are the usual standard Carenado A, C and O menu staples. A is the Collins 106/107 autopilot pop-up panel. C is ten "Views" with "Field of View" adjustment and two sound adjustments. O is for "Options" including opening Pilot (passenger) door and a Baggage door left rear. Static elements provided are basic with, two cones and engine inlets front and rear/flag, pitot covers and there is also Window and Instrument reflections and the choice of changing the liveries without going to the main X-Plane menu. The twin pilots disappear when you activate the static elements. There is an option for the "External Power" but Carenado don't show a cart outside the aircraft, surely it can't be hard to feature a power cart? Note the lovely drop-down step, which is fully animated and detailed. The Collins 106/107 Autopilot panel is scalable (thankfully as it is rather large)... but the adjustment triangle is very small and hard to see, obviously to not having it stand out alone right in your view, but it can also be hard to find against a bright background. Flying the 690B Turbo Commander! As with understanding the aircraft's systems, then flying the 690B also requires a bit of skill and knowledge, flying the actual machine per se is not the issue here but it is a quirky aircraft that is quite deep in the way you use and fly it. I flew from KCVG - Cincinnati to KMCO - Orlando... and then just kept flying on again to KRSW - South Florida, and what was just my usual routine of understanding and dissecting the aircraft for a review, then in this case the flying just went on and on and to the point of flying this long route until it then took out a complete full day. Now that is very unusual for myself, unless it is usually an heavy grade "Study" aircraft with a zillion systems or features. But that also shows how much time and effort it required to really fully come to terms with this aircraft. The startup of the 690B is a little complicated, more so by the setup of the "beta" range. The beta range on the throttle levers is the lower part of the throttle range that puts the propellers into a reverse pitch for reverse thrust. But in X-Plane in trying to replicate the beta range zone on the throttle slider has really just messed it up, the worst instance is in the FJS Dash8 where it just doesn't work at all, or then or even when it does or doesn't work in flight or on landing. The problem is X-Plane doesn't really know if it supposed to activate the beta mode or not, so sometimes you get the action, and sometimes you don't, it's confused and so are you. This is more pronounced if you use a throttle system like I do with the Saitek x56. So if you set the throttles in the 690B like you should do in the "GND IDLE" position and above the beta zone, then the thrust is too high, so to get idle you have to set your throttles at the bottom of the range and in the reverse beta zone? To make the beta reverse thrust work then set a key or in my case the joystick trigger to the key setting "Hold thrust reverse at max" and this simulates the "beta" range reverse action. So if you set your throttle levers correctly then they won't work... but set them in the wrong position and they do? and this also causes the annunciator for the beta warnings to also always show? This is first of all highlighted at engine start up as the 690B has a propeller "Startlock" that holds the propellers in a flat pitch, to unlock you need to hold them in a reverse pitch? above 60% RPM, and the same again to lock them at engine shutdown. Starting the TPE331-5-251K turboprops is automatic, but you do have to do it a sequence. Main switch is first to fuel pump ON, and the IGN OVRD switch has to be ON (Fuel/Hydr on as well). There are two engine start positions with the AIR and GND, with the AIR position you can start the engines only in flight as the aircraft uses the forward motion of air against the propellers to start the engine, on the GND start position it uses a Garrett air turbine starter to start the engine, so it is air turbine turning a turbine to do the starting. The whine will start and then the engine will power up on setting the GND position. At above the 60% RPM point then you use the "Hold thrust reverse at max" trigger to unlock the propeller startlock, just slight hold and you feel it change. Then start the other engine with the same process, turn off the IGN OVRD once the engine is at the correct RPM at around 78%. Taxi lights are on the gear strut, but the landing lights are inserted into the wing? You have to flip a switch to "Extend" them, so make sure you remember to do that, and to retract the lights again after takeoff. There are wing (Ice) lights built into the engine cowling. Before flight or in the climb phase you have to set your cabin pressure... this is done via the "Cabin Alt" knob and the settings are noted by the internal dial that is in altitude feet, I am flying up to 15,000ft so I set this to the inner-ring, and the cabin pressure will be shown and set on the outer-ring at 2,400ft, mode to "AUTO" so it will do the pressure changes for you in flight. With the throttles full back set the RPM levers to just below LO GROUND setting, but don't forget to put them to HI FLIGHT position before takeoff. It took me a fair while to get the sweet spot for taxiing speed, as if not there is too much power and far too much speed and you are consistently on the brakes and makes for a pretty unrealistic taxi if even infuriating in trying to rub off too much of speed all the time. Even then you use minimal throttle to move forward, once moving I pull one throttle lever back and use the other engine to control the speed, it takes a little practise to get comfortable, but once you do it right makes the Turbo Commander behave as it should. Even with a slight push up of the throttles the 690B takes off like a bucking bronco, it easily quickly passes 100 knts and with rotate is around 140 kts with a slight single setting of the flaps. Your holding on more than flying this aircraft so strength, precision and control is required as you take flight and is vital... Once clear of the field I level off around 4000ft, initial handling feel is very good, but the aircraft is powerful so you have to one make sure the throttles are kept close together as the power will side slip or yaw you, and that is until you switch on the Prop-sync. Overall in the flying I love the aircraft's handling, but it is quite different from a usual twin-engined aircraft like say a KingAir. The big -twin will climb at a max of 2849fpm, so an initial 2000fpm is fine and then after 10,000ft drop it to around 1,000fpm, that max climb rate is very different to an earlier Aero Commanders as 1,800fpm was about max. Setting the V/S (Vertical Speed) is a bit tricky, as the ALT (and panel light) has to be off to adjust the V/S, you do this via the wheel DN or UP, but you don't need a lot of movement to adjust, a few clicks will get you climbing up (or down) quite fast, so it is not very precise, keep the RPM slightly under the red and 70% on the climb. If the pressurization is working then the "Cabin Altitude dial" will show you the pressures, the long needle shows your cabin altitude and the short needle is the DIFF Pressure, which can go quite high. Sounds are in the "extremely good" category, as all are FMOD and 180º soundscapes and are simply really great, start up sequence is very and highly realistic, and through the throttle range to cruise you get all round excellent sound, and to me good sound is not boring or repetitively annoying, and you don't get either here. One thing I did notice is that the 390B simply devours fuel at an high rate... Official range is 820 nm, but I loaded in 17,000lbs and was on fumes at Orlando after 550 nm, you can max the range out to 1100 nm but that would be an aircraft empty of passengers and cargo and not pushing the higher speeds at all, and trying or aiming for the 280lbs per hour goal... so watch those gauges! Ice protection is again quite extensive, L and R windshields are heatable, rudder heating element, Engine inlet de-icing, pitot heating for tubes and vents, prop ice protection and de-icing boots that work. Lighting The lighting layout is very good, but mostly done by movable (animated) spot lighting with eight spot lights, in two over the cockpit, two with one over the door entrance and one over the jump seat... four spot lights cover the rear seats and tables. Cockpit instrument lighting has adjustment each side of the panel and those twin overhead spots. External is the already noted wing and gear taxi lighting, wing ice. A beacon on the tail, new bright strobe lighting and small navigation lights. KMCO - Orlando Awareness of the NAV2 settings between the Bendix/King KX 165 VOR2/NAV2 radio and the NAV2 Bendix/King KX 64 DME receiver in that the NAV2 frequency has to be done manually on the DME unit, even the X-Plane frequency insert will not put it on the same DME frequency? On approach to Orlando's RWY 17L and it is tricky to get the speed correct, if the gear is still up then you get a warning if you go below 140 knts, but you want to drop the flaps? so to go slower you have no choice but to extend the undercarriage, the RPM lever needs to come back into the LO position to again (to try to) lower the speed... ... your aiming for an approach speed of around 100 knts full flap, which is not a notched flap setting, but a hold down the lever to do a continuous flap movement either up or down, so with the flap indicator in a very buried position, it can be a bit of a hit and miss and even to a gut feeling of the actual flap position? And make sure the Prop Sync is also off before landing. If your cabin altitude is to zero and the cabin pressure is also low, then press the DEPRESS button to depressurize the cabin. And note the outstanding view out of the cabin windows. If you have got everything right in the balance of the speed which on finals is essential, Stall speed is 59 knots, (109 km/h) flaps, so 60 knts is your marker.. ... so your flare speed is around 85 knts. A nice flare and then reduce the power... ... once tracking correctly on the runway and with the levers in idle then trigger that reverse thrust... and the job is done. Well not quite? remember to re-trigger (reverse) the propeller startlock's on the engine wind down... and "holy hell" is there only THAT much fuel left in the tank? Liveries One blank and five US registrations and one Belgium registration covers the livery choice, all are however very high HD 4K quality. Summary This 690B Turbo Commander is a very technical aircraft, it has a lot of areas and systems that you really need to understand and in flying the aircraft really well also demand's a bit of skill and experience, so this is an aircraft that is certainly not for new flyers or for anyone that doesn't have a fair bit of simulation experience. For the pro-pilot, then it is smorgasbord of features and systems that include, a comprehensive pressurization system, Manifest.json (custom aircraft configurations), Fuel system, Ice Protection System, Electrical System with buses and HP Limiter system and there is support for both the native X-Plane GNS 530 and RealityXP's GTN750* The instrument panel is comprehensive and very authentic, but also confusing and comes with a heavy workload, beta range is catered for but tricky to use, and requires a bit of skill in using the throttle and RPM modes to their full advantages, so this is an aircraft that requires time and even study and mostly even a lot of flying to get it really if perfectly right, it took even myself three days to really get the full perspective of the full range of all the aspects of the aircraft. From a modeling and detailing perspective, then this 690B is in that upper niche area of being at the top of the top of the class, it is a quality act, with exceptional glass and chrome. Undercarriage design, detail and animations are excellent and the lighting is very good with the sounds in range and 3d spatial awareness are again top notch. You are however starting to feel the limitations of the underlying X-Plane framework with this aircraft, as developers are now out pacing the inner X-Plane systems setups, obviously Laminar Research will catch up, but it shows how far we have come in these heady days with aircraft that are as great and as excellent as this Turbo Commander, the aircraft is not for the faint-hearted either but then the rewards of this 690B are also very high and it is highly addictive and already a very popular aircraft... highly recommended. ______________________________________________________________________  Yes! the 690B Turbo Commander by Carenado is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : 690B Turbo Commander Price is US$37.95   Special Features The latest technology in X-Plane Optimized for X-Plane 11 State-of-the-art configurable FPS-friendly logic system.(details here) Fully VR compatible Full PBR (Superb material shines and reflections) Features Specially designed engine dynamics for X-Plane 11 Flight physics optimized for XP11 standards Ground handling adapted for XP11 ground physics Physically Based Rendering materials and textures throughout PBR materials authored with industry-standard software used by the film and gaming industries. X-Plane GNS530 (FPS friendly) Support for RealityXP's GTN750* (integrated into 3D cockpit, when available) Goodway Compatible Realistic behavior compared to the real airplane. Realistic weight and balance. Tested by several pilots for maximum accuracy Requirements: X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4Gb+ VRAM Recommanded Current version : 1.0 (July 3rd 2018) Download size: 450Mb Installation Download of the 690B Turbo Commander is 428.60mb and it is installed in your General Aviation Folder as a 518mb folder. Documents Extensive, but no actual aircraft manual as per Carenado, and in this case you really needed a detailed manual. The 690B Systems Reference Guide does cover however many of the featured systems. Recommended Settings XP11 .pdf 690B Systems Reference Guide.pdf Carenado 690B_Turbo_Commader Performance tables.pdf Carenado 690B_Turbo_Commander Emergency Procedures.pdf Carenado 690B_Turbo_Commander Normal checklist.pdf Carenado 690B_Turbo_Commander References.pdf Copyrights.pdf Credits.pdf _____________________________________________________________________________________ Review by Stephen Dutton  18th July 2018 Copyright©2018: X-PlaneReviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.25 Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro v1.07 US$69.90 : XPRealistic Pro v1.0.9 effects US$19.95 : WorldTraffic 3.0 Plugin - US$29.95 Scenery or Aircraft - KCVG - Cincinnati International Airport by Skyline Simulations (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$27.00 - KMCO- Orlando International Airport by Nimbus Simulations (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$24.95 
  22. News! - REP for Carenado Bonanza A33F XP11 You may have noticed I didn't mention anything of the SimCoders REP (Reality Expansion Pack) for the Bonanza F33A XP11 in my comprehensive review of the release of the X-Plane11 version? That is because at that point in time the REP pack was only for the X-Plane10 version of the aircraft. Fear not as the XP11 REP version is now available for the new F33A Bonanza... First point to make is that this updated REP pack is an Initial release and not an upgrade, but for previous owners of the F33A REP package you can get a 60% saving on the new XP11 price of US$19.99. There is a coupon code in your original REP F33 XP10 invoice in your X-Plane.OrgStore account to use that offer. The feature list is HUGE: Native Virtual Reality Support Complete support of new X-Plane SDK 3.0 Menu visible in VR Windows visible in VR Custom Engine Model 100% custom engine model independent from X-Plane default Engine monitor Ultra Realistic Flight & Ground Dynamics Realistic stall speeds & behavior Realistic climb speeds Realistic cruise speeds Realistic Weight & Balance Realistic taxi behavior VR Support Native Virtual Reality support Complex Damages System Triggered by the pilot actions Based on real world data Target every system in the aircraft Meant to teach you how to correctly manage an airplane Simulation state saving Persistent wear and tear Every single switch and lever position is restored when you reload the aircraft The battery may discharge if you leave it on and then close X-Plane When X-Plane is launched, the engine and oil temperature are restored basing on the time passed Realistic IO-520 Engine Simulation Automatic startup procedure Realistic propeller animations as never seen before on X-Plane Correct fuel consumption Custom propeller governor Oil System Realistic oil viscosity Interchangeable oil type Oil pump failures Realistic oil filter Injection Fuel System & Fuel Pump Starter Realistic startup procedure Realistic engine temperatures Vapor Lock Simulation Fuel Flooding simulation The engine parts are damaged if not managed correctly Interchangeable spark plugs: default or fine-wire Spark plugs fouling Realistic Lean of Peak and Rich of Peak operations Engine Preheater and Winterization Kit The engine may be warmed up upn start with the provided electrical heater Once activated, the electrical heater runs even when you close the simulator A winterization kit let the airplane to operate at very cold temperatures Realistic Landing Gear The landing gear is damaged by hard landings and overspeed operations The brakes and tires are damaged if not managed correctly Electrical & Avionics System Realistic Battery The avionics are damaged if on when the engine starts/shuts down Learn with the in-flight tips A non invasive tip with a suggestion about the conduct of the flight is shown when you are not flying the airplane properly A non invasive tip with a suggestion on how to recover the problem is shown when you damage the airplane Simulation of Hypoxia Tunnel Vision Hard Breathing Stunning sounds 3D sounds (custom FMOD-like sound engine) Realistic engine clicks and stutters Real starter sound Fuselage wind sound Landing gear wind Independent touch down sounds Real avionics sound Realistic open window wind sound Interactive Walkaround Cockpit checks Aileron, rudder, elevator and flaps check Tire check and choks removal Tie-down removal Pitot tube check Engine cowl check Fuel quantity check Oil quantity and quality check Lights check Postflight walkaround Interactive towing Push, pull and steer using the joystick Towbar simulation Weight & Balance Tool Load the airplane and check the C.G. and weight limits at takeoff and landing The airplane behavior changes when the C.G. moves New Custom stall warning horn Gyro drift simulation Popup Kneeboard Complete normal operations checklist Complete emergency operations checklist Complete reference tables (speed, fuel consumption etc.) May be shown/hidden with mouse gestures Maintenance Hangar Engine maintenance tab Electrical systems maintenance tab Oxygen system tab Landing gear, brakes & tires tab HeadShake Integration REP drives HeadShake to simulate the correct vibrations of the Continental IO-520 engine Avionics section Realistic gyro wander and HSI behavior Very easy on FPS Written in C++: no compromises For an overall view of the SimCoder REP - Reality Expansion Pack then click on this plugin review: Plugin Update : REP - Reality Expansion Packs v3.4.1 Requirements: X-Plane 11+ The Bonanza F33 XP11 by Carenado is required for this add-on. It will not work on other aircraft Current version: 3.4.4 (May 29th 2018) ______________________________________________________________________  The new REP is now available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Price is US$19.99 (60% off for former purchasers) Carenado’s Beech F33A Bonanza XP11 v3.4.4 or newer X-PlaneOrgStore ______________________________________________________________________  News by Stephen Dutton 30th May 2018 Copyright©2018: X-Plane Reviews
  23. Aircraft Review : Beechcraft Bonanza F33A XP11 by Carenado What makes up the criteria of your best aircraft to fly in X-Plane, or your favorite? This is not the best aircraft in X-Plane for overall features or details, but the best aircraft for you. For many user fliers it could be in a relation to a real aircraft, either in the one you own, owned or are now learning on, that particular aspect is important. But what about the rest of us... For me it is Carenado's Bonanza F33A and we go back a long, long... time. The aircraft originally was one of the first released for X-Plane by Carenado, and the fourth if I think right and that was right back in January 2012, or just over six years ago.... it was also really the first of really high-quality releases from Carenado that was certainly far ahead of its time back then and even better than that period's X-Plane10 quality. My own actual investment in the F33A was a bit odd. I bought it as a birthday present for myself, flew it twice then basically stored it for just over two years? Even looking back now I just can't work that out why? but I think that my basic flying skill's were not up to the same level of the aircraft... so what changed? Carenado did an update on my mothballed F33A and I found now how it all handled very nicely, but more importantly I also suddenly found it was the very best aircraft in X-Plane to do some serious practice on, that is the very basic flying training in circuits, touch and go's, banking techniques, speed control... then I found myself using the F33A for more advance training with VOR navigation and extensive GA flight-planning and route navigation. In every aspect the F33A was the perfect aircraft to cover all these important flying skills, and ever since year after year the F33A has been my aircraft of choice for all of these practise and training skill work. It also is used as a benchmark to X-Plane itself, because I know the F33A so very well, so if X-Plane is out or not configured correctly then it will show on this aircraft. So the point is would that make this review biased because already this Bonanza is an aircraft that I think that everyone should have in that hangar, and that is a fair point... I accept that now there are certainly far better aircraft in X-Plane than this F33A because basically even if advanced for its time then this design by Carenado is still six years old. A note here in that the livery "BlueHawk Flight Training" which I have flown the F33A under for years is not an official Carenado livery... but however it is one of the best looking for the aircraft, it also needs a few adjustments if you want to use the livery with this XP11 version, but it is well worth the effort. Carenado Beechcraft Bonanza F33A XP11 Over the years since it's original release Carenado have kept the aircraft up to date with constant updates, and that was even into X-Plane11, but that was mostly just to conform to X-Plane11's basic performance changes and for the introduction of PBR (Physical Based Rendering), and overall the bonanza flew fine in that configuration. But in time the F33A needed to completely upgraded to X-Plane11 and to take advantage of the new simulation version and add in the more modern elements we expect now in X-Plane, and here it is in the Bonanza F33A XP11. Outwardly you are surprised enough that when sitting in the F33A XP11 version for the first time in that it looks and feels almost exactly the same? In a way that is very good thing if you are like I am in being very familiar with the aircraft, and you don't want things you really like then being messed around with or changed. But there are a lot of differences and details to take in. All the aircraft for XP11 are now 4K (4096 x 4096) texture quality with the (PBR) Physically Based Rendering materials and textures that are redone throughout and this is all done with (gaming) industry-standard software for the best highest quality to the best efficiency (framerate to me and you) ratio. A note that the F33A has a lot of custom 2K freeware liveries available on the XP.Org. They do actually still work quite well, but as noted you need a file name change and a few adjustments in say photoshop to make them compatible, obviously the quality is not at the official level, but if you do have a favorite livery for the F33A you can at least save it and use it. N927CF is an official livery to see the quality and detail now in this XP11 version. You were always aware of how very good it was originally, but it needed for X-Plane to catch up to Carenado and not the other way around. Certainly X-Plane11 does that here, but the changes also reflect the fine tuning of those super realistic material shines and reflections. Now there is a lot of chrome on the aircraft, like with the beautiful spinner and foot supports. Wing lighting assemblies are absolutely perfect, and highly realistic. Note the nice small wing fences. The advancement of computer power over the years also now allows us to take advantage now of higher quality texture settings and anti-aliasing, The quality of the undercarriage is phenomenal, ultra realistic and fully animated. To note the advanced movements of the animation has been refined here to XP11 standard's and to a point they are better than that, as movements in taxiing and wheel travel shock are almost now perfect, you thought it was always reacted like that until you went back and flew the F33A from only a few years ago, but no we have come a long since then, a very long way. Glass is also better, more refined with great reflections and here comes in two versions of clear and the tinted green (far better). External detail is complete with HF and RF aerials and great detailing with control surface manipulators, lightning wicks are all animated for airflow realism. Aircraft construction riveting is very good, but does show that this is still a few years ago since it was created, nice waves and shapes in the metal paneling gives realism. Cabin Looking into the cabin and it is very well detailed, beautifully created. The F33A was the aircraft that I was in when I first saw the X-Plane11 PBR light and dark shadow feature, It was a total "wow" moment then, and it still is very dramatic now with the cream facia panel and the black instrumentation. Internally the cabin is very tight, the F33A is a very small intimate aircraft in reality. Seats are beautifully crafted. The interior has been re-textured, it is now a woven cloth grey, with a distinctive pattern. It certainly modernises the cabin and it feels fresher... ... but I did also really like the old blue interior, certainly it looks like the more older style Bonanza, but it still works for me. I goes better with the BlueHawk livery as well, so I adjusted it to be used on the same livery, again photoshop was required, but you don't lose any quality in the transition. I think it is nice to have both versions between different liveries so it is certainly worth doing. Panel is sensational, highly realistic and I should know as I have spent countless hours behind it. The aircraft comes with dual-arm yoke bar, this setup was pre-1984, with the change to the standard in the panel twin yokes setup that is post-1984. The bar hides by pressing the bar in the centre by the panel. It does obstruct a lot of the lower switchgear, lighting adjustment rotary and vertical trim wheel, but I found I could work around it with the bar in place with familiarity. Pilot's yoke has built in working electric trim, autopilot disconnect and XPDR IDENT functionality. A digital clock is also built into the front of the yoke for convenience. Panel glass reflections are all very new and highly realistic, but in some conditions they can now go a bit grey with the seat mirroring the reflection, a tone down of the reflections is noted from Carenado. Menu The menu hasn't changed from the earlier version... still the same three panels to cover the standard Carenado A, C and O menu staples. A is the Bendix/King KFC 150 autopilot pop-up. C is ten "Views" with "Field of View" and two sound adjustments. O is for "Options" including opening Co-Pilot (passenger) door and a Baggage door left rear. Static elements provided are very basic with only, wheel chocks and engine inlet/flag, wing pipit cover and there is also window and Instrument reflections and the choice of changing the liveries without going to the main X-Plane menu. The twin pilots are new and replace the younger cooler guy in the shades, but they are very well created, far more realistic and are both highly animated, they also disappear when you activate the static elements. Not on the main menus. but it is now available for use is a "Weight & Balance" menu courtesy of Thranda. It is activated by setting up an X-Plane key input via the Thranda key settings. The W&B menu is basic, but still covers all that you need in set up and you can now adjust the four passengers weights and baggage via a animated C.G (centre of Gravity) graph, Fuel can also be set and the results are set out in lbs and inches are all listed below. Flying the F33A Bonanza The F33A can be a very recalcitrant aircraft to start from cold, but once the 285 hp Continental IO-520-B engine fires it soon settles down. I always run the Continental for a few minutes to warm it all up, once the gauges are showing normal temps and pressures, then you can go. This aspect is very well done by Carenado as the gauges just don't just go straight right up to their operating points but they all take their individual routes to get there showing realism. My X-56 Rhino throttle setup works well here as I use the second throttle as the mixture lever, this gives my more control over the richness of the fuel, and only 2/3rds mixture is required for taxi and ground movements. You can feel how long a way we have come now over the years, earlier this Bonanza was a bit of a handful on the ground, but now it is just a soft pussycat more than a rampant tiger, and you have more if sublime control of your speed and direction movements, that is of course the X-Plane11's level of more diversity in this area, certainly the F33A is still a bit of a handful on taking off and landing, but that is a common problem with X-Plane's ground effects at the moment than more than the actual aircraft, but skill can overcome the worst of Laminar's theatrics. All sounds in Carenado aircraft when upgrading to X-Plane11 are now FMOD, and the Bonanza gets the same treatment. The sounds have been increased substantially right thoughout the whole range, this is highlighted at the idle point, if you adjust the mixture even minutely the sounds are really, really good in conveying on what the engine is feeling, with power, climb and the cruise sounds of the aircraft of which are all excellent. I only give the F33A about half-throttle gradually until the aircraft builds up speed, once the speed is constant and you are tracking true against the left pulling asymmetrical thrust, then go straightup to full throttle, no flap uses more runway, but I get more speed of which I like. 100knts is the right point to pull back on the yoke bar, and the F33A will nicely clear the runway... ... rate of climb to 600fpm is best to climb out and also build up more speed. The Bonanza has a unique gear sound, in a pneumatic "peeeeooow" sound, which I love and the detailed gear retraction or extension is excellent. I keep the power up and level out at 1500ft. Performance is very good for this type of aircraft. Top Speed: 182 kts with a Cruise Speed of around 172 kt and the Stall Speed (dirty) is around 51 kts. Range is an excellent 717 nm. Official Rate Of Climb is 1167 fpm and the Ceiling is noted at 17858 ft. Once the aircraft is trimmed and set at a nice cruise pace I climb again to 7500ft, Mostly I climb high easily at 800fpm, but with the W&B manager I added in a lot of weight of 3250pounds (3401 is max) so 700fpm is my base climb rate today, I drop that again at 6000ft to 300fpm to keep the momentum of the speed. Instrument Panel By all accounts the F33A instrument panel is not complicated, but the instruments that are here are set out to be extremely useful. Standard Six instruments are centred in the line of sight of the flying pilot with the Airspeed Indicator, Artificial Horizon and the Attitude Indicator on the top row and the Garmin OBS VOR pointer (VOR2), Heading Dial and Vertical Speed Indicators set out directly below. The Turn Coordinator is far left of the six pack with a radar altimeter directly below, lower left instrument panel I will come back to in a moment. Centre panel is dominated by two large dials that cover engine manifold pressure (inHg) and fuel flow (gallons per hour) and the second dial is the RPM gauge with built in hour meter. Both the gauge and the dial are highly animated to reflect the engine's performance, needles twitch and flicker to throttle or fuel flow changes that makes them highly realistic. Below is the left and right fuel gauges that are separated by a cluster of four gauges that cover Cylinder Head Temperature (CHT), Oil Temperature top and Ampreres and Oil Pressure below. Lower left is an Insight digital read out for EGT - CHT and lower right is an Instrument Air gauge (Inch-Mer). A small note here on the Instant EGT - CHT digital readout, in flight it looks like it is not working, but it is. To see any activity, then just lean the fuel mixture and the display will come alive. The avionic instrument stack is very good with a Bendix/King KR 24 radio set, X-Plane Garmin GNS 430 GPS, Bendix/king KX 165 COMM (Comm2)/NAV (VOR2) unit, Two Bendix/King KR 87 ADF units and a Garmin GTX 320 Transponder... the Bendix/King KFC 150 autopilot is far left of the instrument panel. You can also use the GTN750 payware add-on by RealityXP in this Bonanza. On the co-pilot's far right instrument panel is one flying instrument in an altimeter, and a Garmin OBS VOR indicator (VOR1). Two smaller gauges cover EGT and Prop Amp. A note on the altimeter, You have to remember to adjust both altimeters in their mb/in.hg settings, this far right second backup altimeter setting is hard to see in being so small, but it always needs to be adjusted when required, or (obviously) the altimeters will show different altitudes. Lower right panel is the circuit breaker panel (non-working). The set up of the Bendix/King KFC 150 autopilot is excellent in the Bonanza. Handy to the lower left and remember there is the pop-up feature as well (press Tab A), which is both movable and scalable. Note for the AP to work you have to press the FD (Flight-Director) button before engaging the AP button. Easy to use the KFC 150 actions are noted on the upper panel in line of your eyesight, and there is the built in V/S - ALT mode to set your altitude and rate of climb (or descent) and they all work perfectly together to ease your workload. Next to the V/S-Alt mode selector is a BendixKing VOR N1/N2 distance, speed and estimated TOA (Time Of Arrival) display. Next to the KFC 150 is a fuel flow display that (switchable) covers GAL REM (Remain) GAL USED, GAL to Destination, GAL Reserve and Endurance (HRS:MIN) to use this instrument correctly you have to have be running flightplan in the GNS 430, but if not you still get fuel remaining and that sort of fuel flow info. VOR Pointer/Course Dials To understand why this little Bonanza is a very good training tool for early fliers is to understand the use of two instruments, and their setup here in the F33A. I have always been a bit vocal in reviews if the VOR/DME instrument is not a pointer tool and it is usually the older basic VOR/DME heading instrument... in the F33A it is a pointer instrument, but better still it is positioned directly besides the heading/course instrument. Here I am approaching KRSW - SouthWest Florida International (arrowed) and the VOR pointer is set to the airports VOR (Lee County RSW 111.80). Yes I know that the RSW VOR/DME is slightly to the north of the airport, but it will still show how to use the pointers effectively. I have set the "Course" pointer to the RWY06 heading as my guide, but I will for the moment still fly southwest to clear the airport before going into the south circuit to land from the west. Set my heading to the course direction (24º) to go into the circuit and that will put the F33A parallel to KRSW and RW06/24. The VOR pointer will show your relative position to the airport and your distance from the VOR/DME and to the airport for the correct turn point (unless you are under ATC instructions), Then a 90º turn on the course to (33º) turn in ready to find the runway centre line. Again the VOR pointer is crucial on the right time to turn to the runway heading, if you rely on the ILS alignment on the course pointer, you will know that it usually activates just a little too late to get the final right 90º turn to the runway, the VOR then gives you just that little more time to get the turn rate correct. I also use the same procedure in a big jet, the VOR pointer will give you the runway alignment if set against the runway course setting a far longer way out distance from the airport than the ILS alignment does, so you can have more time to set up your approach in line with the runway... if you are correct then both the VOR and Course pointers should be aligned parallel on the final turn as they are here (below right), the runway 06 should then be in the correct position for your approach. You can see by using both pointers on how this F33A is simply great for practise flying, in circuits and for VOR point to point routes, and when you don't have this set up in other types of aircraft you really miss those pointers and the workload get a lot harder. Two points then is that yes it is just as easy to look out of the window and visually gauge your turn, that is natural, but in many conditions you just can't do that, and yes here at KRSW the VOR is slightly off the airport but it still works in context. Landing Overall the F33A is a lovely handing aircraft, just watch the trim is -0 when taking off and landing, it will be out at this point if have used the AP. The trim wheel is right there in front of you a little to the right (pilot) or on the yoke. I am finding this earlier XP11 version a little fast on approach? But I usually get the speed down to around 100knts when coming into the final approach phase. If you leave the taxi light switched on it will shut off when the gear is raised and then relight when you lower the gear for landing, it is great to watch in operation. External lighting is pretty basic, with the landing and taxi light in the nose and a huge red beacon on the roof. Navigation and strobe lights are updated for XP11 and are excellent. Gear down and you do lose a lot of speed in the drag if you don't counter for it. Flaps are 3 positions Up - 15º - 30º, 150knts is vFE but I am usually well under 100knts before I will move them down a notch. ditto to 30º flap as I will go down to 80knts before going to that position, I found you need a lot of throttle to counter the 30º flap not so less for even the 15º setting. I admit I am a little bit high here, but those trees at the end of RWY06 have a habit of catching me out in the dark. 80knts approach speed is down to just under 70knts for contact, stall is 51knts so I feel the approach speed needed is a currently a little too high from Carenado, around 60knts, should be more closer to the mark. A lot of hours in the F33A means I can put it down pretty anywhere I want to, it is not a hard aircraft to land, but you will need to feel the aircraft and get the speeds right, overall Carenado have done a class act on delivering X-Plane11 performance to this version, it feels far more alive and more intimate than the earlier versions, and yes it is totally better all round. For the limited lighting available you do get a good view in the dark to moving around on the ground from both the taxi and landing light. Internal Lighting Instrument panel lighting is basic, but very good. Most instrument lighting is indirect, and I remember it being actually a little bit brighter? You can only adjust the indirect lighting and the some of the backlight/avionic lighting individually... overall it is great for night flying. Overhead lighting is two lights forward with one large light directly above and a small one in the exit passenger door... ... in the rear are two spots and all roof lighting is controlled by the three buttons on the roof. Liveries There is one blank and four liveries with the package, all are high-quality and 4K, the highlight is the nice Lufthansa Nevada Training aircraft. Summary Six years is a long time for any aircraft in X-Plane, but we are dealing with Carenado here and the aircraft was never ever going to the one to be left on the shelf, in fact the constant updates and now this huge D-Check of a strip to the bones and rebuild of the F33A Bonanza means one of the brightest stars of Carenado's fleet is certainly going to keep on flying well into the X-Plane11 version for many, many years to come. It is a new version for X-Plane11 in its new clothes, but the Bonanza feels new and it is now certainly also quite different from its earlier versions without losing its original charm. Optimisation is high here as a lot of areas have been covered from newer materials and textures throughout, to performance and the more realistic behavior with flight physics optimized for XP11 standards and better comparison to the real airplane, better realistic weight and balance with now a even a W&B menu set up panel. The aircraft is now fully VR (Virtual Reality) compatible and has better and even more refined PBR (Superb material shines and reflections). FMOD sound is completely new and far more right across the whole range with newer added sounds that are more detailed and intimate, in other words the Continental IO-520-B engine sounds brilliant. The Bonanza F33A is one of Carenado's biggest success aircraft in X-Plane and in reality it is not hard to see why, it is priced very well for what you get as well, in that you get really a $35 deal for only $26.95 for the same quality and features as the common Carenado higher price. Yes in a few areas the F33A is still the same earlier aircraft, but it is now part of its charm more than anything else. This is my favorite personal aircraft in X-Plane, could that be a bias? but no in reality the aircraft that I reviewed has just only re-enforced of why it was so good in the first place, more so now with this excellent extensive upgrade. I just simply love flying this machine, it is also the best for any type of practise and for developing my (online) flying skills and to a point I can push them to the limit in this aircraft as I know the aircraft so well... The hard part of this review, is that I now have to move on from the F33A and can't keep on flying it around Florida anymore... "Okay just once more and then I will move on.. I Promise, I will honest... yes only once, I really, really promise... ". Highly addictive and highly recommended. ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! the Beechcraft Bonanza F33A XP11 by Carenado is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Bonanza F33A XP11 Price is US$26.95 This XP11 is a new version of the F33A Bonanza, so a new purchase price is required, however updates are free to the aircraft for the full run of the X-Plane11 version. Special Features Version 1.1 Optimized for X-Plane 11 State-of-the-art configurable FPS-friendly logic system. Fully VR compatible Full PBR (Superb material shines and reflections) Features Specially designed engine dynamics for XP11 Flight physics optimized for XP11 standards Ground handling adapted for XP11 ground physics Physically Based Rendering materials and textures throughout PBR materials authored with industry-standard software used by the film and gaming industries X-Plane GNS430 (FPS friendly) Support for RealityXP's GTN750* (integrated into 3D cockpit, when available). Goodway Compatible. Realistic behavior compared to the real airplane. Realistic weight and balance. Tested by several pilots for maximum accuracy. *RealityXP GTN 750 is sold separately Included in the package 5 HD liveries + 1 HD blank texture F33 Normal and Emergency Procedures PDF F33 Performance tables PDF - F33 Quick reference table PDF Autopilot KFC150 Manual PDF Recommended Settings X-PLANE 11 PDF ______________________________________________________________________ Requirements : X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4GB+ VRAM - 350MB available hard disk space Version 1.1 (last updated May 18 2018) ______________________________________________________________________ Installation : Download is 281mb which is unzipped and is inserted in your General Aviation folder as a 478.40mb flie. Key authorisation is required. The review "BlueHawk Training" Livery is here: BlueHawk Carenado Bonanza F33 v2 Livery 1.0 But the livery does require some changes to work in XP11, but it does come in both 2K and 4K versions. Changes are not hard, but watch for the chrome spinner and that it is showing, make sure that the all the textures changed are not transparent, or you will get see through wings! Documentation : includes Bonanza F33 Normal _ Emergency Procedures - Performance tables.pdf Carenado Copyright.pdf Credits.pdf F33 Bonanza reference.pdf General Information.pdf KFC150 Autopilot.pdf Recommended settings XP11.pdf ______________________________________________________________________ Plugin Review by Stephen Dutton 23rd May 2018 Copyright©2018: X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.20 Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro v1.07 US$69.90 : XPRealistic Pro v1.0.9 effects US$19.95 : WorldTraffic 3.0 Plugin - US$29.95 Scenery or Aircraft - KFMY - Page Field - Fort Myers, Florida 1.0 by timbenedict3 (X-Plane.Org) - Free - KRSW - Southwest Florida International Airport by Aerosoft (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$24.95 - KDAB - Daytona Beach by Aerosoft / Stairport Sceneries (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$28.99
  24. News! - Now Released! - XP11 Aircraft Update for Carenado F33A Bonanza In my list of the best of the best of my favourite aircraft in X-Plane, then the Beechcraft F33A Bonanza came in at Num1#, yes the best of the best of all my GA aircraft. Of course everything is debatable and I am sure that most of you totally disagree on many points of that choice, but it is my always go to aircraft for serious practice or refining my flying skills, and there is also a very good chance it will be the same aircraft pick if I have a few lazy hours of personal flying time. Now I do accept the F33A is not the best in X-Plane11 at this point in time, as it did have a quick touchover last year to allow it to fly in X-Plane11, but not the full makeover. The XP11 version of the F33A has now been released by Carenado... Enjoy. XPLANE11 : F33A BONANZA Special Features Version 1.0 Only for X-Plane 11 State-of-the-art configurable FPS-friendly logic system. Fully VR compatible Full PBR (Superb material shines and reflections). Features Specially designed engine dynamics for XP11. Flight physics optimized for XP11 standards. Ground handling adapted for XP11 ground physics. Physically Based Rendering materials and textures throughout. PBR materials authored with industry-standard software used by the film and gaming industries. X-Plane GNS430 (FPS friendly) Support for RealityXP's GTN750* (integrated into 3D cockpit, when available). Goodway Compatible. Realistic behavior compared to the real airplane. Realistic weight and balance. Tested by several pilots for maximum accuracy. *RealityXP GTN 750 is sold separately Recommended System Requirements Windows XP - Vista - 7 -10 or MAC OS 10.10 (or higher) or Linux X-Plane 11 CPU: Intel Core i5 6600K at 3.5 ghz or faster. Memory: 16-24 GB RAM or more. Video Card: a DirectX 12-capable video card from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel with at least 4 GB VRAM (GeForce GTX 1070 or better or similar from AMD) 370 MB available hard disk space Images are courtesy of Carenado ________________________________________ News Updated by Stephen Dutton 13th May 2018 Copyright©2018: X-Plane Reviews
  25. Aircraft Review : Cessna CT210M Centurion ll XP11 by Carenado Some aircraft just stick there. You get a lot of different aircraft coming across your screen when you review for X-Plane, the choice is high and most are usually in the very, very good category and a lot of that in great general aviation aircraft category usually comes from Carenado. So how do you sort out the very best from the rest. One angle is a personal choice of an aircraft you have savoured for years and usually from your childhood memories. But once I became far more proficient at flying in X-Plane my choices changed quite significantly from the heart to the head. Still my number one aircraft for GA flying is still the Carenado's F33A and the reason why is the aircraft's excellent avionics suite. In this area it is still excellent and certainly with its DME pointers that allow runway alignment with the "Course" pointer makes the aircraft excellent for basic flying practise and circuit training, as for anytime that I want to scrub up on my general flying skills the F33A is the aircraft I always to go to. The newer JustSim Arrow series are now another set of interesting machines to up and test my flying skills and vFlyteAir has some interesting challenging GA aircraft as well. So where does this leave the CT210M Centurion? The one thing I really liked about the aircraft was that it was actually different. Most GA aircraft are usually focused on the naturally large base market of 60's and 70's era aircraft, but the CT210M felt like a more modern take on the single-engine four seater model. For one it has undercarriage that does retract, although that gear's spindly design is not going to be a really big drag on the performance, but also it has besides a very clean fuselage design with a 310 hp (231 kW) TSIO-520-R turbo engine as well, and so it goes "fast", in I mean very fast for a GA aircraft (most 210's only have a 250 hp to 285 hp engine) so cruise speeds are around 160 kts to 200 knts (at altitude) with (vno) speeds at 170-210kts... nice. CT210M Centurion ll XP11 So it was an instant like from me when I first flew and for the many times after with the CT210M aircraft. It fitted me to a glove and I enjoyed our moments in time together very much, but reviewing can be a busy business and to a point the CT210M has lately languished a little in the back of my hangar, as remember the original release now was back in early April 2013, yes that is five years ago! I did pull it out for a flight not only a few months ago, but the time had caught up with the aircraft and mostly with the now very old original GNS 430 gps avionics of which at the time the CT210M was one of the first aircraft to have two GNS 430's set together. It still flew very well but overall it did feel well... old. So when Carenado noted the the CT210 Centurion ll was getting the update to XP11 treatment, a quick smile came across my face... and here it is the updated and X-Plane11 version of an old favorite. Basically the updates to all Carenado aircraft are mostly all the same. Textures are updated with Physically Based Rendering materials and textures are redone throughout and this is done with (gaming) industry-standard software to bring out the very best in detail and quality with the bonus excellent framerate. As I looked at the older version of the CT210M it's biggest turnoff was that it now felt dull and even bland, but not now in XP11 the newer effects of PBR brings out the metalness of the panels, the aircraft feels alive and dynamic again, it shines beautifully in the sunlight and all the detail is again alive and realistic. The Flight physics have also been optimised for X-Plane11 as has the very different engine dynamics, so the Centurion does feel quite different to fly and you seem to have more of that Turbo power available to you. And to note one of the biggest areas covered by Laminar Research was in these more varied aspects of engine performance like with Turbos and Turbo-props and that was one of the biggest focus points of the changes to the X-Plane11 simulator, and that performance aspect certainly does show here with this engine and aircraft combination. The excellent gear retraction and extraction is still as great as ever... Internal The CT210M's instrument panel is also still as glorious as ever... and now it comes with X-Plane11's lighting dynamics... The panel's night lighting is just as spectacular. There are two lighting angles with the under the glareshield dropdown lighting and the overhead red lighting on the forward roof. They can be both highly adjusted to get the right variation that you want from working in the the aircraft to minimal approach lighting conditions. A note is that there is a switch (hidden) under the glareshield to turn on (or off) the main panel lighting, I never knew that was there before? The installed flight instruments are quite basic, all are for the left seat pilot only. Both the yokes can be hidden and the left yoke has built in (working) trim switches. The Standard Six instruments are centred in the line of sight of the flying pilot with the Airspeed Indicator, Artificial Horizon and the Attitude Indicator on the top row and the Turn Coordinator, Heading Dial and Vertical Speed Indicators set out directly below. Left of the six pack top is a clock and on the right side top is the display panel for the KFC225 Bendix King autopilot with a BendixKing (speed/dis) display (N1/N2) below. Garmin OBS VOR indicator (VOR2) and the same lower is the ADF dial indicator. Backup instruments lower left is a Artificial Horizon and lower bottom is another Attitude Indicator. The radio stack has been moved around from the original layout. The two (crappy) Garmin GNS 430′s are gone with now the larger revised GNS 530 top and the smaller GNS 430 set below. The GARMEN GMA 340 Audio Panel is still at the top of the stack. The fabulous KFC225 Bendix King autopilot is in the same place with the Bendix/King KR 87 ADF radio below and bottom is the very modern GARMEN GTX 327 transponder that uses a different (but nicer) yellow background colour. Engine instruments cover the left side of the panel as there is no second pilot SS flying instruments. Top are four needle gauges that cover: Ampreres, Oil Pressure and Temperature and Cylinder Head Pressure. Below is an excellent and very active Fuel Flow/Man Pressure gauge and below an engine RPM dial. There is a standard Hobbs meter and the EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature) and Suction gauges roll out the instruments. All switch-gear and electrics are bottom lower left panel, with Flap lever (º0-10º-20º) and heating/defrost knobs right lower panel. Below the panel are the excellent trim wheels (easy to use for a change), cowl flap levers and right down on the floor the lovely well presented fuel tank switch and tank gauges are still there to feast your eyes on. Cabin The cabin interior is still very good as well, but remember the design is now over five years old and interior cabin design in X-Plane in that time has come a long (long) way, but it still holds up very well in today's frame of reference. The cabin lighting is very good as well. Coverage is only one big (blue) centre roof light, but it works nicely in lighting the rear. External lighting is updated to X-Plane11 dynamics with the latest strobe effects helping out as well. Landing (light) looks effective from the outside, but it is not very effective in practise, as the runway is dark until you are nearly down on to the hard stuff and can be also not be the best effective lighting when taxiing around the taxiways. You get by, but by craning and peering hard into the darkness to see where you are going. Menus There are three menu tabs lower left of your screen and all are the usual standard Carenado A, C and O menu staples. A is the Bendix/King KFC 225 autopilot pop-up. C is ten "Views" with "Field of View" and two sound adjustments. O is for "Options" including opening Pilot, Co-Pilot (passenger) doors and a Baggage door left rear. Static elements provided are basic with, two cones and engine inlet/flag, wing pipit cover and there is also Window and Instrument reflections and the choice of changing the liveries without going to the main X-Plane menu. The twin pilots disappear when you activate the static elements. The KFC 225 autopilot pop-up is excellent and works very well with the display panel, it can be moved around the screen and also scaled to size. Liveries There is one white (paint) default livery and five original supplied liveries. Clockwise: White (blank) - Electric Blue - Light Blue - Red - Light Green - (dark) Green. The UK reg Light-Green is the best. They all look the same original liveries, but they have been totally revamped and upgraded to 4K (4096x4096) size and High-Definition (HD) quality, in other words they are all excellent and the electric blue used here in the review looks great in any lighting. Dynamics The CT210M was always a great aircraft to fly, did I mention fast? well it still is, and that means you can cover a lot of ground quickly. Maximum speed as already noted is hit the wall at 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... yes that FL270!, that is very high for a little bugger like this. And with a rate of climb just under 1,000fpm (930 ft/min (4.7 m/s)) you are going to get up to that altitude quickly as well... Range is great as well with 900 nmi (1,036 mi, 1,668 km) or full range with econ cruise at 10,000 ft (3,050 m). Stall is around 58 knots (67 mph, 108 km/h) with flaps down full. Overall the CT210M's X-Plane11 performance is very good, but the aircraft is a little tricky in crosswinds, and especially in the slower speeds landing phase... Sounds are now FMOD and converted from the excellent original 210 sounds, and they come with a 180º degree soundscape, so yes the sounds are also excellent. Note in that you can also use the RealityXP GTN 750 add-on (extra cost) with the CT210M and there is the SimCoder REP-Reality Expansion Pack also available (recently updated for this XP11 version!). You can check out the REP pack here on this B58 Baron REP pack review, the aircraft is different, but the REP package and the price is identical. Summary The Carenado Cessna CT210 Centurion ll was one of the developer's most excellent earlier aircraft for X-Plane, it is a fast but very tidy single-engined, four go anywhere seater. But that release was five years and a simulator version ago now. So here the aircraft gets its X-Plane11 upgrade, and out of the changes the aircraft shows again on how really a great GA this was in the first place. The Cessna gets the standard Carenado upgrade treatment. The newer (but far better) X-Plane11 dynamics and performance, PBR effects and better quality and again far better texture performance, It is VR (Virtual Reality) compatible and also the avionics have been slightly switched around and the native GNS gps units have been upgraded from the far two older GNS430's to the newer twin set of a GNS 530 and a GNS 430, so all in all the full X-Plane11 performance package. I'm trying to think of a negative? no there isn't one except the Ct210M can be a little tricky to fly at low speeds, but that is a skill set thing and not a flaw situation. I doubt this updated X-Plane11 Centurion ll will be chocked up again a returned in the back of my hangar. It needs to be flown, used and loved like never before. It was one of Carenado's best, now it goes right back up there again to the top of the list of a "Must Have" and a "Must Fly" aircraft, all you can say now really is "welcome Back" and believe me this aircraft is very welcome to be flown again. Highly Recommended. ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! the Cessna CT210M Centurion ll XP11 by Carenado is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Cessna CT210M Centurion ll XP11 Price is US$29.95 Special Features Version 1.1 Optimized for X-Plane 11 State-of-the-art configurable FPS-friendly logic system Largely VR compatible Full PBR (Superb material shines and reflections) Features Specially designed engine dynamics for X-Plane11 Flight physics optimized for X-plane standards Ground handling adapted for X-Plane 11 ground physics Physically Based Rendering materials and textures throughout PBR materials authored with industry-standard software used by the film and gaming industries X-Plane GNS530 (FPS friendly) Support for RealityXP's GTN750* (integrated into 3D cockpit, when available) Goodway Compatible Realistic behavior compared to the real airplane. Realistic weight and balance. Tested by several pilots for maximum accuracy *RealityXP GTN 750 is sold separately ______________________________________________________________________ Requirements : X-Plane 11.10+ (not compatible with X-Plane 10) Windows 7, MAC, or Linux 4GB+ VRAM Version 1.1 (last updated April 2nd 2018) ______________________________________________________________________ Installation : Download is 364mb which is unzipped and is inserted in your General Aviation folder as a 433.40mb flie. Key authorisation is required. Documentation : includes Autopilot KFC225.pdf Carenado Copyright.pdf Carenado CT210 Centurion Version History.rtf Credits.pdf Recommended settings XP11.pdf T210M Centurion II Normal _ Emergency Procedures - Performance tables.pdf T210M Centurion II Reference.pdf ______________________________________________________________________ Plugin Review by Stephen Dutton 6th April 2018 Copyright©2018: X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.20 Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro US$69.90 : XPRealistic Pro v1.0.9 effects US$19.95 : WorldTraffic 3.0 Plugin - US$29.95 Scenery or Aircraft - TNCM - Princess of the Caribbean - Part 1: SXM by AWDesigns (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$32.95
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