Aircraft Review: PA-28R TURBO ARROW III / IV XP12 by Just Flight   By DrishalMAC2   Introduction Just Flight, in partnership with Thranda Design, has brought the PA-28R Turbo Arrow III and Arrow IV to X-Plane 12, adding another impressive aircraft to their lineup of high-quality general aviation simulations. Known for their detailed recreations of aircraft such as the Arrow III and the C152, Just Flight’s Turbo Arrow III/IV raises the bar with its intricate modelling, advanced systems, and realism, all tailored to X-Plane 12’s capabilities. This review will explore the visual fidelity, flight dynamics, systems, and overall experience of the Turbo Arrow series in X-Plane 12. Based on real-world flight data and feedback from pilots familiar with the aircraft, this model captures the distinctive turbocharged engine characteristics and handling, making it an excellent choice for pilots seeking a detailed simulation of these touring and instrument-training aircraft.   Note: For a more in-depth look at the features of the PA-28R series, including the original Arrow III, you can check out Stephen’s comprehensive review of the Just Flight/Thranda Designs PA-28R Arrow III for X-Plane 12 here. Many aspects, such as the high-quality modelling and systems, carry over into the Turbo Arrow III/IV, so this review focuses on what makes the turbocharged variants unique.   Installation Installing the Turbo Arrow III/IV is straightforward. The download package is approximately 2.2 GB and unpacks to 3.1 GB after installation. Simply extract the files into the “Aircraft” folder within your X-Plane 12 directory. Once in the simulator, activate the aircraft using the provided serial key, and it’s ready to fly. Documentation Just Flight provides comprehensive documentation, including a detailed manual that outlines the aircraft’s specifications, panel guide, and procedures. The guide also covers the use of the Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) and advanced systems like engine management, custom electrical systems, and weight and balance.     Additionally, an Operating Data Manual (ODM) is included, offering useful performance data such as take-off performance for various flap settings. Whether you’re an experienced sim pilot or a newcomer, the manual provides invaluable insight for operating the Turbo Arrow III/IV realistically.     External Modelling and Textures The Turbo Arrow III/IV’s exterior is meticulously modelled using real-world aircraft plans and features high-resolution textures. While the external textures are of excellent quality, they are notably clean. Adding some general dirt and grime could enhance the immersion of a well-used aircraft. The attention to detail is evident in the rivets, panel lines, and subtle wear on the airframe. PBR (Physically Based Rendering) materials add realistic reflections and surface details, further enhancing the model’s appearance under varying lighting conditions.     Static elements, plus other aircraft options such as the opening and closing of doors are toggled from Just Flight’s Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) (more on that later).      Each livery, from the UK’s G-BYKP to the USA’s N-6919R, is recreated with care, showcasing the aircraft’s global appeal. The package includes three liveries for the Arrow III and an additional three for the Arrow IV. A template livery is also provided for those who want to create their own designs.     Cockpit and Interior Inside the cockpit, the Turbo Arrow continues to impress. Every instrument is fully modelled in 3D, with smooth animations and authentic wear that reflects real-world usage. Key cockpit features include: Detailed seat belts, screws, and upholstery. Adjustable panel lighting for night flights. VR compatibility, offering an immersive experience for VR pilots (untested by me due to lack of VR hardware). Customizable avionics configurations, including the ability to pop out instruments for ease of use.     The cockpit textures are generally of high quality, though some areas, such as the footwell and roof, are of lower resolution. This appears to have been done for performance reasons, but it’s not a significant issue, as these are areas rarely noticed during normal operations. Prioritizing performance is critical, especially in X-Plane 12, and this balance is well maintained.     Avionics The aircraft is IFR-capable, featuring a KMA 20 audio selector, KX 175B COM 2 / NAV 2 radio, KN 62 DME, and a KR 85 ADF unit. The GNS530 is fully integrated, supporting procedures out of the box and offering compatibility with Navigraph and Aerosoft databases. For those seeking an enhanced avionics experience, the aircraft also supports RealityXP’s GTN750.   Custom Systems Engine Management: The turbocharged Continental TSIO-360 six-cylinder engine is modelled with realistic performance, including simulated spark plug fouling and vapor lock. These conditions are displayed on the EFB, providing insights and solutions for maintaining engine health. Fuel and Electrical Systems: The custom fuel system includes an automatic tank-switching option for cross-country flights, while the electrical system features functional circuit breakers integrated with X-Plane’s native failure system. Landing Gear: The retractable landing gear is equipped with detailed animations, accurate shock absorber movement, and an emergency extension system. These accurately simulated systems, implemented by Just Flight, add a new level of immersion to this aircraft.   Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) The EFB is a standout feature, offering a range of tools and customization options: Aircraft Options: Enable or disable ground equipment, reflections, and advanced simulation features like engine wear and fouling. Weight & Balance: Adjust payload and fuel directly within the EFB, with changes reflected in real time. Instrument Options: Enable or disable GTN 750/650 integration (third-party), toggle popups for the GNS 530 and Century IV. Engine Config: Monitor engine parameters, refuel the aircraft, and recharge the battery. Livery Customization: Switch between static and dynamic liveries or create custom paint schemes on the fly. Configuration: Toggle options such as engine running, automatic fuel switching, and adjust the flight model feel via the DynaFeel system. Checklists: Interactive checklists cover all flight stages, including emergency operations. Flight Computer: Displays a wealth of in-flight information, including temperature, ground speed, endurance, range, nautical and statute miles per gallon (NMPG/SMPG), density and pressure altitude (DALT and Press ALT), true airspeed, fuel flow, fuel used, and headwind/crosswind components, particularly useful for cross-country navigation.     Additional Shortcuts: Includes quick access to X-Plane 12 native menus, such as the logbook, ground handling window, and AviTab (if installed).   Flight Dynamics and Performance The Turbo Arrow III/IV’s flight model is built using extensive real-world data and feedback from experienced pilots. While I haven’t flown this particular aircraft in real life, I do regularly fly a C152 for flight training and have some relevant experience in the handling and operation of general aviation aircraft. That said, the PA-28R is a more powerful aircraft, with a heavier build and a low-wing design compared to the high-wing design of the C152 I’m used to. These differences naturally affect the flight characteristics and stability of the Turbo Arrow, offering a distinct experience for pilots transitioning from lighter, high-wing trainers. Take-off and Climb Take-offs in the PA-28R Turbo Arrow III and IV are smooth, with a recommended rotation speed of approximately 70 knots. The aircraft climbs steadily at around 90 knots, providing a realistic and predictable experience.     Cruise Once airborne, the aircraft handles beautifully, performing exactly as expected for this class of aircraft, thanks to the fine-tuning by Just Flight and the excellent flight model in X-Plane 12. Setting the manifold pressure to 28 InHG and the RPM to 2,300 using the throttle and propeller lever respectively establishes a typical cruise. The aircraft flies smoothly and performs particularly well when practising power-on and power-off stalls, behaving as expected for a low-wing GA aircraft.     Landing and Ground Handling Landing the PA-28R is a breeze. It handles very well, simulating the additional ground effect of the low-wing design, and the effects of adding flaps feel realistic. Ground handling is also well executed, making it fairly easy to maintain control during landings or take-offs. The landing gear animations are excellent, with both fast and slow rotation sequences included, further enhancing immersion. Overall, the aircraft performs as expected across all phases of flight, from taxiing to approach and landing. The ability to switch between the Turbo Arrow III and IV variants in real time is a unique feature, allowing pilots to appreciate the subtle differences between the two models.     Night Lighting The Turbo Arrow III/IV features adjustable cockpit lighting which works well. The rheostat-controlled instrument lighting allows pilots to fine-tune their setup for comfortable night flying. However, as mentioned in Stephen's earlier review of the Arrow, the rear cabin is quite dark.      Sound Design Just Flight makes excellent use of X-Plane’s FMOD sound system to deliver an immersive audio experience. Engine sounds, switch clicks, and atmospheric effects are well-executed, with dynamic adjustments based on viewing angle and cockpit conditions. Opening a window or door changes the sound environment, adding an extra layer of realism.   The clickable headphone jack is a thoughtful touch, muffling and quietening the sounds to simulate wearing a headset in the cockpit. Overall, the audio design is fantastic, with the start-up and shutdown of the turbocharged engine being particular highlights.     Conclusion Having spent the last few weeks putting Just Flight’s PA-28R Turbo Arrow III/IV for X-Plane 12 through its paces, I have to say the experience left me extremely impressed. Standout features like the detailed modelling, advanced systems, and immersive flight dynamics all combine to create an add-on that captures this iconic aircraft almost perfectly. The only minor improvement I can think of would be sharper cockpit textures, but as it stands, the Turbo Arrow III/IV is a must-have for X-Plane 12 users. Whether you’re a student pilot like myself looking for a training platform, or an enthusiast seeking a realistic touring aircraft, this add-on delivers on all fronts. ________________________     The PA-28R TURBO ARROW III / IV XP12 by Just Flight - Thranda Design is now available from the X-Plane.Org Store here:   PA-28R TURBO ARROW III / IV XP12 Priced at $42.99   Features MODEL Accurately modelled PA-28R-201T Turbo Arrow III and PA-28RT-201T Turbo Arrow IV, built using real-world aircraft plans Numerous animations including multi-animation passenger door that, when open, responds to G-forces and air resistance, baggage door, cockpit window and sun visors Ground equipment including chocks and tie-downs 8k interior and exterior textures are used to produce the highest possible texture clarity PBR (Physically Based Rendering) materials with real-time environment reflections for superb quality and realism, completely reworked and upgraded for X-Plane 12 Detailed normal mapping for down-to-the-rivet precision of aircraft features. EFB livery switcher for switching between the Turbo Arrow III and IV variants in real-time without needing to use the aircraft menu X-Plane 12 native rain effects COCKPIT A truly 3D virtual cockpit right down to accurately modelled seat belts and screw heads - every instrument is constructed fully in 3D with smooth animations Cockpit textures feature wear and tear based on reference photos taken in the real aircraft to produce an authentic environment Tablet EFB with a selection of apps full of useful tools and customisation options: Aircraft Options: Open/close the aircraft’s doors, enable/disable glass reflection, enable/disable ground equipment, and more! Weight & Balance: Adjust the aircraft’s weight and balance using the built-in configuration app and centre of gravity table.  Instrument Options: Choose to have the cockpit avionics visible in the 3D cockpit or pop them out on 2D panels. Static Liveries: Change aircraft liveries without exiting to the main menu.  Dynamic Liveries: Customise the aircraft’s paint scheme without leaving the aircraft. Features Modern and a Classic liveries whose  colours can be fully customised in the aircraft, without the need for any complicated paint kits. Engine Configuration: View the condition of the engines and enable enhanced simulation options such as spark plug fouling and         vapour lock. Thranda DynaFeel: Adjust the force required to move each of the control surfaces. Checklists: Interactable checklists for every stage of flight. AviTab support. And much more! Fully functional and comprehensive IFR-capable avionics fit including: KMA 20 audio selector unit Fully featured X-Plane-native GNS530 (supports procedures out of the box, and supports Navigraph and Aerosoft custom nav databases) KX 175B COM 2 / NAV 2 radio KN 62 DME unit which can display information from NAV 1 or NAV 2 Autocontrol IIIB autopilot unit with navigation, heading and roll hold (hidden autopilot altitude hold system included for convenience) KT 76A transponder unit KR 85 ADF unit Support for RealityXP GTN750 (sold separately, Windows only) Interactive logbook panel for logging your flight details (X-Plane native) Yoke-mounted flight timer/clock Independently operated left and right (standby) altimeter GoodWay compatible Ability to change barometric units from InHG to MB in altimeter adjustment Pop-up autopilot window Animated toe brakes Functional throttle quadrant tensioning system Radio knob animations routed through plug-in logic, for optimum movement fidelity and sound synchronisation AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS Custom-coded fuel system, including the option of automatic fuel tank switching for use on those long distance cross-country flights (this option is remembered for future flights) Custom-coded electrical system with functional circuit breakers. Circuit breaker logic is linked to X-Plane's internal failure logic, so if the plane is set to fail a certain electrical component after a certain number of hours, the circuit breaker for that element will pop out. Realistic landing gear system with intricate retraction animation, slow/fast tyre rotation animation (blurry when rotating fast), precise shock absorber animation with multiple linkages animated accurately, and wheel chocks and tie-downs Functioning alternate air and static source controls Fully implemented back-up landing gear system Dedicated interactive engine EFB page for displaying values such as fuel tank weights and imbalance, fuel pressure, oil pressure, oil temperature, battery charge (with quick charge option), and information about spark plug fouling and vapour lock condition Simulated vapour lock condition, with EFB warnings and suggested actions Simulated spark plug fouling condition, with indication of percentage of fouling Lighting system includes separate lighting control for gauges (via rheostat) and realistic implementation of navigation light / radio light rheostat Functional electric trim control on yoke (requires electric trim button to be pushed) Functional ELT which is automatically triggered above 4.6 G Simulated fan and vent system with realistic blower sounds (linked to circuit breaker logic and electrical system for realism) Custom external light logic with custom strobe light pattern and custom light halos for added realism Requirements X-Plane 12 (not for XP11) Windows, Mac, or Linux 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 2.1 GB Current version: 1.0 (October 31st, 2024) Discount info: Customers who own the PA-28R TURBO ARROW III / IV XP11 can get this new XP12 version for 10% off. Discount will automatically be applied at checkout.   Review System Specifications Windows 11, AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 32GB DDR5 RAM, RTX 3070Ti  ________________________ Aircraft Review by DrishalMAC2 21st December 2024 Copyright©2024: X-Plane Reviews   (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copying of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions).  

Aircraft Review : Pilatus PC-12 DGS by Thranda Design   The most successful General Aviation aircraft in the X-Plane Simulator has been the Cessna Caravan, in two forms, first by Carenado, then by Thranda Design. The second most successful aircraft, again by Carenado was the Pilatus PC-12, and there is a link between the two aircraft.   Both aircraft use the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A engine, a small gas turbine engine for Turboprops, that drives the propeller through a reduction gearbox. So it is a very smooth engine with a high power output of 1,200 shp. A bit of trivia, the PT6A engine is actually installed in reverse, with the output connected to the reduction gearbox, then directly to the five-blade, constant-speed, full-feathering, reversible-pitch propeller. So basically you are facing the front of the Turboprop engine.   The Pilatus PC-12 is a single-engine, turboprop aircraft known for its versatility, reliability, and performance. Manufactured by the Swiss company Pilatus Aircraft Ltd, the PC-12 is widely used for business aviation, medical evacuation, cargo transport, and special missions. It is one of the most popular turboprop aircraft in its class.   Like the Cessna Caravan before it, here now is the Pilatus PC-12 from Thranda Design, an aircraft that is always at the top of any serious users Simulation wishlist. The Carenado offering was very good, but honestly I never bonded with it, it was a small thing in the instrument lighting, clunky to fly and it didn't look very realistic, and a couple of other peculiarities. Also X-Plane has come a long way since that Carenado release in April 2015, so here is the PC-12 reimagined by Thranda Design in it's DGS ((Dynamic Generation Series) form.     The concept for the PC-12 was initiated in the 1980s, following the success of Pilatus’s PC-6 Porter and PC-7/PC-9 trainer aircraft. This was to be a slightly larger aircraft, and Pilatus aimed to create a pressurized, single-engine turboprop aircraft capable of combining passenger, cargo, and utility roles into a single platform. The Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A engine was chosen for its reliability and efficiency, and the maiden flight was achieved on May 31, 1991. Its nickname, the “Swiss Army Knife of Aviation.” The prototype was technically closer in design to the PC-12/41, which was the initial production variant. In 1996, Pilatus upgraded the PC-12 to the PC-12/45 model, increasing the MTOW to 9,920 pounds (4,500 kilograms) without any major structural changes. This version became the standard production model and replaced the PC-12/41, and became known as the PC-12 Standard. This Thranda aircraft is based on the PC-12/47, another slight gain in takeoff weight of 10,450 pounds (4,740 kgs), the performance stays the same even with the higher MTOW. Thranda Design are already known for their quality and extensive list of features, so you are already expecting a very good looking Pilatus PC-12, but what was not expected...  was how really good this PC-12 really is in the flesh. Maybe we just remember the older aged Careando PC-12, anyway this aircraft just leaps off the screen in quality and detail.... it is without doubt the best looking Thranda aircraft yet. Modeling is absolutely first rate, nothing even to nit-pick over here, as all the essential detailing is masterly covered. Every detail from vents, latches, aerials and beacons are all covered. Note the beautiful exhaust horns and lovely chrome spinner. The wings have a straight leading edge with a slightly tapered shape towards the wingtip, and the trailing edge is also tapered, giving the wing a sleek appearance and delivering improving aerodynamics. Then they also only have a moderate sweep angle, the wings are not highly swept back, but angled enough to help with high-speed stability and fuel efficiency. You could call it a modern clean wing.   Notable is the right wing bulge, which contains a radar antenna, part of the onboard weather detection system. The system is used to detect precipitation, turbulence, and other weather-related hazards. The curved winglets are really nicely done, the earlier PC-12s had the more squared off wingtips. Flaps are four positions (0º - 15º - 20º - 40º)...  15º is used for takeoff, and the PC-12 is considered as a STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) aircraft, as the 40º setting allows steeper approaches and shorter landings. Flap detail internally is excellent, as the flap tracks are all very aerodynamically pronounced. Nosewheel is a simple strut leg, fitted with durable, multi-ply tires. Rear gear is trailing-link, and the landing gear is specially designed to handle operations on unpaved, gravel, or grass strips, also reduce debris damage during takeoff and landing. The Landing gear and airframe components are also upgraded for durability under heavier loads in the heavier 12/47 we have here.   Quality and detail of the wheel and strut assembly is expertly done, and all three wheels have built in taxi and landing lights. Glass is very good, tinted on the main cockpit windows, and all the glass comes with nice reflections (that can be turned off). External Static Elements The Thranda PC-12 has a nice selection of external Static Elements, including; Chocks (rear wheels), Engine inlet and exhaust covers, Tags, Pitot covers, Tiedowns and a support stand. GPU (Ground Power Unit), and both opening doors (forward and large rear left cargo door).     Cabin Up into the aircraft....   ....  the cabin layout is in an "Executive" style of only six seats, with the forward seats set in a "Club" style. In a commuter or charter cabin configuration, you can have installed in here 10 seats (single-pilot). Forward area has a very nice mahogany wood grain on the wardrobe and small buffet. The passenger seats are excellent, HUGE, cushy, with lovely ripples showing off the leather, the orange headrests are a nice touch as well (in Executive cabins Orange seems to be the current trend lately), the rear of the seat also can be laid back. There are two (animated) tables, one with the set of left club seats, and another on the single left rear seat. Fine (lovely) window shades are also all individually animated... ...   Lighting and Air-Vent fixtures are exquisite, animated as well for movement, to turn on you press the centre of the lamp. Rear cargo hold is covered by a lovely blue netting with chrome rings, everything is done in here with a fine eye for detail. Cockpit Through the slight gap and your in the very tight cockpit, it looks small and it feels very intimate.   Although not a full glass cockpit with big display panels, it still feels very modern by it's layout and instruments. Extremely well done here, it has a great look and comes with a realistic avionic feel by Thranda Design. The seats are set right up against the bulkhead highlighting the small space, they are very nice with their sheepskin covers, and the armrests can all be lifted and hidden away behind the seat. Control yokes are excellent and realistically worn, and come with Electric Trim, PTT (working Push-To-Talk) button, and also a disconnect AP (Autopilot) button, you can hide the yokes individually, via the hot-spot on the rear. Main electrical and lighting overhead panel (OHP) is still marginally obstructed by the pull down shades, so you have to move them to access certain parts of the switchgear, I found to move the shades right out of the way to the side, because they became quite annoying every time you wanted to access the lighting switch gear. The armrests hide the throttle which in turn hides the condition/feather lever (in one) of which you use a lot, thankfully the armrests can be moved up here to get access. There are more rocker lighting switches for panel, cockpit and cabin lighting on the rear of the pedestal with four extra adjustment knobs, The flap selection lever is of 0º - 15º - 30º and 40º of flap, and the flap indicator is positioned in the very top left of the pilots panel.   Honestly you won't find this layout much different from the Carenado PC-12 version, you even have the same rudder pedal adjustment, via the nice winder.     Power on...   and voltages will change with any power selections! On the OHP many of the switches have a double function as in the first right switch turns the item on and you then select the choice by the second switch for two selections. It is very easy to use once you understand the functionality.     Earlier generation PC-12s had either the Honeywell Primus Apex or Bendix/King Avionics. Here it is the Bendix/King KFC 325 Digital/Electronic Flight Control System panel (EFIS). The EFIS takes in two of the six standard flight instruments in the upper "EADI" ((Electronic Attitude Director Indicator) and the lower "EHSI" (Electronic Horizontal Situation Indicator).   The others are the Airspeed, Altitude, Vertical Speed  (V/S) and RMI (Radio Magnetic Indicator). There is a backup CDI (Course deviation indicator) but that is also built into the EFIS and two other backup instruments in another Artificial Horizon and Altitude dials and AFD direction finder. Co-Pilot's side is the same EFIS standard six layout without the backup dials.   Center panel top under the extensive deep glareshield is the excellent Benedix/King KFC 325 Digital/Electronic Flight Control System (EFIS) and the autopilot panel pops out. Next to the autopilot is the GARMIN GMA 340 Radio Comms Panel. Your ADF unit is the standard KR 87T50 Bendex/King ADF receiver. Note the large Radar Altimeter far right lower.   The KFC 325 is in four sections, EADI/EHSI, VVI (KAS297C), Autopilot Panel (KMC 321) and EFSI Select Panel. The centrally positioned EFIS Select Panel has a lot of features, with Course, DH (Decision Height) and ADF (1-2) / VOR (1-2) pointers built into the EFIS display. You can also switch from the HSI to ARC mode view as well.     The focal point of any PC-12 is the central EIS (Engine Indication System) which complements the EHSI by offering an integrated view of flight data and engine performance on the MFD. It displays; Torque, ITT (Inter-Turbine Temperature), Ng (Gas Generator Speed), Np (Propeller RPM), OAT, Fuel - Quantity x 2, FL(ow) H(our), Used and ENDUR (Endurance). GEN 1/GEN 2  Voltage and Current (Amperage), Date and Time. Engine Oil Temperature and Pressure. The EIS can also be tested. It pops out here as a window, can be scaled and moved anywhere on the screen.     In fact any instrument can be popped out, scaled and moved under the DGS system.   48 visible Annunciator lights cover Caution and Warning alerts, the panel pops out and you can test the system and the OHP annunciator lights via the button far left top on the OHP.     This Instrument layout does not cover all of the DGS options, that aspect is covered in the menus. But this layout would be considered the PC-12 default setup.   There are banks of Fuses/Circuit Beakers on each side wall panel, and every one is active and can be used.     Menu/Tablet Since the last Thranda release of the PC-6 Turbo Porter, included was a new feature of built in EFB (Electronic Flight Bag) or Tablet and combined also with the menu.   The iPad/Tablet can be used in the aircraft. There is a brown circular patch on the window, if you press the hot-spot, then the IPad/Tablet will appear, if you press the rear sucker cup, then it will also disappear...   and the same tablet is also attached to the right hand side window.     The iPad/Tablet can be tilt adjusted via the top edge, but not too far in movement as the window's glass gets in the way, but there is also far more movement in here than with the PC-6 installation.     Menu layout is the same as the PC-6 with 13 icons to choose from; Aircraft Options, Weight & Balance, INSTR Options, Panel Editor, Static Liveries, DYNAFEEL, Log Book, Checklist, Ground Handling, Dynamic Liveries, Flight Computer, Equipment and AviTab...   at the bottom is a "Brightness" slider 0% to 100%.     The side Arrow window tab is still there, and so it still does have the same pop-up menu for external use.     Aircraft Options This page menu is also changed from the earlier Thranda "General" selection, but the options and the layout stays the same, the layout is still as highly detailed and as very comprehensive as before in the General tab.     Three selections cover group items, but any one item via "Click Spots" can be individually selected or hidden via the aircraft graphic.   "ALL COVERS" will select engine inlet/outlet covers and pitot cover, "ALL TIE-DOWNS" for propeller and wing tie-downs and "ALL DOORS" for the main cabin door and the rear Cargo  door, sadly there is no PT6A engine reveal like on the PC-6, however the engine can be set into two modes...  SIMPLIFIED or REALISTIC   In Simplified mode the engine will automatically limit the engine to remain below the maximum torque of 47.3 psi. In Realistic mode it will be up to the pilot to avoid exceeding the engine limitations. The propeller gearbox or propeller shaft can break if the torque limit is exceeded by a certain margin, resulting in engine failure and smoke in the cabin (the smoke can be cleared by pulling the firewall air shutoff control closed).   Other Aircraft Options menu selections cover; Window and Instrument Panel Reflections on/off, Startup Running on/off, GPU (Ground Power Unit), Chocks and Brakes on/off. There is a Steering SIMPIFIED or REALISTIC, but the PC-12 is not a taildragger, (this option locks the tailwheel) so an odd addition? All EXT - External Lights can be switched on and off as can ALL INT - Internal lights. The individual lights can also be accessed on the aircraft graphic.   The Electric Tug on the nosewheel, movement is controlled via your joystick and rudder pedals (yaw).     Weight & Balance The PC-12 has the same intricate great "Weight and Balance" menu as earlier Thanda aircraft. Weights are in both Lbs and Kgs, which can be selected via the toggle...     Pilot, passengers and cargo can all be set for their individual weights (scroll), and the CofG (Centre of Gravity) parameters are all shown on a graph and with a marker on the aircraft of it's physical CofG, when done you can SAVE the configuration and later reload it.     INSTR Options Next menu item is your "Instrument Option" menu page. There are four options available; GPS #1 Popup (GNS 530), GPS #2 Popup (GNS 430), KFC 325 Autopilot Popup, all again are scalable. And there is also the option to change the Baro Units from mb to inhg.     Panel Editor "Panel Editor"...  is part of the Thranda featured "Dynamic Generation Series", More about the DGS Series     The Thranda PC-12 can be highly customised in two areas to suit your taste. First in Dynamic Panel, as there is no default instrument setup, in the Pilatus as you can customise the panel to suit your own flying preferences. In the iPad/Tablet configuration the screen space is now far larger than the old "Panel" Menu. This is good, because as some of the small access zones in the menu before tended to overlap each over, so you always found yourself adjusting (scrolling) the wrong item.   Top row of options are 2 different panel backgrounds, here in KFC 325 or G1000 with three display screens. (Note all options can be mouse scrolled). There are other panel options of which we can see later.     The "Dynamic" in the panel is another featured DGS. Besides having different custom panel configurations, you can also customise the instrument panel by selecting "ENABLE 3D PANEL EDIT MODE". This will highlight the available instruments you can change in green.     Selecting an instrument via the "INDIV INST" (Individual Instrument) and "ACTIVE INSTRUMENT", it will highlight the instrument you want to say, move to another place or to adjust items position on the Instrument Panel...  There is however a slightly different adjustment system now in being used here, arrows in a cross. They will now allow you to adjust the depth (in/out), angle up/down or left/right, besides using the smaller white arrows to move the item around the panel in again up/down or left/right.     You can also add in tools and instrument features of 52 different items, and these items also includes the Aspen EFD 1000 avionics.     Alpine Avionics Evolution Part of the options available is the EFD 1000 which is a self-contained multifunction digital display that is divided into a Primary Flight Display (PFD) in the top half, and an Electric Horizontal Situation Indicator (EHSI) in the lower half. As EDF 1000 systems go it is not a highly featured system, with the GPSS, MAP,  360 and Menu functions all not simulated, but the display does pop-out...  It works of course with the KFC 325 Autopilot.   Basically you can also start with a completely blank panel and then create your own unique or personal instrument layout...   and can have up to, or can save 14 different panel layouts (presets), and with the Reality GTN 750 as shown here.     Static Liveries There are nine provided liveries, one extra is noted as "DYNAMICLIVERYRESOURCES", this is the space on the menu for the custom DGS livery for ease of selection. A dedicated NGX and Pilatus House is also included. "ZZTEMPLATELIVERY" liveries is now missing as the DGS system has been more refined, it is now more smoother and the long wait pause times have been reduced.     You can adjust the "Dirt" 0% to 100% by scrolling the number...  for a clean or dirty aircraft.     DYNAFEEL     "DynaFeel" is a system that dynamically adjusts the rate at which the controls deflect, in Pitch, Roll and Yaw. It is based on airspeed and how much the control's are deflected. This means the controls will feel light and responsive at low speeds and with some small deflections, but will get progressively heavier as the airspeed increases.   Logbook This is one feature adopted from the JustFlight Menu. This Icon will just show the X-Plane Logbook window.     Checklist A 35 page checklist is very comprehensive set in the iPad/Tablet. Navigation is via the lower left/right arrows, or you can scroll the pages via the centre box bottom. The Checklist will also pop-out into a scalable window, to make the list available anywhere in the cockpit....  You tick off the list one-by-one (green), but there is no default to clear the list in one click?     Ground Handling This option just views the X-Plane default "Ground Handling" window. if you prefer that tool over the Thranda electric tug.     Dynamic Liveries Earlier we saw the available "Static Liveries". Here you can actually design your own livery and save the livery.     You have a menu to select on the right that can colour a certain part of the aircraft, like the Roof, Wing, Tail or Wing tips. Select which one you want and then adjust (scroll) the RGB colours for that area. Other options include changing the Registration of the aircraft and putting the "Pilatus" logo under the cockpit window. It looks hard but you can easily design a very nice livery in about twenty minutes...     ...  when done you can "Save" (Add) the livery and then "APPLY" it to the aircraft. When you apply the livery the screen will then freeze for a few minutes, and then go a bit weird? as the DGS processes the livery. The results are however excellent.     A note...  if the created livery does not appear correctly? Then go to the Static Liveries and select "Apply", then go back to the created Dynamic Livery and do it again, this time it should create the livery you wanted.     A feature is the (Quick) selection of Dirt via percentage selections you can adjust the amount of Dirt, Scratches and Dirt Int on the aircraft (0%-255%) and apply it instantly. So you can have either a pristine or a very grubby aircraft with just a twirl of the numbers. Also changes can can be made to the Metal or Rough surfaces, this can be applied to any of the liveries. Note you can apply the same Dirt and Scratches onto any of the Static Liveries directly via that particular menu.   There are 31 pre-installed Dynamic liveries to choose from, and you can save as many custom ideas as you want (within reason).   Flight Computer Another new feature from the JustFlight menu. This shows you your current aircraft data including; OAT, GS (Ground Speed), Endurance, Range, NMPG/SMPG, Altitude, TAS (speed), Fuel Flow, Fuel Used, Headwind (knts) and Crosswind (Knts). Both units in Metric or Imperial are also available.... and you can reset the fuel burn.     Equipment Under the "Equipment" Icon you have several items as external options, these items were originally under the MISC tab. There are two "Equipment" options, Recog (Recognition) Lights. This option makes the outer under wing lights "pulse" or not.     You can select either a "Female" Pilot (Mrs Klaue) or a "Male" Pilot (Mr Klaue)     AviTab AviTab is a PDF viewer, Airport info, METAR info and ILS frequencies information tool, it also has a moving map that supports online maps and offline maps, Navigraph integration in that you can link your Navigraph account and see the charts right in the cockpit. In the PC-12 the Avitab is available in both the 3D tablet and a scalable pop-out window.   _____________   Internal Lighting I was not very taken with the PC-12 Carenado lighting, it looked over saturated and not very realistic, it was the X-Plane 10/11 era as well, and in not having any of the the X-Plane 12 dynamics. So I was expecting a big leap forward by Thranda, and I wasn't disappointed.     It looks amazing...  the X-Plane 12 dynamics really shine in here (pun intended). Everything is controlled via the lighting panel rear console.     Four Rocker switches have double selections, two have three selections (DOME & Cabin FLOOD). Advisory has DIM and NORM. The four lighting knobs of which three are for the panel lighting work nicely as well. PHL (Panel) has three knob options to reduce the text lighting for either side pilot and the centre console.     Fourth knob adjusts the lower flood lighting, including the nicely lit side panels and glareshield lighting. All can be turned off for takeoff and landing minimum glare lighting.     Three way DOME (OFF-50%-100%) switch activates the twin overhead cockpit spots.     Overall the internal cockpit lighting is a nice bit of kit and very flexible to your tastes.   In the cabin, you again have the FLOOD (OFF-50%-100%) selection via the main two lighting strips, and 12 clickable individual READING spot lights that can be focused around. The Reading lights are tricky to switch on via their small central hotspots, but the ALL ON internal lights option is on the menu.     External Lighting There are five forward lights in; Taxi and Landing lights on each wheel, and two RECOG (Recognition) lights that can be set to PULSE. WING/ICE light (left side), Strobe, Beacon, Tail Lights and Navigation lights make up an impressive external lighting.   _____________   Flying the PC-12/47 This is a three airport flight, Wrangell PAWG to Petersburg PAPG then on to Sitka Rocky Gutierrez PASI, all three airport sceneries are by NorthernSky Studios Scenery, and they with others also cover this whole "Inside Passage" area of Alaska.     I did the same flight way back when with the Carenado PC-12, so I wanted to revisit the flight in X-Plane 12. So after setting up the aircraft, power on, Baro done, Fuel pumps on, lights set, blinds moved out of the way...  it was time to start the P&W PT6A powerplant...  SimpleSimon, Just put the CONDITION lever to "Flight Idle" (once started you bring it back to "Ground Idle"), "Starter" on, then just press the IGNITION button...     ...  then the Engine Management System (EMS) does all the work, this aircraft also has the Electronic Propeller and Engine Control System (EPECS). EPECS is an advanced engine management system integrated into the PC-12/47’s Pratt & Whitney PT6A-67P engine very similar to FADAC, offering several benefits to simplify engine and propeller management while improving performance and reliability. It uses a single-lever power control that simplifies pilot workload by integrating propeller RPM and engine power into the one control lever.   It takes a fair while for the engine to whine (that wonderful familiar PT6A start), and then the turbine speeds up to ignition, then the aircraft comes to life. It's a procedure I love every time I start the PC-12, the startup sounds are quite brilliant as well as Thranda are excellent in sound management. When all the engine parameters are settled, off goes the park brake...     ...  like the Carenado PC-12 it taxis fast, so you need a bit of footwork to keep to a slower taxi speed, bringing back the CONDITION lever to "Ground Idle" helps a little, but it's still a little too fast for me.     Steers nice, but the high cowling makes the centreline of the runway hard to see, so you taxi a bit to the right to follow it.     No flightplan here, it's only 31 nautical miles (NM) straight north from Wrangell Airport (PAWG) to Petersburg James A. Johnson Airport (PAPG), I have done it 50 times or more, so no guidance is required.     This is my second time in the Thranda PC-12/47 from PAWG to PAPG. The first was a very messy flight test flight, the PC-12 was impossible to fly cleanly? Because there is a "Trick" to flying the PC-12...  As the PT6A puts out 1,200 SHP through a single-prop, it produces horrible asymmetric thrust, a pain on takeoff, hell on landing. The trick is to set the rudder trim to the far right (green zone) to counteract the forces, you may need to set an X-Plane key COMMAND to adjust the rudder trim this far right or use the Autotrim.     It looks odd this far an angle, but it works beautifully were it counts. Flap selection can be either 15º for a Normal Takeoff, or 30º for a Short/Soft Field Takeoff... I select 30º to test the STOL effect.     Power up with the single throttle T-Bar lever, and the PC-12 pulls quickly away at a 3995 Kg TOW, 4740 Kg is MTOW...   speed builds quickly, but Wrangell's RWY 28 is seriously bumpy, so the trailing link gear and your rudder control are both working overtime...     At just under 100 kts I hit a massive bump mid-way down the runway, and the PC-12 literally bounces straight into the air without moving the stick? I'm now flying...     It is the STOL effect at work, but I catch the moment, and pull the PC-12 into a climb of just over 1,200 fpm, Max Climb is 1,920 fpm, and the average is climb out is usually around 1,500 fpm, but I'm not going very high with the short distance to PAPG.     Kadin Island is directly ahead of you, so you do a slight roll to the right as you climb out out of RWY 28 PAPG, this Thranda PC-12 is excellent for feel and feedback, you are instantly in touch with the machine, be as one from the start.     I top out at 3,400 ft, to pass both Kadin Island (left) and then Dry Island (right), then reset my altitude to 3,000ft.     The PC-12 looks sublime in the fading light of the day, this is only a short hop between PAWG and PAPG, but I'm enjoying it immensely, if you feel this good, it must be good. I am now seeing why this aircraft is so revered.   PC-12 Service ceiling is around 9,150 m (30,000 ft), with a Power/mass of 3.7 kg/shp (8.2 lb/shp), you have big Range with 0 passengers (Ferry) it's 3,389 km (1,830 nm), full Range with 9 passengers is 2,804 km (1,753 mi) (1,513 nm). From now on it will be a long slow descent into Petersburg.     You head directly towards the right hand coastline, before angling slowly around Frederick's Point and into PAPG, but this is not the official route into RWY 23, as both LDA (Landing Distance Available) and the RNV approaches demand you arrive only from the Northeast. It is also a tight twist in the final moments into RWY 23.   I'm loving this long wide sweeping curve into Petersburg, losing 300 fpm in height, flaps already at 30º, with a speed of 80 kts, it is a slow and graceful approach.     Gear down and the focus is totally on finding the hidden threshold of RWY 23. Gear sounds are excellent, a very slight "thump", "thump" and "thump"...     ...  from the 700 ft approach down to 500 ft, I'm ready for finals, grinning from ear to ear with a quick glace at the moving shiny water, loving this.     I was as low a speed as 72 kts as I flared the nose, almost stall speed (67 knts), but I felt a lot of wing support, and only a small drift down, yes I am feeling totally in control, again be aware of the offset rudder trim, and it is again to be set in the green zone, if not you will pull badly to the left on landing, it's nasty believe me. Touch was right on stall...  70 kts. Yes the PT6A will do an extremely powerful reverse thrust (reversible-pitch propeller) here and has that amazing Cessna Caravan howl, but PAPG 05/23 has a long 6400 ft runway, so the RT was not needed here.     Clean up the PC-12 and head to the terminal area, I'm getting more used to the taxi, but it still feels a little fast, most Thranda's are, fast in the taxi.     Move into the parking place, and turn off the PT6A-67P by the CONDITION lever, and the wail, like the Cessna Caravan wail, while the engine winds down is so familiar... yes I love it all.     Early the next morning it was a longer and higher flight out to Sitka. 10,000 ft is only nearly a third the altitude PC-12 can fly high to, at 30,000 ft with pressurization, but FL010 is a nice if perfect altitude to take in one of the greatest flying areas in the world, Alaska's "Inside Passage".     The trick of the PC-12 is that it is a Turboprop that thinks it is a Light Jet, it flies smooth like a jet, has loads of power, and as noted can even fly higher than most small jets, this executive cabin arrangement adds in to the same role.    The KFC 325 autopilot panel pops out and can be scaled, moved, which is very handy...     ...  but the EFSI Select Panel is awkward to use in the centre of the instrument panel, with the heading knob the furthest away from you, a pop-up panel for this Select panel would be really handy.     The VVI (KAS297C) is tricky to use if your not familiar with it, the tuning button will switch between Altitude (setting) and V/S (Vertical Speed). So you set the altitude, then ARM it via the lower button, but where it is odd is that the indicator ARM light goes out and not on when you arm the altitude, which makes it confusing? The V/S is activated by the top button, when you have selected the vertical speed + or -     The PC-12 is excellent in this cruise mode, just a smudge over 200 kts is fast enough. The ride in the back is not bad either.     BIORKA ISLAND VORTAC (113.80 BKA) (SITKA) is the official way into PASI from the south, east or west, via a long circuit track.     You pass waypoints KOYEG, then JETUT, a hard 90º turn to HEXAP situated on the start of the ILS 108.90 ISIT, which takes you into Sitka's SIT Rwy 11.     I align the aircraft with the ILS beam to find the runway, hidden in the bright low morning light...  the PC-12 is now configured for landing, flaps a full 40º, gear down, trim set (don't forget the rudder trim?), so my approach speed is again a very low 72 knts.     You forget how good X-Plane 12 is now, brilliant water, bright cascading sunlight... love it.     I am also now very familiar on the how to do approaches in the PC-12, as slow as you dare go, adjust the throttle to finely keep you airborne, just like landing in slow motion.     You always need that high flare to rub off the final speed to almost a stall, then glide your way in...   this time I used the powerful reverse thrust, the sounds go up! noisy, but brilliant, and the speed drops off very quickly. Note the CONDITION lever to "Ground Idle"), you have to look at the lever being set correctly from the side, looking straight down it is not aligned correctly.     And I am now back in Sitka again, and it is so different to the old Carenado days, a far, far better PC-12, and a far better scenery around me....  X-Plane 12 delivers as well, so a great combo all round...     ...  it brings back big memories, but more so this flight has created new one, better ones, than those days that behind us that should now be forgotten, via X-Plane 12, and the excellent Pilatus PC-12. ________________________ Summary The Pilatus PC-12 is a single-engine, turboprop aircraft known for its versatility, reliability, and performance. Manufactured by the Swiss company Pilatus Aircraft Ltd, the PC-12 is widely used for business aviation, medical evacuation, cargo transport, and special missions. It is one of the most popular turboprop aircraft in its class.   The Carenado Cessna Caravan was one of the biggest X-Plane GA sellers, the Carenado PC-12 was not far behind, mostly because of that unique and powerful PT6A turbine engine. Thranda's PC-12 now follows their earlier released Cessna Caravan for X-Plane 12,.   Daniel Klaue needs no introduction if you have been in X-Plane for a period of time, he is certainly one of the most innovative, and one of the most talented developers out there that, a person that is very highly regarded within the X-Plane Simulator.   This PC-12 is a Dan Klaue aircraft, and so you expect tons of ideas and clever features, and certainly the Thanda designs PC-12 does not disappoint in that department. Modeling and detail is absolutely first rate, this is an excellent Pilatus aircraft with a lovely design and high quality. This is a first release in X-Plane 12, and not a conversion from X-Plane 11, it's all new, new.   X-Plane 12 textures in 8k (four times the higher resolution than before) it shows of course, but without the framerate hit. The EFB...  Electronic Flight Bag, or the Thranda Tablet is still basically all new as introduced on the PC6, with now with 13 options, and all the pop-out windows are scalable. Flying Dynamics are also completely dynamic for XP12, as is the better LED lighting. Advanced FMOD (2)-based sound system is extensive for XP12, and all of course recorded from a real PC-12 and it's PT6 engine,   The innovative menu system "Dynamic Generation Series", in you can create your own instrument panel layout or layouts as up to 14 different layouts of 44 instruments and avionics can be saved with 6 default layouts including a Aspen EFD 1000 with here the KFC 325 autopilot, and the panel is also RealityXP GNS 530W/430W or GTN 750/650 Touch with 3D bezels ready. A huge selection of 32 liveries is still complimented with a feature to create your own colour scheme and livery, then you can save them as well. This aircraft is X-Plane 12 only.   Overall you get a huge feature list with a great value price for X-Plane 12, so this is absolutely the perfect PC-12 you always dreamed of. The PC-12 was very much requested, and here it is now available in this very high quality package...    so what more can you ask for! _______________________________     Yes! the Pilatus PC-12 DGS Series XP12 by Thranda Design is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :  https://store.x-plane.org/Pilatus-PC-12-DGS-Series_p_1975.html   Pilatus PC-12 DGS Series XP12 Price is US$44.95     Requirements X-Plane 12 (not for XP11) Windows, Mac or Linux 8 GB VRAM Recommended Download Size: 4.1 GB Current version  1.0 (December 21st 2024) _____________________   Installation and documents: Download is 4.05Gb and the aircraft is deposited in the "General Aviation" X-Plane folder. Installation key is required on start up and is supplied with the purchased download file. Full installation is 7.46Gb (heavy)   SkunkCrafts Updater works with the Thranda PC-12, so instant updates are always available.   Documents supplied are: Blank_Livery_For_Painting ChangeLog.txt Thranda PC12 Documentation v1_2.pdf Thranda PC12 Expansion Pack Manual.pdf Thranda PC12 Manual XP12.pdf Thranda PC12 Performance Charts MASTER XP12.pdf Thranda Pilatus PC12 Graphics Settings XP11.pdf Thranda Pilatus PC12 Graphics Settings XP12.pdf Thranda Pilatus PC12 Joystick Settings.pdf X-Plane G430 Manual.pdf X-Plane G530 Manual.pdf   A Blank Livery (PNG) of four files are provided for painting. Checklists, setting and loads of Performance graphs are provided in the various manuals _____________________   Review System Specifications:  Windows  - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD - Bose Quiet Comfort QC35 Headphones Software:   - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane Version 12.0.1.3 Plugins: JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 : RK Apps XPRealistic v2 - US$34.99 Scenery or Aircraft - PAWG - Wrangell Airport, Alaska by NorthernSkyStudio (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$16.95 - PAPG - Petersburg James Johnson Airport, Alaska by NorthernSkyStudio (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$12.00 - PASI - Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport, Alaska by NorthernSkyStudio (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$15.00 _____________________   Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton  21st December 2024 Copyright©2024 : 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)  

This is my first time posting in this forum so please forgive me if my comment does not suit this thread. I'm a CS major but space flight & aviation has always been my passion. I had my first flight over 2 years ago, then a couple transcontinental ones since then. I've always wanted to fly.   About a month ago, I came across this video by Max Lenormand on How Microsoft Accidentally Made the Most Realistic Map which nudged me into researching more on MSFS and how I could also play that and fly. Before this, I had only known that MSFS was a flight simulator, but other than that knew pretty much nothing about it. So on I went learning more and more about this simulator. When I realized that it was only available on PC & Xbox, I was a bit disheartened as I wished it would run on my MacBook (I have the M1 Pro base model).   Then somehow going in the rabbit hole, I came across X-Plane. On finding that it was supported cross-platform (thank you X-Plane devs!), I immediately went ahead and downloaded it. It's been the most incredible few days learning about this awesome piece of software!   Initially, I had only thought that X-Plane was a slightly "lower" 2nd option for those who could not have MSFS (like me). But when I learned more about X-Plane, read on these forums, and watched Austin Meyer the creator himself! connect with his audience through YouTube, I came to realize how wrong I was!   Even though it has only been a few days, it already feels like I'm a part of this incredible team effort! I'm extremely fortunate to have found this incredible community of builders and flyers and just want to Thank you all for creating something like this for the world to enjoy!   Lastly, I'd also like to thank @Stephen. Your article was an amazing read, and I'm sure we'll see many great improvements in X-Plane in the days to come! Will wait for the end of the year update!  

Behind the Screen : Year in Review 2024   Rereading back through my Behind the Screen edition in November 2023, I was obviously not a happy bunny. Frustrated after a long development year, that had gone backwards AND forwards, and at even one point the simulator hadn't even worked at all...  I was a bit of all over it. Someone suggested I go on holiday, so I did, for two weeks around the Pacific on a very nice cruise ship in February. It summed up the year I wanted to forget.   Laminar Research had also reached the same conclusion in 2023, with the Vulkan/Metal API transition also causing their own long term frustration, it coincided with the climbing high pressure outside from the MSFS 2020 juggernaut, the powers that be in South Carolina knew that something had to change and quickly, the price of X-Plane changed first, then later came a complete reset.   Laminar Research The first X-Plane release came very, very early in 2024, 4th January in fact, with the release v12.09. This was a small global scenery update. In that the scenery had been re-rendered with slight improvements, but for the users it was a 86Gb download. Although Laminar had already announced that there would be a new X-Plane release numbering system for 2024. Then there was also the major shock at the X-Plane Simulator Developer's conference in Montreal 4th of February 2024, that the Simulator was getting built in Store like with Microsoft's Flight Simulator 2020/24.   The sudden announcement did not at all unite the developers to the Laminar cause, in fact it totally divided the conference, and in itself created a rolling discontent amongst the attendees, certainly when the news hit the forums, then all sorts of comments came out. The problem stems from the fact that the X-Plane.OrgStore provides the support for the X-Plane.Org, this X-PlaneReviews site depends on the .OrgStore for review product as well, so moving the monetary support from the .Org to Laminar's store would seriously upset the current delicate balance in the Simulator. Obviously a reaction to MSFS, but could the change do more damage to X-Plane than do actual good? like they say, "don't takeaway the hands that feeds you". To date the Laminar Store has currently still not gone live, and is still in development, so that aspect will have a big bearing on 2025.   The X-Plane's reset came with the release of the new numbering system release of v12.1.0 in mid-May. It also came with a fancy introduction page of new features, including a focus on Graphics with; Cloud shadows on water, Bloom lighting effects and finally RCAS (Robust Contrast Adaptive Sharpening), more changes included Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing (MSAA) Improvements for the badly needed anti-aliasing improvements, and the MSAA resolution is now photometrically correct. The results were sensational, and it was the reset that X-Plane had badly needed.   The June 21-23, FlightExpo 2024 in Las Vegas was only a few weeks later...  there was a spring in the Laminar Research step, but the seminar was only 14 min long, not the usual hour or so. But they did produce a worthy presentation with both Austin and Ben (Supnik) both in attendance this year. Although MSFS had already announced FS2024 a year before, they again paraded out a long list of features that started to feel implausible, a lot again stolen from X-Plane. But the conference was a great success for Laminar, and in fact over 80% of the attendees were running X-Plane from boxes, as Microsoft couldn't stream well from the conference center.   Websockets was installed, and also announced as coming is "Synthetic Vision" for the G1000, with features of Terrain/Water, Obstacles, Navigation Aids and better performance. It all looks very comprehensive, plus weather radar is also coming. But the default G1000 was the main avionic focus for upgrades this year in avionics.   The next X-Plane update released 18th July was a minor one in v12.1.1. Basically it was a revision of the Graphics Core Engine to improve stability, this was then followed by v12.1.2 or the "Caribbean Update"...  which almost a direct ripoff of MSFS "World Updates", which showed us again of where now the mindset of Laminar Research is going, and to what market the X-Plane Simulator is in wanting to in being pitched to. But it was again a very successful update with heavy ships, five leisure watercraft, including Austin Meyer being chased by sharks...  to highlight the Caribbean release, three airports and destinations were also included; Princess Juliana International Airport at Sint Maarten, Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport on the island of Saba and the famous short sloping runway at Gustaf II Airport on the island of Saint Barthélemy, or St. Barth’s. At this point you really felt the X-Plane 12 v2.0 reset feeling, X-Plane was very smooth and reliable, with great features and refinements being added consistently.   November 15, 2024 saw the release of v12.1.3, currently the last for the year with a massive update for the ATC (Air Traffic Control), Sounds, more weather improvements, A.I. Aircraft, MAP changes and the introduction of an X-Plane Identity (relating to the store). On the Oct 31, 2024, Ben Supnik (X-Plane head developer) gave an excellent idea of the future X-Plane roadmap, mostly set around the NGS (New Generation Scenery) that is currently in development, and it is the most important factor if Laminar want to compete with Microsoft in Flight Simulation. The results should be excellent, but a release date is still not announced, but it really did end the year of a major high for Laminar Research after the disastrous 2023, it was a truly excellent return to form, and a solid and reliable Simulator to boot...   they really did good this 2024 year, but that Store announcement looms over the Simulator like a black cloud?   Microsoft Flight Simulator 2022/2024 First is "Why is this here in an X-Plane site?". Because it is a reference between the Simulators, and the gap between them still grew immensely wide over the year 2024. As the barrage continued, and the anticipation grew over the release of MSFS 2024, it started to get all a bit frantic, in hype and expectations.   Obviously there were gazillions of weekly and monthly Development Updates from Asobo Studios, and aircraft and scenery releases were piling on to the platform everyday...  is it sustainable? MSFS 2020 started the year with World Update XVI of the Caribbean (Surely not!), followed by Southwest Germany in April, City Update VII European Cities II came in late May. On June 9th Microsoft announced the "Take to the Skies" on November 19th 2024 as the release date of MSFS2024, that was reinforced by a 95 minutes talkathon and Q&A comment period at the Las Vegas Expo late June, again a lot of more expanded features were announced for the MSFS 2024 release, would all this actually work? To coincide with the Vegas Expo, Asobo released City update Vlll Las Vegas (Laminar put their name on the Las Vegas strip!).   City Update lX Northeastern United States came late July, also in July came the 2024 Farnborough International Airshow, so another World Update XVII for the United Kingdom and Ireland regions to coincide was released. World update XVIII came in the middle of August for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. There was an Aircraft and Avionics Update 3 released 1st October...  but from then on the focus for Microsoft/Asobo was on the release of MSFS 2024.   Default Aircraft released for FS2020 in 2024, were the Bell 47J Ranger, Dornier Do 31, C.7 Skyvan, Douglas C-47D Skytrain & Waco CG-4A, Curtiss C-46 Commando, Westland Scout & Wasp, Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor and the Boeing 707-320C.   The release on November 19th 2024 of the new wonderkind Microsoft version 2024, was probably one of the worst releases of any Simulator platform, and that even includes X-Plane. To say it was a huge is debacle is an understatement. Millions tried to log on and stream, mostly for everyone it didn't work, then the servers crashed. After a few days you could get access, but users were then finding then that most areas were not either loading or working at all to their satisfaction, plus the huge restrictions on actually getting access. FS 2024 is now working, but MSFS 2024 will take well into the New Year to be anything if a reliable Simulator, I noted the MSFS year as an "Overreach" and called that statement out mid-year.   Trends of the year The X-Plane 11 to 12 transitions petered out about mid-year. These aircraft are a blessing and curse. A blessing is in that you get your favorite aircraft upgraded for X-Plane 12. But also a curse in that they take developers away from new projects, so there isn't really a lot of new aircraft coming to market (2023 was horrible for new releases). At this point most if all of the transitions are now done, including the huge vSkyLabs catalogue. The scenery transitions still have a longer way to go, but Aerosoft have been finally busy also in getting through the long list. Nice has been the introduction of lately new developers in both aircraft and scenery to the scene. The other trend of converting old X-Plane 11 aircraft (mostly Carenado) to X-Plane 12 has been vibrant as well, so a lot of loved Simulations should survive to X-Plane 12, as was the Ortho4XP crowd. As noted above, Laminar Research reset their year in a more modern Flight Sim feel and look, and overall that experience has delivered great benefits, also quicker and faster updates saw changes to the X-Plane face, these aspects were long overdue.   Aircraft We knew coming into 2024 that FlightFactor Aero would dominate the year with their colossal Boeing 777-200 V2 Ultimate, and deep and massive it was. But the release was slightly dulled by the launch process. First with long and an invitation only Alpha access, then and still currently the B777V2 it is still in a public release Beta access. It is a standard bearer machine for the X-Plane Simulator, even for Simulation itself. But dense it is, actually not in the flying aspect, which is sensational, but in the long list of features and the biggest EFB Tablet you could struggle to manage. So it is study aircraft of deep immersion...  I am expecting the B777F Freighter to be the next variant from FlightFactor.   Flight Procedures Simulation released the Embraer E-190 as a follow on from the excellent E-195 of 2023, again a great price to feature ratio. In July Peters Aircraft upgraded the Airbus A380-842 to X-Plane12, a hybrid of old planemaker and a new fuselage. it was nice to have the A380 back, but it's age factor is still built in there, restricting the Airbus for what it could be. Later in the year the other A380 engine versions were released for free as part of the same package.   The sensational E-Jet Family was updated to v1.1.0 by X-Crafts (the older E-Jets are now available for free). v1.1.0 was an excellent update with a focus on the VNAV aspects, with a clever "Autotune" system that detects and automates the systems for a ILS landing. So the Auto Speeds and Altitude (VNAV) are now all fully functional. Still one of the very best X-Plane 12 releases. But the X-Crafts ERJ Series didn't arrive in 2024, but X-Crafts did note recently the Lineage 1000 was coming very, very soon.   We thought the Rotate Passenger version of the McDonnell Douglas MD-11F Freighter would be just another added variant, how wrong could you be? It was (still is) one of the most sensational releases of the year, and highlighted the huge amount of changes done to both the MD-11F and the newer MD-11P over the years since the X-Plane 11 MD-11 release, certainly a highlight of the year, and actually my favorite release 2024!   Concorde FXP by Colimata went to v3.50, with an upgraded CIVA V2, created especially for the aircraft, there was some nice updates as well, including the dynamics to X-Plane 12. FlyJSim were very quiet during the year with just one small update for the DashQ, and still no sign of the Boeing 732 Twinjet or B727 Series for X-Plane 12?   I was actually disappointed that ToLiss chose the A330neo as their next project, but the results was a sensational aircraft with a huge amount of features. Once you got in there, it was very hard to move on, as you wanted more and more of this exceptionally high standard Simulation. Late in the year (Dec) ToLiss did a very nice set of updates for the A319, A320neo, A321 and A340-600 of a few features in the A330neo.   At the end of the year it was a solid one for airliners, and the outlook for 2025 is already exciting, There is a Boeing 707 coming from Nimbus, A Boeing 737 MAX from AirfoilLabs, and a cargo aircraft from Felis with the B747-200F, and Flight Procedures made a note of a new B748 (V3) and even (maybe) a B747-400, ERJ Series, and Flightfactor could even deliver a Dreamliner, so there is a big year coming up.    General Aviation Once the thriving heat of X-Plane, the General Aviation sector is still feeling the loss of Carenado. A few of the usual suspects were notably absent this year like vFlyAir with only one small update. Most releases were still basically transition aircraft from X-Plane 11, in so again slowing down any new releases as well.   The Beechcraft Duchess Model 76 by JustFlight/Thranda brought the aircraft back to X-Plane 12, as usual a thoroughly nice upgrade, the PA28R Piper Arrow III followed in July, and the Cessna 152 came out later in the year as did the PA-28R Turbo Arrow III / IV all from the JustFlight stable. The Beechcraft Bonanza G36, the G1000 variant, was released after Easter by PAE Addons, again a new developer for the X-Plane Simulator.   In early April vSkyLabs released a most unusual machine, the Junkers A50 Junior S-LSA, a 1920's inspired modern take on this iconic aircraft, it was far more fun that it had any right to be. Another revision to X-Plane 12 was the Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter from Thranda Design in May, it came with a new menu and large 8K textures. vFlyAir's only contribution to the year was the transition Cherokee 140, their original design updated for X-Plane 12.   A new developer entrant was with a PA24-250 Comanche by InDepthSimulations. It was basic, but has loads of potential for future designs. SimSolutions did an updates to their Diamond DA-40NG updated to v1.2.2 in April, with X-Hangar updating the Diamond Katana DA20 C1 and Cessna 404 Titan.   vSkyLabs were moving their way through their very large collection and updating the aircraft to X-Plane 12, there were loads of updates from mid-year, first the boat like Polaris AM-FIB, the Aeros-2 Ultralight Trike, then the sensational CT/4E Airtrainer from New Zealand, the Phoenix Air U15 S-LSA , ICON - A5, Tensor 60 and the Tecnam P2006T v9.1 a twin-engined Italian machine and finally the Aeroprakt A22-LS in October.   PA44-180 Piper Seminole for X-Plane 12 by AeroSphere came out in August, and later in the year Ted Cook released the Stinson 108 Package for XP12. STMA also upgraded their Sherpa K650T Turbine Bush Plane to X-Plane 12.   The GA year wrapped up with Thranda Design releasing their best yet, and a totally new aircraft in the Pilatus PC-12, a highlight of the year and Aerobask released their DA-20NG.   Business Aircraft AKD Studios had done a nice up date to the GulfStream 550 very early in the year, but then released the bigger G650/650ER GulfStream in early November, both aircraft are now parallel in design and features. X-Hangar updated their G550 in November as well. AirSim3D did two updates for the Citation C-560XL in July and October, but is now moving on to a new project.   Classic Aircraft X-Hangar did several updates to the DHC-5 Buffalo, early and late in the year, the DHC4 C-7A Caribou had the same, two updates early and late, and both aircraft benefited from the attention. In February we had one of the most unusual releases with another new developer entrant for the Aircruiser 66-75 by Hangar 23, a shed of an aircraft, it quickly had the Float version added only weeks after, a strange machine that was impossible not to dislike, you were captivated by the design and on how you flew it. The North American T-6G Texan by Khamsin & Philip Ubben was another gem, if hard to land, but X-Plane 12 shined through. vSkylabs did X-Plane 12 an update to the SR-71 "Thunderbird" to version v2.0, it is a bullet of an aircraft, and the weird He-162 Project also had an update to v3.0.5.   Helicopters Overall after the previous years, Helicopters were basically quiet in 2024, but in there were two exceptional releases. The first early in February was the JRX Design Bell 407 v1.30 now with CINEFLEX, a quality machine. The second was even more exceptional from X-Trident, in the AgustaWestland AW109SP in May, overwhelmingly brilliant the AW109SP set a higher standard for any new designs in X-Plane 12. vSkylabs updated four aircraft in 2024, the Guimbal Cabri G2, Robinson R66 Turbine and the Revolution Mini-500 and even a “Gyroplane”. The HSF Eurocopter EC130 B4 v1.4 had only one small update, as did the K-1200 K-MAX XP12 by STMA. Dreamfoil Creations were very quiet all year?   Military X-Hangar updated their C-130 Hercules to X-Plane 12, but it is still a bit too basic for me, the "Herk" deserves better. One of the most outstanding releases of the year for the military was the excellent Leonardo Aermacchi M-346 AJT by Deltawing Simulations, this aircraft just ooozed X-Plane 12 in all of it's glory, a review that is still not forgotten. AoA (Angle of Attack) had a very busy year, the T-7A Red Hawk, T-6A Texan II and the F-22A Raptor all had big updates, but the highlight from AoA was the amazing V-22 Osprey Tilitrotor, now a very mature Simulation, and a very versatile machine.   Scenery 2024 in scenery followed on from 2023, the biggest scenery story of the year was still AutoOrtho (Ortho4XP) or streaming ortho imagery. Some bright spark wanted to recreate the Microsoft ortho steaming system in X-Plane. To a point it is still very successful, but a fast internet connection and a powerful computer is required. The trick is downloading the tiles as you need them, not storing the tiles on your computer, but I'm not a fan of flat photo images, or certainly not jerky simulations. To add on top, another success this year still has been SIM HEAVENS X-World scenery Series. It will be interesting on how the coming NGS from Laminar will change this factor, not much I think as most are welded tightly into this very inefficient way of doing visual textures. Notable is that NGS will use DSS "Direct Scene Snapshot", to replace DSF, but both will run in parallel for a while, as DSS scenery won't work with DSF.   Again MSFS 2020, delivered a gazillion of scenery that nobody wants, but they did a very clever idea of Vertical Obstacles, that X-Plane in some form should adopt, the idea is to fill in real world obstacles in the landscapes. Obviously MSFS 2024 takes the scenery idea to almost insanity, the only issue is you can't stream it all through a tight internet straw.   For X-Plane the scenery developers had a very tough year, income was almost next to nothing and few dropped out, that said, the scenery releases were very good, to excellent considering the conditions, did we get a lot of cross-platform conversions from FS to XP? not really, but a few crossed over. Aerosoft kicked off the year with Airport Zürich XP12 on the 4th Jan, as with barely no updates since X-Plane 12 was released 14 months earlier, most Aerosoft stock was looking old in X-Plane 12, but as the we moved through the year they finally got into gear... Dortmund XP,  Society Islands XPTahiti & Windward Islands was next to compliment the earlier Leeward Island package, and that was just the thing for a South Pacific cruise. Next was Airport Newcastle XP, then a double update in June with Airport Stuttgart XP and Airport Istanbul XP, then Helgoland, XP Kassel XP in August, and Vitoria-Foronda XP and Greater Moncton International XP in November, so it was a big year of updates, missing still though is Norway's Bergen XP, a badly needed new scenery from Aerosoft?   VerticalSim had a busy year updating as well, first was KONT Ontario, then KMYR Myrtle Beach, KBOI Boise Air Terminal and finally KSRQ  Sarasota Bradenton International. FS Designs kicked off the year with KJAX Jacksonville, KPNS Pensacola, and KPAO Palo Alto Intl   Skytitude delivered a lot of scenery this year with KGNV Gainesville, Everglades Airpark, KTLH Tallahassee and an excellent RSW Southwest Florida International Airport to replace the dated Aerosoft version.   LICD- Lampedusa Airport and Linosa Island, Italy by Cami de Bellis was released in January, and a couple of updates followed. LIMJ - Ligurian COAST Totally Insane", was an amalgamated package of LIMJ - Genova COMPLETE 5 - The Revolution" from BCSceneries, same scenery, but updated to X-Plane 12.   Nimbus Studios released a very, very impressive New York JFK, then followed that up with another impressive KCLT Charlotte Douglas in June with another update for KCLT later in the year. FunnerFlight also released an updated XP12 JFK, plus another massive update to the KSAN - San Diego - Naval scenery, huge is not an underestimation of this scenery.   By Taimodels standards they had a quiet year in only two releases, first was a lukewarm EGCC- Manchester International, but the second scenery was a big missing element finally in X-Plane...  HECA Cairo International, Egypt XP12! and yes I love it. Fly Tampa pop-in to X-Plane every once a while, but when they do, they blow you totally away, this time it was FlyTampa Sydney, just brilliant. Another Australian scenery came from Orbx, with another long wanted scenery for X-Plane in YSSY Melbourne.   X-Codr Design was not really visible in X-Plane in 2024 except for a small update to KDEN (v2.1), instead he was now doing MSFS sceneries, one we have lost to the other? Another big X-Plane Scenery developer MIA is Short Final Designs, he delivered with only KSJC San Jose International Airport as a release for the year, he has now gone to Laminar Research, so it will be interesting for 2025 in what the maestro will deliver there.   Chudoba Designs released Bratislava International Airport for X-Plane 12, an interesting Chudoba scenery is RKPC Jeju International Airport in Korea, a review I couldn't get around to, maybe 2025? ESGG Göteborg Landvetter Airport was released in April, and last but not least was LKTB Brno-Turany Airport in the Czech Republic, all solid sceneries at great prices.   Drzewiecki Design have upgraded their renamed "Washington DC" scenery to "KDCA Washington Airport & City XP12", but otherwise they were another that have moved on to MSFS for scenery, and a lot of old DD scenery is feeling their age. An odd scenery was vSkyLabs Airbases: Base-8, a testing ground for your flying abilities.   New developers to the X-Plane scenery mostly focused on small airport sceneries, like crossover FX3D with a load of French sceneries, including LFKF Figari, LFKC Calvi, LFKT Corte, LFMQ Castellet, LFMR Barcelonnette, LFNS GAP-Tallard, LFNC Mont-Dauphin Saint-Crépin Airport and LFNS Sisteron, an impressive list...  KXNA Northwest Arkansas National Airport by TearWear Designs was another new face. There was a neat three Venezuelan Airports package for X-Plane 12 by Positive Climb Design. DarkBlue Scenery released RJGG Chubu, and RJBB, both in Japan.   NorthernSky were also a little slower this year, but still delivered outstanding scenery at a budget price, including; PAPG Petersburg - Alaska, PHOG  Kahului Airport and PHHN Hana, PHNY Lanai, PHJH Kapalua all in Hawaii, and last the sensational PASI Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport, Alaska.   There were no landscape sceneries released in 2024, except maybe for St. Vincent and the Grenadines by 3DReal...  Maps2XP and Frank Dainese and Fabio Bellini didn't release any landscapes in 2024.   In context, although a fair few of the above sceneries were transitions from X-Plane 11, overall for scenery releases it was a very good year, actually unexpected in the volume delivered.   Sound Packs A mention...  BSS BlueStarSky released the BSS A321 Reloaded CFM pack, but that was about it, but Mango Studios had a great year, there was a lot to choose from, not only the great sound packages for; ToLiss A319 Sound Pack, IXEG 737 Sound Pack, GLF 550/650 Sound Pack, Toliss A330 sound pack, but the neat little engine mod conversions as well; PW2000 Engine - FF 757, PW4000 Engine - FF B767, ToLiss A340 Trent 556 Engine Mod, but my favorite was the excellent MD80 Series IAE V2500 Engine mod, with later added the P&W JT8D-200 + IAE V2500 engine sound package. There were a few new REP "Reality Expansion packages", including the Thranda DH2 Beaver, PT-6 Porter and the PA28 Arrow lll.   Plugins I will state upfront that I am not a huge plugin connoisseur, so I only run what I call essential plugins in my simulator, running the VRAM profiler (Menu/Developer) can give you the horrors of on how much these little monstrous tools can gobble up your framerate and their overall efficiency, I take out as many of these laggards as possible.   The Skunkcrafts Standalone Updater Client v3.0. became the standalone tool for updating X-Plane aircraft in 2023, efficient, clever and fast, and it still rules big in 2024 as every developer bar FlightFactor now uses it. openSAM replaced the nasty SAM 3, it is a basic tool, but gets around the issue. There was a few organiser tools released, one just for X-Plane's scenery, and xOrganizer that covered the whole simulator.   WebFMC had a few updates through the year to cater for new releases, but really not many other changes, BetterPushBack had the same, but overall needs a revision (adjustable volume anyone). Traffic Global had a few updates (0199 and 0217), but not much new was really done except to make it reliable, the clever tool was the "Regent Traffic" updates, complicated to install, but it brought a huge amount of new airlines and services to TG, it is well worth checking out.   Stick and Rudder updated both X-Camera and X-Keypad, but the maturing X-ATC Chatter v1.7.2 became my cockpit friend this year.   Navigraph was again the king of the tools, now highly intergrated with SimBrief, they are now simply essential tools for the Simulator, SimBrief became the defacto (auto) flightplanning tool inside the cockpit. Navigraph added in Annotations, ATC Sectors and Expanded Airport Data to Charts 8 in 2024.   X-PlaneReviews X-PlaneReviews passed eleven years of providing quality and detailed reviews for the X-Plane Simulator. And in this year 2024 we have delivered even more consistent reviews and NEWS! than any year before.   The team has grown as well...  besides the dynamic Dominic Smith and his lovely wife Felicity, who also contributes immensely to the X-Plane.Org Weekly Roundups and Developer Interviews, is a major contributor in X-PlaneReviews as well, plus the extra talented reviewers of Alan Ashforth (alpeggio), Peter Allnutt, Dennis Powell, Nick Garlick, Stéphane Tolédo-Paul (Tieman68), David York (datadave), Stuart McGregor (Scottish Wings), DrishalMAC2, Michael Hayward, Jack Thompson and Joshua Moore, all genuine talented and contributors to not only X-PlaneReviews, but to X-Plane in general. I am personally signing off a little earlier this year to have a family Christmas in another Australian State, but Dominic will do some more reviews right up to the festive season, and a big new Christmas release review is still yet to be released from me.   Always a thank you to the exciting work by the tireless developers that give us all this incredible product to fly and use, as they and X-Plane has come a long way and created leaps in quality and complexity in the last few years, certainly with the jump to X-Plane 12, and to a point I was always very proud of the work they have produced, it is world class if not the very best in simulation product ever produced, and this year better than ever in systems and quality detail, and they are all top notch and very clever. To the X-Plane.OrgStore who supports this site with review products, service and updates, a really big thanks to Nicolas Taureau, as this site just also would not function without that outstanding support.   This aspect shows that X-Plane as a Simulator is alive and well after a fair few years of disruptive development, X-Plane 12 is now (thankfully) maturing towards the central part of its evolution cycle, and as well noted throughout this "End of the Year" edition it has had a transformation (or would you call it a reset?) this year in 2024. My outlook optimism for 2025 is at an all time high, my gut says X-Plane as a Simulator has turned a corner, and it can only get better from here, but X-Plane as a Simulator also has to now grow as well, expand vigorously in 2025.   Certainly the central community is very active and very collaborative in creating dynamics that is expanding the Simulator, but growing in all the different areas is just as important, not just the core, numbers must grow in 2025, new additions in not only the software and hardware, but developers and active users, it is people, the time to grow... and move forward. _________________________   We will finish off with the X-PlaneReviews famous best of the year awards…   So I will now list my Best of the Year 2024🏅 (note the awards are given to only products I have seen and tested and so the only ones I can vouch for)   Overall Best of the Year : A very hard choice this year, as there are four outstanding entrants, FlightFactor Boeing 777v2, X-Tridents AW109SP, Rotate's MD-11 Passenger and the TolIss A330neo , all deserving 🏅 🏅🏅   Best Aircraft : FlightFactor B777v2.🏅🏅 A look into the future of X-Plane 12 quality and design, it delivers on a huge scale. Honorable Mention : Rotate's MD-11 Passenger is just brilliant, as is the ToLiss A330neo   Best General Aviation Aircraft : Pilatus PC-12 by Thranda Design Thranda Design are behind a lot of X-Plane aircraft besides their own creations, but the PC-12 brings back to the X-Plane Simulator a brilliant aircraft done well. Honorable Mentions : vSkyLabs, for their huge and unique catalogue of aircraft and machines, they just keep on coming.   Best Classic Aircraft : North American T-6G Texan by Khamsin & Philip Ubben This is what happens when you put two extremely talented developers together, Khamsin & Philip Ubben create history, or at least a part of it in the T-6G Texan. Honorable Mention : What can you say about flying a shed, the Aircruiser 66-75 by Hangar 23 was certainly unique, fun as well.   Best Business Aircraft : AKD Studios G650/650ER GulfStream Not perfect, but development this whole year has been very steady and consistent from this talented Polish developer, next year 2025 this category will be tighter with the promised X-Crafts Lineage 1000 and maybe even the Aerobask Falcon 6X anyone, now years late.   Best Military : Leonardo Aermacchi M-346 AJT by Deltawing Simulations 🏅 With some releases you see the future, the amazing M-346 AJT showed off the wonders of X-Plane 12, nice aircraft to fly as well. Honorable Mention : AoA again with another huge improvement over the original, the V-22 Osprey was great to fly, also a very versatile dynamic Simulation as well, I loved it.   Best Helicopter : AgustaWestland AW109SP by X-Trident 🏅🏅🏅 A no brainer on choice for the best helicopter of the year, again a projection into the future of Simulation, brilliant avionics are well worth mastering. Honorable Mentions : JRX Designs Bell 407 was very good as well, the best of the bunch currently, except for the above AW.   Best Landscape Scenery : Society Islands XPTahiti & Windward Islands by Maps2XP (Aerosoft) Does this broad scenery count as a Landscape scenery? It sort's of covers a large area of the South Pacific, well detailed as well, so yes.   Best Airport Scenery : YSSY Sydney Fly Tampa  🏅🏅  A study on how to do perfect scenery, Fly Tampa always deliver, but more so here, a giant. Honorable Mention : Taimodels on delivering HECA Cairo, and Nimbus had a great year with JFK and Charlotte.   Best Plugin(s) : Skunkcrafts Standalone Updater Client 🏅 A plugin... it was, but also still the biggest standout tool of the year, now for the second year in a row and grown, it's so fast! Special Mention(s) : Navigraph for their excellent navigation tools, and seriously clever new additions, and for openSAM, fixing a major problem.   Person(s) of the Year : Marko Mamula The developer that just seemed to be everywhere in 2024, but in delivering the X-Plane 12 future we deserve, talented, and tons more to come in 2025.   Best Moment of the year 2024 : Leaving Schiphol (EHAM) in a heavy morning weather to arrive at a sandstorm dusk in Cairo (HECA), Simulation at it's very, very best.   Worst Moment(s) of the Year 2024 : Laminar Research is doing their own store, the ramifications are dangerous, and will it cost jobs in X-Plane, you could even lose  the X-Plane.Org...   forever! Biggest distraction of 2024 : ...  The dark cloud of the X-Plane Store.   Biggest overall feeling of 2024 : Another tough hard year, but the outlook at the end of this brutal year was a revolution of a new and better X-Plane Simulator, shame the Laminar store will ruin all the good work.   Personal Favorites of 2024 : Any ToLiSS (the save system allows ultimate flexibility) again, but my standout aircraft of the year is the amazing Rotate MD-11 Passenger, unbelievable Simulation, seriously addictive was that wide-body aircraft...  I just loved it.   Routes...   Barcelona, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Dublin, Dusseldorf,  Roma, Cairo, Helsinki, Oslo, Munich, Tel Aviv, London Heathrow and Dulles, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Notable is that with the newer scenery, Cairo, Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore finally came on-line in 2024.   That is X-PlaneReviews for 2024, and we will be back after a very much needed recovery and the review site returns again early into the New Year on the 7th January 2025.   So Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year 2025   Stephen Dutton 14th December 2024 Copyright:X-PlaneReviews 2024   (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)  

NEWS! - Aircraft Updated : Airbus A319-112 v1.10 by Toliss     ToLiss has updated the "Baby Bus" A319-112 to v1.10. Usually when another new ToLiss aircraft is released, and in this case it was the A330neo. As usual the new features introduced then trickle down to the other Airbus Aircraft in the Series. first a few days ago it was the A340-600, here now the A319-112.   Main change is the ISCS (Interactive Simulation Control System) menu, which is now available on the EFB Tablet, and not just as a pop-up menu. Included ECAM (Electronic Centralized Aircraft Monitoring) improvements package, FMGS (Flight Management and Guidance System) or autopilot improvements Package, Hydraulics, again a big new improvements package. More Failure modes, R TO page prefills the RADIAL IN on the DIR TO page as required, quick starts for APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) and Engines are now also available from the ISCS, possibility to use Airport ICAO codes as waypoints, and there is also a load of bug fixes.   New features: - ISCS in EFB - Hydraulic improvement package:  . Added simulation of trapped hydraulic fluid in asymmetric actuators such as landing gear or spoiler actuators.  . Fixed the PTU overheat when ENG1 is failed. - MCDU improvement package:  . CLR command is now indented in scratchpad as in real life . DIR TO page prefills the RADIAL IN on the DIR TO page as required . FPLN Page Destination EFOB turns amber, if below minimum required. - ECAM improvement package:  . Overspeed warning now triggers based on actual flap/slat position and not lever position (PFD barber pole is still lever position driven as in real life.) . Removed duplication of system titles if the same system shows multiple subsequent rows of ECAM messages. . Weight display logic for SD: Prior to engine start, the dashes are now cyan. Weights now only show after engine start, like in real life. . Status page improvement: Approach procedures for hydraulic faults . Rework of the ECAM messages for electrical bus failures to represent a newer FWC standard - FMGS improvement package: . Added possibility to use Airport ICAO codes as waypoints . Bug fixes for the path computation leading to an overall much stabler path computation in complex procedures. . Empty flight plan shows as PPOS / Discon rather than just "End of flpn" and can be built up from there. . VIA selection is now automatic, if there is exactly one VIA that matches the selected FINAL and STAR. . Constraints of first waypoint in STAR are not dropped anymore. - Added cross track error display on ground prior to departure - New failure modes:  . Slow and rapid decompression . THS jam. . Cargo smoke, including latched closure of the isolation valves . Added high lift failures, including loss of SFCC channels and slats/flaps lock . Windshears with correct REAC W/S detection and indication. - Visual improvement package: . Added AoA Vanes to fuselage model . Fixed the tiller textures . Animated the flap lever guard . Correct the eye reference ball colors and location . Fixed text overlaps on the overhead panel - Added new Circuit breakers (for high lift, air conditioning packs, ...) bringing the total to 242 - Added pitch influence to the RADALT value, so that the RADALT decreases when you pitch up (like IRL) - Added limitation with filtering to the maximum number of waypoints shown on ND when WPT overlay selected. - Quick starts for engine and APU are now available on the Joystick/Actions tab. - Mapped flight number to x-plane dataref "sim/cockpit2/radios/actuators/flight_id" for third party plugin interfacing. - Improved Master Warning flashing frequency. - Terrain on ND drawing around the airport is now inhibited for areas of same elevation as the airport. - If you select a livery with 2 OWE pairs, the maximum number of passengers will increase to 160. - Added selected heading value on ND, if in ARC mode the heading bug is not visible.   Bug fixes: - Fixed issue with the interaction between the CLR button and the status page - Fixed issue with status page overflow. - The emergency generator now consumes hydraulic fluid. - The magnetic variation model now updates for the current year. - Fixed FMA alignment of armed modes and issue with empty boxes - Extended the permissible value range for FCU speed window to 399kts and Mach 0.99 like in real life - Extended the permissible value range for FCU altitude window to 49000ft like in real life - ISI startup correction: QNH is also visible during ISI startup; moved QNH to right location. - Removed CHG CODE field for other phases than PREFLIGHT or DONE. - Improved string termination on MCDU string datarefs. - Fixed an issue with SID route in alternate plan on first alternate plan programming. - Fixed an issue with waypoints preceded by a discon where the outgoing leg is of the CI/CD/CR/CA or VI/VR/VD type. - Fixed FMA indication for managed descent on profile with significantly too slow speed. - Fixed behaviour of the FCU HDG managed dot when a managed mode (NAV, LOC, APPR) is armed. - Fixed shape of the ADF2 needle on the ND. - Removed GS indication on ND, when the associated ADIRU is OFF or invalid. - Made the deceleration when descending through the SPD LIM altitude smoother. - Fixed issue with the beta target leading to excessive rudder deflection and spoiler extension on the wrong side. - Corrected the color of the RAM Air Inlet indication when open in flight. - Disabled autobrake if 2 or more SECs are lost. - Fixed a bug that could cause sending many requests to the Hoppie network in a short period of time. - Miscellaneous other bug fixes         The Airbus A319 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short- to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin-engine jet airliners manufactured by Airbus. The A319 carries 124 to 156 passengers and has a maximum range of 3,700 nmi (6,900 km; 4,300 mi). Final assembly of the aircraft takes place in Hamburg, Germany and Tianjin, China. The A319 is a shortened-fuselage variant of the Airbus A320 and entered service in April 1996 with Swissair, around two years after the stretched Airbus A321 and eight years after the original A320. The aircraft shares a common type rating with all other Airbus A320 family variants, allowing existing A320 family pilots to fly the aircraft without the need for further training.   The Journey of the ToLiss A319-112 has been also the story of their incredibly rise to being one of the very best developers in X-Plane, maybe the overall best Airbus developers in Simulation as a whole. The aircraft here in v1.10 reflects its current modernity, totally updated in it's X-Plane 12 role as are the whole balance of the ToLiss Airbus fleet, so the "Baby Bus" has not been left wanting, or certainly it is not at all dated in this competitive environment, but encompasses the detail and the quality required today to be at the very top of aircraft experiences, from an excellent developer...  you always wanted the very best, if you want an Airbus, then here it is...   and totally X-Plane 12 ready. _________________________     ToLiSS A319-122 v1.10 is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :   Airbus A319 XP12 by Toliss Price is US$89.99   To upgrade from the X-Plane 11 A319 version, it is only US$10, just go to your X-Plane.Org Account to get the upgrade voucher. ________________   Requirements X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux  4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Not for commercial use. For any commercial use enquiries, please contact [email protected] Current version : 1.10 (December 10th 2024)   _____________________   NEWS! by Stephen Dutton 13th December 2024 Copyright©2024: 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 Rights Reserved    

I am / was a reasonably experienced Super Cub pilot in the UK with about 100 hours on the aircraft. The REP for the Super Cub in Xplane 12 is a truly great effort and great value. However the rudder still lacks control on take off and landing, far more so than with the real aircraft which is easy to fly once you've sorted the landings. I've got the full Thrustmaster kit including rudder. Also, there remains no noise indication on landing - the program knows the aircraft has landed so this appears easy to add.

No Landclass is gone, revising photo imagery to take out the nasty artifacts is a clever step forward, and the far more smaller scale of the tiles will give more arid area detail, so those really bad repeatable images will be gone and replaced by more realistic open space textures, for better realism.

NEWS! - Aircraft Updated : Airbus A340-600 v1.4.0 by Toliss     ToLiss has updated the A340-600 to v1.4.0. Usually when another new ToLiss aircraft is released in this case the excellent A330neo, then the new features introduced then trickle down to the other Airbus Aircraft in the Series. And that is the case here.   Main change is the ISCS (Interactive Simulation Control System) menu, which is now available on the EFB Tablet, and not just as a pop-up menu. MCDU (Multifunction Control Display Unit) improvement package, the ECAM (Electronic Centralized Aircraft Monitoring) improvements package, FMGS (Flight Management and Guidance System) or autopilot, again a big new improvements package. More Failure modes, added simulation of trapped hydraulic fluid, pitch influence on the RADALT valve, quick starts for APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) and Engines are now also available from the ISCS, the guard on the flap lever is now animated, and you can now reroute the inner tank transfer via the aft pumps if required. And there is also a load of bug fixes.   Version 1.4.0 (December 6th 2024) New features: - The ISCS is now available in the EFB, once enabled by the user. - MCDU improvements: . CLR command is now indented in scratchpad as in real life . DIR TO page prefills the RADIAL IN on the DIR TO page as required - ECAM improvement package:  . Overspeed warning now triggers based on actual flap/slat position and not lever position (PFD barber pole is still lever position driven as in real life.) . Removed duplication of system titles if the same system shows multiple subsequent rows of ECAM messages. . Weight display logic for SD: Prior to engine start, the dashes are now cyan. Weights now only show after engine start, like in real life. - FMGS improvement package: . Added possibility to use Airport ICAO codes as waypoints . Bug fixes for the path computation leading to an overall much stabler path computation in complex procedures. . Empty flight plan shows as PPOS / Discon rather than just "End of flpn" and can be built up from there. . VIA selection is now automatic, if there is exactly one VIA that matches the selected FINAL and STAR. . Constraints of first waypoint in STAR are not dropped anymore. - New failure modes:  . Slow and rapid decompression . Added high lift failures, including loss of SFCC channels and slats/flaps lock . Windshears with both Predictive and Reactive W/S detection and indication. - Added simulation of trapped hydraulic fluid in asymmetric actuators such as landing gear or spoiler actuators.  - Added pitch influence to the RADALT value, so that the RADALT decreases when you pitch up (like IRL) - Added limitation with filtering to the maximum number of waypoints shown on ND when WPT overlay selected. - Quick starts for engine and APU are now available in the ISCS - Mapped flight number to x-plane dataref "sim/cockpit2/radios/actuators/flight_id" for third party plugin interfacing. - Improved Master Warning flashing frequency. - Terrain on ND drawing around the airport is now inhibited for areas of same elevation as the airport. - The guard portion in the flap lever is now separately animated. - Added CTR to inner tank transfer via AFT pumps if main ctr tank pumps are failed. - Added selected heading value on ND, if in ARC mode, the heading bug is not visible. Bug fixes: - Fixed a bug with the date on Wind and Flight plan data printouts - Fixed the undesired transparency of the mirror on the cockpit rear wall - Fixed deicing animation for the wings. - Fixed issue with the interaction between the CLR button and the status page - Fixed issue with status page overflow. - The emergency generator now consumes hydraulic fluid. - The emergency generator now cuts out when the slats are extended - The magnetic variation model now updates for the current year. - Fixed FMA alignment of armed modes and issue with empty boxes - Extended the permissible value range for FCU speed window to 399kts and Mach 0.99 like in real life - Extended the permissible value range for FCU altitude window to 49000ft like in real life - Fixed the width of the green lights on the FCU. - Fixed behaviour of the FCU HDG managed dot when a managed mode (NAV, LOC, APPR) is armed. - Fixed shape of the ADF2 needle on the ND. - Removed GS indication on ND, when the associated ADIRU is OFF or invalid. - Made the deceleration when descending through the SPD LIM altitude smoother. - ISI startup correction: QNH is also visible during ISI startup; moved QNH to right location. - Removed CHG CODE field for other phases than PREFLIGHT or DONE. - Improved string termination on MCDU string datarefs. - Fixed an issue with SID route in alternate plan on first alternate plan programming. - Fixed an issue with waypoints preceded by a discon where the outgoing leg is of the CI/CD/CR/CA or VI/VR/VD type. - Fixed FMA indication for managed descent on profile with significantly too slow speed. - Fixed issue with the beta target leading to excessive rudder deflection and spoiler extension on the wrong side. - Corrected Ctr Tank gravity feed into inner tanks 2 and 3 - Improved landing gear compression at low weights       The Airbus A340 is a long-range, wide-body passenger airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. In the mid-1970s, Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner, and developed the A340 quadjet in parallel with the A330 twinjet. In June 1987, Airbus launched both designs with their first orders and the A340-300 took its maiden flight on 25 October 1991. It was certified along with the A340-200 on 22 December 1992 and both versions entered service in March 1993 with launch customers Lufthansa and Air France. The larger A340-500/600 were launched on 8 December 1997; the A340-600 flew for the first time on 23 April 2001 and entered service on 1 August 2002.   You can update to the new v1.4.0 by going to your X-Plane.Org Store account and download. The v1.4.0 update is also available to download via the new Skunkcraft Updater   Design by Toliss Discussion about the A340 Addition Liveries _______________________________     Yes! the Airbus A340-600 v1.4.0 by ToLiSS is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Airbus A340-600 by ToLiSS Price is US$89.99   Most accurate system functionality for any A340 aircraft in the flight simulation world   Requirements X-Plane 12 and X-Plane 11 - not available for MSFS Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Not for commercial use. For any commercial use enquiries, please contact [email protected] Download Size: 1.2 GB Current version: 1.4.0  (November 29th 2023) _____________________   NEWS! by Stephen Dutton 9th December 2024 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 Rights Reserved  

WOW!!!  I think I know what aircraft (other than CowanSim's 'Airwolf' B222) that I'll be flying once I get my flight simulator set up and get to 'flying'!  That's absolutely gorgeous!!!!  (Of course, I love anything to do with the SR-71, anyway!)

Thank you for this Behind The Screen to which I am always looking forward to! Your observations are honest. And your insights are always enlightening.   I don't agree with landclass as the saviour, though. Even with more texture variety and some measures to prevent repeating patterns. Areas with little to no variation in landclass data (pampa like Patagonia, deserts, ...) will stay lame and dull. Yet with ortho they have wonderful colours and you can see many features. I don't know a single Youtuber or streamer not using ortho scenery. Improved landclass will help to improve the default sim but I can only see it as a stop gap measure, not the ultimate goal. I've seen SFD, and it is better (and I would expect better OSM- and building footprint data to be included) and it might be a good solution for the default sim, but ortho is easily even better than that. In fact we have most things in place for really good scenery representation. It should receive a little more acknowledgement and support by Laminar in my opinion.   I really don't see the baked-in artefacts in ortho imagery as a real problem. Terrain shadows often help in "selling" the terrain better (even if they are not coinciding with the current sun position). Shadows under houses are not a real problem in my opinion. Cars on roads: for smaller roads we use overlays anyways and on highways (xroads) I don't see it a s a problem. The only disturbing bake-in is clouds, but this is solved for many areas of the world. If we don't continue to sleep on the topic we might be able to use AI to get rid of bake-ins anyways.   What Laminar could do without too much effort is improve overlay resolution for vector stuff. And coastline resolution. And use higher resolution digital terrain models (elevation). Make it an option so the current lowres is still there for potato PCs. And communicate more real technical insights about where they are heading with nextgen scenery. What they really mean by "streamable" would be interesting and if it serves the AutoOrtho use case. Maybe even ask the community about it.

Aircraft Review - V-22 Osprey Tiltrotor XP12   Is it a helicopter or an aircraft? that is usually the first question asked about the V-22 Osprey. It's formal title is "Tiltrotor", so you would say helicopter with those massive three blades per side, but the machine can also convert to a forward flying aerodynamic winged aircraft, and then flies in that same configuration as a normal aircraft. It doesn't fly like a helicopter either with no collective to bite the air or cyclic...  it is a strange machine.   The failure of Operation Eagle Claw in 1980 during the Iran hostage crisis underscored that there were military roles for which neither conventional helicopters nor fixed-wing transport aircraft were well-suited. The United States Department of Defense (DoD) initiated a program to develop an innovative transport aircraft with long-range, high-speed, and vertical-takeoff capabilities, and the Joint-service Vertical take-off/landing Experimental (JVX) program officially began in 1981. A partnership between Bell Helicopter and Boeing Helicopters was awarded a development contract in 1983 for the V-22 tiltrotor aircraft.   The story starts with the Bell XV-3 (Bell 200), an American tiltrotor aircraft developed by Bell Helicopter for a joint research program between the United States Air Force and the United States Army in order to explore convertiplane technologies in the middle 1950's. The XV-3 featured an engine mounted in the fuselage with driveshafts transferring power outwards to two-bladed rotor assemblies mounted on the wingtips. But flutter and that the driveshafts was carrying power from the fuselage out to the wingtip rotors, along with the gearbox and tilting mechanisms at the wingtips, they found that the concept had substantial loads placed upon them and were very heavy, as they were transferring large amounts of power and torque long distances for an aircraft power transmission system.   Another XV-15 experimental aircraft introduced a major design concept advance. instead of engines in the fuselage, the XV-15 moved the engines out to the rotating wingtip pods, directly coupled to the rotors. The normal path for power was now directly from the engine into a speed-reduction gearbox and into the rotor/propeller without any long shafts being involved. There was still a driveshaft along the wings for emergency use to transfer power to the opposite rotor in case of engine failure, but that shaft did not normally carry any power loads, allowing the overall system to be lighter.   The success of the XV-15 created the concept of an American multi-use, tiltrotor military transport and cargo aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities. It is designed to combine the functionality of a conventional helicopter with the long-range, high-speed cruise performance of a turboprop aircraft. The V-22 is operated by the United States and Japan, and is not only a new aircraft design, but a new type of aircraft that entered service in the 2000s.   The first of six prototypes first flew on 19 March 1989 in the helicopter mode and on 14 September 1989 in a fixed-wing mode. The third and fourth prototypes successfully completed the first sea trials on USS Wasp in December 1990. The V-22 however has had a mixed safety record, marked by several high-profile accidents, especially in its early years of testing and deployment. While the aircraft has since become an integral part of military operations, its development and operational use have been frequently marred by crashes that has raised always questions about its safety and design.  This X-Plane 12 version of the V-22 Osprey is from Angle of Attack (AoA) Simulations, mostly AoA aircraft are military designs like the F-22A Raptor and F-35B Lightning ll and T-7A Red Hawk. The original V-22 Osprey for X-Plane 11 was released March 2018. Honestly X-PlaneReviews never reviewed the AOA XP11 version of the V-22. We looked at it at the time and followed it's development, but it was a very quirky aircraft with a few quibbles that needed more development (okay a lot more), these aspects now have been all done, and this is the X-Plane 12 release of the Osprey, it's an aircraft now presented in a far more completed mature form. It certainly looks the part. If anything else the V-22 Osprey is a very dramatic looking aircraft, feels odd, with those huge rotors suspended in the air, and not at all like most helicopters (okay maybe a Chinook). Its a transport machine, so more in the C-130 Hercules vein, with a couple engines lopped off, and the inner engines turned skywards. Modeling and design by AoA is very good, certainly not in the ultra X-Trident category of their high standard of finesse quality department, but the V-22 still looks very well done even impressive in X-Plane 12. Fuselage is very modern military, with nice normal raised rivets to show the construction. Panels are mostly drawn on here, but it's still well done. A lot of the developer's attention has gone towards those two Rolls-Royce AE 1107C-Liberty turboshaft engines, specially designed for the Osprey, and their complex nacelles. Blades are 38 feet (11.58 meters) long per rotor, they are are a carbon fiber and epoxy resin composite blade, built for strength, durability, and weight reduction. Detail of the exposed areas of the pod and wing are really very well done, with all the inner tilt hydraulics and mechanism are well detailed. The wing is also really well detailed with ribbing and laminar flow aerodynamics. Cockpit glass is a bit thin, the (light) reflections are there, but not pronounced, and there are no scratches or rainbow glass effects. The undercarriage is a bit basic, just the piston and extension guide, no plumbing or hydraulics to be seen. There are animations on the V-22, manually they are accessed by ↕︎ arrows...  the front right door opens, first in an observer top door open position, the secondly the lower drop down walk up stairs. Also the main rear ramp, again two positions, half (for dropping loads), and also a full down ramp. There is also separate pop-out menu found on the X-Plane banner/Plugins Menu called "Options". (Support tab is the AoA email address) All the external door animations are on the graphic top, plus engine/pitot covers and tags (very nice), refueling probe, and under belly load hooks. Also on the pop-out menu is the selection of the four different variants, and each version has its own unique internal (fuel) configuration and external distinguishing elements. US Marine Corp MV-22B (default) USAF SOCOM (Special Operations Command) CV-22B US Navy CMV-22B COD (Carrier Onboard Delivery) Japan Self Defense Force MV-22J   Inside the V-22 it is quite cavernous at 20ft long, 5 feet wide and 6 ft high, and has a workable 430 cubic feet. The V-22 internal cargo area detail is impressive from AoA, really well done, there is also the option to add in four Marines from the menu, two forward right and two rear left...  however another option for a full load of Marines would have been nice though. The internal door to the cockpit can also be opened with the top or lower sections moved separately. Into the cockpit...   the instrument layout is very jet fighter military, with four Multi-Functional Displays (MFD) and one large Control Display Unit (CDU) center.     There are some really nice Marine pilots, and they will swap seat positions depending on which seat you use, if you don't want one or both, then just click their helmets, and they will disappear, and the helmet(s) are hung on the side of the OHP (Overhead Panel)     There is the third crew member in the Flight Engineer in the rear center seat, selected via the Menu, all crew members are very realistic and relatable to their roles.     Although this a menu driven aircraft, overall there is mostly also automated processes to relieve the pilots of high workloads, so both the upper OHP and lower center console are both quite sparse in their layouts and are easy to use. hint the wipers are noted as W/W on the console keyboards.     On power up, the backup instruments are activated first, then the primary instruments via the OHP "Avionics" switch.     Each MFD display has 22 soft keys. The five across the top are “T” keys. The two at the bottom are Caution/Advisory and Acknowledge keys. The remaining 14; seven on the left (L1-7) and seven on the right (R1-7) are all page dependent.   "T" keys include HVR (Hover Trim Key) or VSD (Vertical Situation Display) and Rotor Position Indicator (RPI) are to the left , NAV, FLIR (Forward-Looking Infrared), STAT (Status) and SYST (System)     Blue-sky Attitude Direction Indicator (ADI) on the upper half of the display and a 170 degree HSI style compass card is shown on the lower half. The Blue-sky can be turned off, mostly with the VID (Camera) Function. TACAN, Nav2 VOR/ILS or GPS are selectable on the NAV     HVR shows you your vertical position to the ground (In the hover mode).     NAV will also show the standard X-Plane map, but you can also use the pop-out the G1000 MAP panel and it's tools besides the HSI.     VSD (Vertical Situation Display), is a version of the PFD without the compass card. FLIR is a camera (view) that does not have any flight information on it.     STAT shows you the various system status in; FUEL, FCS (Flight Control System), ENG (Engine), ICE and ELEC (Electrical)     SYST (System) has engine parameters and a full menu of options.     There is also a built in PREFLIGHT "Checklist" and Flightplan Planner.     As with most military aircraft there a load of various menus and options, far too many to list here, however AoA do provide two very good comprehensive manuals in a detailed User Guide and 68 page Cockpit Display Guide.   The Control Display Unit’s (CDU) primary display mode is the Engine Instrument Crew Alerting System page, with dedicated Copilot and Pilot keyboards which are located below the CDU. Above are the backup Instruments that generalise the V-22s systems and PFD (Primary Flight Display). Traffic Collision Advisory System display and the CDU menus can be swapped LtoR for both pilots.     The glareshield holds the  Flight Control System (FCS) Autopilot, and the NAC (Nacelle) control from AUTO to MAN modes, both glareshield ends has the Remote (Radio) Frequency Indicators (RFI) that display Com1 radio Active and Standby frequencies. The SEL key will flip the active and standby frequencies around each other.     Maintenance Mode One great feature is the folding of the Rotors and Wing for Carrier operations. To use the feature however is a bit of a trick to get access to the "BLADE FOLD/WING STOW selections on the pop-out Menu. The way to switch it on however requires a specific set of settings...   Flaps have to be up (stowed), Power and APU has to be on for the hydraulics to do the operation...  Then you go to the SYST and the MAINT MODE (R-7). The AUTO NAC (FCS) has to be set in MAN Mode and finally selecting BFWS or "Blade Fold and Wing Stow system" (R-4)...  then wallah, the BFWS popup Menu should now be active.     First operation is to FEATHER / UNFEATHER the blades...     ...  Then FOLD / UNFOLD the Blades, then you TILT / UNTILT the Nacelles to the forward position...     ...   Finally you can then rotate the wing assembly to the STOW / UNSTOW position.     Yes it is a great feature and done really well here by AoA, in it being very authentic to the real BFWS system.   On the OHP the Radio Panel is available in flight, but the panel itself is inert, in Engine shutdown mode or the Rotor Brake on, it coverts into systems situation panel, noting which systems are active.     AviTab is available on the Menu...  (Note: Plugin is required and the latest v0.7.1 version). It is positioned only on the right side of the cockpit, as in the V-22 the Primary Pilot is in the right hand seat, like with a Helicopter pilot, not like a fixed-wing left seat position.     Both side windows can be opened (Animated) via hot-spots.     Internal Lighting I hope you like GREEN? as it is very green in here, as everything is bathed in the Military night mode colour. Looks brilliant though.     You can adjust the CKPT DOME main lighting as well as the SECONDARY lighting, on the Secondary switch their are two more options for NVG NORMAL, and DAY/NIGHT. Primary Lighting (Three knobs) will adjust the instrument panel and each pilot side lighting. The essential backup CDU goes white instead of green, and this is particularly well done.     External Lighting There are two Landing lights built into the nose, also Navigation lights (known here as "Position") each nacelle and white rear. Two Beacon lights are set under fuselage and left upper tail light.     There are two sets of "Formation" lights, also call SLIME lights, used to help identify friendly aircraft, particularly during formation flying or carrier operations at night, usually made of phosphorescent or electroluminescent materials, which emit a soft greenish-yellow glow. The main body strips are on the nacelles, upper wing and tail, but there is also the exciting option of also the separate selection of "Prop Tips" Slime lights, which looks amazing in flight with those massive rotors.     Flying the V-22 Osprey Starting the Osprey is quite easy, as most of the start procedures are automated. Power (Battery) on and APU started, then set to RUN/ENGAGE to provide system power...   to start the engines, then you just move the Fuel Levers to CRANK, Then START/LEFT ENGINE then finally FLY....  simple!   Both rotors will turn together as they are cross-frame connected, but only the left engine is actually running...     There is a second start option for an "AUTO START". This is on the pop-up Menu (top) and the aircraft has to be in the Cold/Dark state to activate the feature. Press the button "AUTO START ENGINES" and start the sequence that will go though the full start up procedures, showing you the checklist phases by text boxes lower screen. It is fully automated including the view movements.     Once the "AUTO START sequence is finished, you go out of the mode via switching the "Timer" back to time (ACK) on any MFD as noted on the last text message.     The last Pop-Up menu option is the "WEIGHT & BALANCE", this brings up the standard X-Plane "Weight & Balance" Menu to set up your aircraft preferences.     To control the angle of the nacelles, you need to set keyboard command key or a throttle hardware switch to tilt the nacelles DOWN and back UP again. (see X-Plane in sim Settings drop down menu, Joystick or Keyboard tab, locate and assign “vector or sweep forward” and “vector or sweep aft”), I used the F11 and F12 keys. There is a manual nacelle adjuster wheel, it is on the TCL or "Throttle Control Lever", but it is a little tricky to use looking forward while flying.     The Nacelle Tilt Angle Indicator (NTAI) angle display is set upper left on the PFD...  90º is straight up, 97º is backwards, and on the ground you are restricted to the (red) boundary of 60º because of those huge rotors.     So is flying the V-22 Osprey the same as taking off in a Helicopter, well no, as for one there is no collective, just a throttle lever (TCL) to create the downward thrust. It is a heavy machine as well, here set at 21260 kg at Takeoff. So the V-22 does not react like a light Helicopter, or a drone for that matter, but it is closer to takeoff like a (very heavy) drone, more than a Heli. Flaps are totally automated, and move to the correct position for that phase of the flight, so there is no need to mess with the flap lever.   TCL up (slowly) 90º nacelle position and the V-22 rises off the ground...  any joystick inputs forward, backwards, left or right, even very small movements will take you in that direction, this HOVER mode.     Press the rudder pedal down left or right and the Osprey will rotate in that direction, so low flight manoeuvres are quite easy, Helicopterish without that massive tailrotor pressure thrust.   You can move forwards just by moving the stick slightly forward, but remember to keep the power on so the V-22 doesn't lose height as you start to gain speed, it's not going to be fast in this mode, so you move the nacelles now forward to 60º...     You require more TCL, but your also moving forwards into a transition phase very quickly, and already moving at a speed of 100 kts+     The Osprey is extremely nice to fly, being heavy, it feels solid unlike a shaking Helicopter...    There is another if quicker way to get airborne. “Jumps” are short rolling takeoffs with the nacelles rotated down just forward of the vertical. With the nacelles at 85, 80 or 75 degrees these takeoffs are called “Jump 85”, “Jump 80” or “Jump 75”. The aircraft rolls forward only a few tens of feet before getting airborne.   In practise you let the park brake off and increase the TCL power...     As you increase the power, you move forward only a short distance before literally "Jumping" bouncing quickly into the air, this could easily be done on a carrier, no problems...  and your now flying.     The technique to accelerate the aircraft into forward flight is to “bump” the nacelles forward and down using the “thumb wheel” on the inside of the TCL. (or keyboard command), as expected the ground limitation boundary is now gone in the air.   The transition to forward flight is to configure the aircraft to the wings without losing height, so you move the nacelles slowly forward, but you have to be careful, as when past 30º, the nacelles will quickly rotate to 0º. You need to quickly give a little backstick and add in more power, if not the V-22 will lose height or dip very quickly, but once transitioned, you can reduce the TCL a little and you are now at around 240 kts forward speed.     Notice the nose dip? you soon recover from it, the trick is to do transition more slowly and explore this change of flight parameters.     But boy, the Osprey really accelerates forward once configured. The V-22 has a maximum speed 316 knots (363 mph or 584 km/h) in Airplane mode, and a Cruise Speed of 241 knots (277 mph or 446 km/h) at 15,000 ft (4,600 m). Typically your speed is in the 110-120 knots range in the hover or transition phase.   Combat Radius is around 390 nautical miles (450 miles or 720 km) with internal fuel and a standard payload. And the Ferry Range is 2,100 nautical miles (2,400 miles or 3,889 km) with auxiliary fuel tanks. Service Ceiling is 25,000 ft (7,620 m) with a standard load.     And you cover ground very quickly, very different from a Helicopter.     And you are very aware of those massive blades only feet away from the cockpit.     Autopilot is very simple to use. Select the Heading (HDG), and Altitude and just press the activation button below your selection, to go climb or descend, deactivate the ALT (Altitude) and adjust the V/S (Vertical Speed), it will reset the ALT when it achieves the set new altitude.     One thing I did find in the HDG and set ALT. that the V-22 tended to slightly roll left and right? a slight touch of the joystick to counter the movement usually centered it, but it would get slightly annoying if going a distance. Another factor is that in airplane mode the V-22 doesn't turn very well, on the AP or manually, even with a fair bit of rudder to push the nose around, yes you can do a crazy 45º turn, but it still takes a fair circle to achieve the full turn manoeuvre, so you have to forward plan out any tight (wide) turns to accommodate the Osprey.     The "VID" Video or “Synthetic Vision” is excellent, with a great visual of the landscape outside, you can easily fly by the instruments or in a head down mode with the amount of detail shown here.     Other AoA features include "Roll to See" where in the mode, the view is rolled to the angle of the aircraft.     The second is "Target Track", were as the plug-in code takes command of the pilot point of view camera in order to point the camera at a selected AI plane and follow it, keeping it in view at all times while it is in your aircraft’s forward hemisphere.   Other features include Air-to Air Refuelling, 2D or 3D cockpit modes, one is a locked view, the other free. And the V-22 supports the default X-Plane slung load system. You just choose a slung load object and weight in the weight and balance menu. Navigate to the payloads folder and select one of the available OBJ files.     Now is the transition phase in reverse...  The Osprey loves it's speed, so you have to pull the TCL quite a way back before you lose speed. Tricky is that the NTAI does not show until you go under 220 kts, then you still have rub off speed before it will allow you rotate the nacelles at around 198 kts.     A slight nose up atitude will slightly rub off the speed, but when you reach 50º up angle then the speed passes away a lot quicker.     So you are now losing height and losing speed...  75º is a very nice approach speed of around 55 knts, but be aware of like in a Helicopter there is that very ineffective "Transitional Lift" zone, so you have to be very, very aware of your thrust, as the point of aerodynamic lift is replaced by thrust lift, yes you can sink, and quite quickly, but the slight annoyance is as you move the nacelles to 80º the upward thrust comes in with a bang, the trick is finding a perfect transitional balance (thrust) between the two phases.     But that 80º position is a sweet spot, the nacelles are far enough forward to keep you moving in the approach...  a creeping forward momentum.     ... any moment you go to the straight up (90º) the Tiltrotor stops in it's tracks...   I tried the MFD HVR feature...  but to a point it didn't work as I expected? one was the VID was still a forward view, I expected it to be pointing downwards to show you underneath the Osprey, second, although you had a movement counter 1.2.3 - -1. -2. -3 if you went backwards or forwards, the crosshairs didn't move as much as it did on the AW-109... so it's not much help in that repect.     Time to go down, unlike a Helicopter the V-22 is quite easy to hold in the hover, just gentle stick movements will correct your position...     ...   one great bonus you have, is that if the nacelles are put to 97º the Osprey will fly in reverse, or act like an airbrake on approach...     These adjustable powerplants give you an amazing amount of control, and it is far easier than your Helicopter control, if done in a different way. So low hovers and a quiet touch landing is very easily done, no twitching or fighting the tail yaw like with a Helicopter. On the ground there is the there is an option on the menu pop-up to "Brake with Stick", or pull back on the stick to brake the aircraft (you can release the brakes as well) when taxiing or slowing down with a rolling landing, I never used this, as I use the foot pedals, but you can use in on say a vertical landing to stop the aircraft moving, handy on a Carrier ship.     The V-22 Osprey is an amazing machine, but challenging to fly? no not really like in a Helicopter sense, but unique to itself is the best statement you could make...  overall I love it immensely.     There are no liveries with the package, but there are few you can download...  CV-22B SOCOM and VMX-22 "Metallic", and the latest is the CMV-22B "Titans" livery, which is very nice.   ________________ Summary Is it a helicopter or an aircraft is usually the first question asked about the V-22 Osprey. It's formal title is "Tiltrotor", so you would say helicopter with those massive three blades per side, but the machine can also convert to a forward flying aerodynamic winged aircraft, and then flies in that same forward configuration as a normal aircraft. So a bit of both.   The success of the XV-15 created the concept of an American multi-use, tiltrotor military transport and cargo aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities. It is designed to combine the functionality of a conventional helicopter with the long-range, high-speed cruise performance of a turboprop aircraft   This X-Plane 12 only version of the V-22 Osprey is from Angle of Attack (AoA) Simulations, mostly AoA aircraft are military designs like the F-22A Raptor and F-35B Lightning ll and T-7A Red Hawk. The original V-22 Osprey for X-Plane 11 was released March 2018.   The original AoA for X-Plane 11 felt a little under developed, but that was a long time ago (in X-Plane sense) and here it has been completely reworked and upgraded to X-Plane 12, basically it is a different aircraft in now being very matured and far more wholesome.   It needs to be because the V-22 role requires really good handing and dynamics to experience the "Tiltrotor" actions, thankfully that aspect is very well delivered here, it is a very unique flying experience and comes with excellent simulator pilot intergration.   Modeling, design and detail is really good, certainly in the cargo and highly detailed cockpit, and looks far better in X-Plane 12 than XP11, and not for the obvious reasons, it just feels overall far more complete and refined. Great animations for doors external and internal, pilots including Flight Engineer and Marines in the rear, carry hooks (yes you can sling loads), refueling probe, a clever realistic Blade Fold/Wing Stow animation, and Autostart feature, standard (XP) Weight and Balance menu. Standard AoA features like Roll to See and Target Track are also included, there are also four menu selectable V-22 variants. Lighting and Sounds are also top notch.   The V-22 Osprey Tiltrotor is unique, and the Angle of Attack X-Plane 12 version gives an excellent immersion into this incredible aircraft. The V-22 is unique to fly as well, and more accessible than a Helicopter, so you can fly vertical flight, and fast horizontal flight, so the Osprey combines the two skills.   The V-22 becomes very, very addictive, mainly because it's flight envelope is so wide, takeoff vertically, "Jump" into the air, and still do carrier operations, the Osprey has it all, I loved it, addictive...  Highly Recommended! ______________________     The  V-22 Osprey XP12 by AOA Simulations is now available from the X-Plane.Org Store:   V-22 Osprey XP12 Priced at US$55.00 Currently US$44.00 You Save:$11.00(20%)   Requirements X-Plane 12 (not for XP11) Windows , Mac (M1/M2 Supported), Linux 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 495 MB Current version: 1.03 (December 3rd 2024)     This aircraft is noted as a new version, to date there are no upgrade deals from the X-Plane 11 version, but that may change. ________________   Installation and documents:  download for the V-22 Osprey is 446Mb and the aircraft is deposited in the "Military" X-Plane folder.   Full Installation is 645MBb   AviTab Plugin is required for this aircraft (latest v0.7.1 version)   Documents supplied are: 1-V-22 User Guide.pdf (41 Pages) 2-V-22 Cockpit Display Reference.pdf (68 Pages) 3-Enter GPS Waypoint.pdf 4-Osprey Start Checklist.pdf V-22 1.0 notes.pdf V-22 copyright.txt     Documentation consists of a User guide (41 Pages), and the excellent Cockpit Reference guide (61 Pages), also provided is a Checklist (pdf) and Notes   Designed by  Fabrice Kauffmann and David Austin of AOA Simulations Support forum for the V-22 Osprey Tiltrotor _____________________   Update Review by Stephen Dutton 6th December 2024 Copyright©2024: X-Plane Reviews   Review System Specifications:  Windows  - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD. Bose Quietcomfort Headphones Software:   - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.1.2 Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 Scenery or Aircraft - KTCM - McChord AFB  - Seattle - Boeing Country 10.5 by Tom Curtis (Sorry not now available)   (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 Rights Reserved