Request for decent aircraft

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Rauerb3
Posts: 29
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2010 4:27 pm

Request for decent aircraft

Post by Rauerb3 »

Hello all,

I recently updated my system to Win 7 64bit, in the process formatting my hard drive and all of it's scenery and aircraft. Restoring all the scenery won't be too difficult (thanks to CalAir's scenery downloader), but I am sourly mourning my collection of airplanes.

Seeing as PE has turned out to be a set of fairly serious simmers, I'm hoping we can put together a collection of good quality X-plane .acf for download. I don't mean including it with the pay service (which would require either a lot of paper work or some intellectual property theft), but rather an open link to a directory of current version freeware airplane files as a resource to the community as a whole. I realize something like that exists over at x-p.org, but often you can end up downloading ten poorly rendered .acf before finding one decent one. I'd like to see something a little higher quality, on par with the ATC delivered by PE. And since we're all here to get the most out of our sims, a community wide testing process could even provide interest and traffic for the network during beta and after rollout.


My one plus one cents

-Roger
Bob Slocum
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2011 10:19 am

Re: Request for decent aircraft

Post by Bob Slocum »

My .02 cents.. Join a VA.. they have aircraft that fly well enough so you won't have to pick and choose, as is the case with x-plane.org aircraft. Try X-USAirways.com. I'm prejudiced, I fly there. There are many options out there, I hope you find your answers with one of them. Bob
Daddy O
Posts: 450
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2010 9:32 am

Re: Request for decent aircraft

Post by Daddy O »

There are a ton 'o aircraft on x-plane.org, most are pretty decent.

Personally I don't give a crap what the plane looks like, I care about the accuracy of the flight model, the handling characteristics, the performance. I have lots of really beautiful aircraft that handle like F15s because someone boosted their power and dropped their weight, or used the wrong NACA airfoil.

I have about 70 aircraft if you want a few, there is another guy on PE who has a few hundred, and hundreds of custom airports.
Keith Smith
Posts: 9939
Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2010 8:38 pm
Location: Pompton Plains, NJ
Contact:

Re: Request for decent aircraft

Post by Keith Smith »

I've found considerable value in having a small collection of high quality aircraft, as opposed to a vast, sprawling collection of planes that a) have questionable handling characteristics, and b) that I haven't spent much time getting to know very well.

In the last 6 years, I've probably only flown the following aircraft with any regularity:
1) Chandler's Piper Warrior
2) Chandler's Piper Saratoga
3) Chandler's Lear 25 (probably the most challenging airplane I've ever flown)
4) Shadetree's F-86
5) the stock F-4 Phantom

There is a Piper Archer which got some attention here: http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?app ... wfile=8870

Has anyone tried it?
Alex Stjepanovic
Posts: 1752
Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2010 3:48 pm
Location: Novi Sad, Serbia

Re: Request for decent aircraft

Post by Alex Stjepanovic »

I used to fly that Archer, but it started having a weird effect of having ice collect on the windshield, even under the slightest imperfections in the atmosphere....so I got rid of it. I couldn't figure out what the hell it was, none of the other planes had the issue. Reinstalling, tweaking, this and that - None had the effect.

Other than that, I found it close to perfect for IFR work....bar the Radiostack not being very handy unless you are in full screen. Very fun plane indeed.



I concur that a small collection of high-quality vs large of questionable quality, is better.

One of the only planes that I've used non-stop, since I caught the X-Plane fever in late 07, is x737.

If people are looking for something that can do just about any kind of flight, from slow to fast, but have no issue with realism, I'd recommend Evenblade!
c.b.powell
Posts: 54
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2011 11:26 pm
Location: Seattle, WA
Contact:

Re: Request for decent aircraft

Post by c.b.powell »

If you, like me, are more into GA than heavy iron, then I have three freeware X-Plane aircraft that you might enjoy.

The first is a version of the stock Skyhawk 172; I altered the panel & flight characteristics to achieve better flyability. The second is a '75 Cardinal 177RG that I based (with permission) on another fellow's straight-leg 177. The third is a clean-sheet late-model Skylane 182T.

I've worked very hard to make these three planes look and behave correctly, and I think they're a lot of fun to fly. I usually fly the 182 in PE but I sometimes jump in the Cardinal. I have all three aircraft on Github and I encourage anyone so inclined to make tweaks and improvements.

Skyhawk 172S
The stock 172 flies twitchily; my mods remedy that. I also wanted the panel to more closely resemble the actual late-model Skyhawks that I fly, so I made numerous graphical changes.
Source code: https://github.com/cpowell/cessna_172SP ... for_xplane
X-Plane page: http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?app ... file=12864

Cardinal 177RG Screen shot: http://web.me.com/cbpowell/177.png
The 177RG is an excellent training platform for FAR 61.31(e) complex aircraft: it has a controllable pitch prop, retractable gear, and flaps. I spent a lot of time poring over actual Cardinal panel photos and performance data to get the layout and flight model right.
Source code: https://github.com/cpowell/cessna_177RG ... for_xplane
X-Plane page: http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?app ... file=12852

Skylane 182T Screen shot: http://web.me.com/cbpowell/182.png
I'm proudest of this one because it's 100% my own effort from the wheels up. I put in a lot of effort getting this one to look and feel like a real steam-gauge 182T. Custom panel gauges and also what I think might be the very best King KAP-140 autopilot in any freeware plane, and performance that closely matches the actual aircraft.
Source code: https://github.com/cpowell/cessna_182T_ ... for_xplane
X-Plane page: n/a, I haven't uploaded it there yet, but click "Downloads" on the Github page to grab a zipfile.

(By the way, the latter two really benefit from the EADT KLN90B GPS: http://www.eadt.eu/index.php?kln90b.)

Let me know what you think. They're 2D panels only, but they're flyable and a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy them and if you have any feedback to improve them, please let me know.

Chris
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