Wilco TBM850

[twharrell]

OK, I know the name Wilco causes a lot of mixed reactions, most of it negative as of late. I don't own any Wilco products, so I don't have any performed opinions. I know they are a publisher of other's products, so I don't have a clue what products they actually produce, and what products they just sell in their "wrapper."

That being said, their upcoming TBM850 looks very intriguing. In fact, take a look at this video. What has me really interested is, not only is this a sweet GA aircraft, but this particular TBM model has a fully functional G1000 it seems. If true, this could be a great add-on. I know the release was delayed (what sim product ever meets a release deadline?), but there are rumors that release is this month.

Todd

http://www.wilcopub.com/simulator-add-o ... -6586.html

[Mark Hargrove]

I agree that it looks intriguing. This is the first I've seen this particular offering, and I don't own any Wilco planes either so cannot express an opinion about them. Carenado has a TBM805 already available, but they don't really do a great job of modelling the G1000 on their other airplanes so I wouldn't necessarily expect that from their TBM either.

I'll be keeping my eye on the Wilco version -- thanks for posting about it!

-M.

[twharrell]

Release 2 days ago. So far, the reviews aren't good. The G1000 isn't as functional as Wilco's claimed. No SIDs or STARS, no Navdata upgrades. Another Wilco flop it appears.

Todd

[Mark Hargrove]

Unfortunately, I bought it. It won't even run on either FSX or P3Dv2 for me -- both sims crash to the desktop immediately upon loading the plane. Lots of others are apparently having the same problem. I guess I've learned my lesson about Wilco.

-M.

[twharrell]

Bummer, Mark. I really hoped the TBM was going to be a good add-on. It's a shame we can't have a decent corporate level aircraft. I flew the Flight 1 Mustang briefly on FSX but never could get it working in P3D. I uninstalled both, as I want to focus on P3D. Carenado is working on a Phenom 100, but again, the G1000 suite will be nothing more than default. Oh well.... I guess we'll have to wait for the MilViz KA350.

Todd

[Mark Hargrove]

To give Wilco some credit, they emailed me a new DLL which fixed the CTD problem in both P3Dv2 and FSX.

To their discredit, this is perhaps the worst-modeled aircraft I've ever had the displeasure to fly. First, the frame-rate is just terrible -- maybe 11-12 fps. This makes it hard to tell how many of the other problems are strictly related to bad frame-rate, and how many are poor modeling. Roll-stability sucks (worse than X-Plane, and that's saying something ). Turbine lag can be up to 10 seconds before there is ANY change in power. They've done something to the FSX autopilot to make it horrible at tracking a localizer -- it makes large S-turns across the localizer all the way down. It won't consistently capture the GS, and then makes ridiculous vertical speed adjustments when it does track it (it's default rate of descent is 1800 FPM!). The 'Message' feature of the G1000 (that warns of airspace, etc) beeps every time it wants to display a new message -- and I can't find a way to turn that off, so it beeps *constantly* around KSNA (where I did my test flights). I have a bunch of G1000 cockpits in my hangar, all of which behave pretty much the same way, mostly differeing just in what features are implemented. Wilco's TBM 850 G1000 implementation is just --weird. Things don't work as you expect if you're familiar with the G1000. The FMS controller, for example, instead of being a typical popup window as implemented by everybody else, "pops up" as a full-screen window with the controller occupying the lower left corner and the rest of the window is transparent -- but controls under it aren't clickable until the controller is dismissed! On a hand-flown, stabilized approach at 85 KIAS (the Vref speed), tracking the localizer and GS, no wind, normal 500-ish fpm descent, I get a constant voice warning of "don't sink" all the way down to the runway. As Todd noted, no SIDs, no STARS, no Navigraph updates possible. It has the SNAKE as the IAF for the KSNA Rwy 19R ILS approach rather than SAGER.

Ugh. Don't waste your money on this turkey.

[Heronjr]

For you, those who put this turkey to fly: How did you manage VS and the pitch wheel in the A/P panel? I did not see any VS indication on the PFD. After turning on A/P, the plane decided how to climb to the ALT (10,000) I entered. It was a climb I think a wild Pegasus would do, varying from -200 to 3000 fpm. The dragons of Avatar fly better than this TBM. The VS button does not seem to work and the pitch wheel does not seem to send any command to the A/P.

Searching the PDF manuals, I could not find any A/P nor VNAV tutorials, as VNAV was announced as a working feature. I know how to use it on a B737, but I would like to read something related to the TBM VNAV system.

I also had an incident with speed which I managed to control after sometime flying above the aircraft speed limit. It was during the second flight I tried. Today, I have no more patience with these kind of issues as the FS software engineering is quite adult in order to avoid selling trial-and-error gadgets to a faithful community since the 1980s. I immediatelly pressed ESC and ended the test.

Well, of course it is now at the hangar, waiting for the inevitable service packs Wilco surely will have to deploy, after some stress.

Regards
Heron Jr