PilotEdge Forums

Looking to get one. Any product recommendations/comments/experiences?

I have never gone wrong with Jason Chandler's aircraft.

http://air.c74.net

I have both Chandler's 172 and the Carenado 172N. I don't think you can go wrong with either plane. I think Chandler's flight model is a little more accurate, while the Carenado is prettier. Let me know which one you go with. If you have a livery and tail number you want to use, I'll paint it up for you. Just send me some pictures of a real world plane paint you like and I'll do it for you.

Steve, what makes you think that Chandler's flight model is more accurate? I think that only real pilots who fly C172 would be able to say that, no offense intended.

I've been up in a 172. But you're right, I don't have a huge amount of time to make a professional or certified determination, but I have a decent idea of how it should "feel." I've flown plenty of freeware planes with shoddy flight modeling, for sure. With my little real world flight experience and my 2500 hours sim time, I think I have a fairly good idea how it should feel. As for technical performance, I can't give any opinion there.

Thanks , Steve. I was just thinking that maybe you knew a pilot who also flew in the simulator and could compare those two.
I would not say that I have an idea how it should feel in the simulator not having real life experience.
I also flew 2000+ hrs between various VAs but I can only tell that all planes fly different and guess that some have closer to real life flight characteristics.

The best example here is the P28A . I have 3 of them, Chandler's , Carenado,s and CalAir.
They all fly differently but NONE of them responds to trim and throttle idle on final like the real life I am taking lessons in....

Since realism is for me the most important, I ended up flying modified Chandler's one.

Anyway, thank you, I just wondered what you based your comments on.

Cheers, AJ

Take a look at RealAir's. It's free and it incorporates a "more accurate" dynamics (to include the possibility of spins). I've never used it, but it's gotten the best reviews related to how it feels (a flight school down in NZ/Aus uses it in its training, too). I'll download it tonight and let you know. I have about 58 hours in a range of them 172G to 172S, so I'm not going to say I can dream on command about how one behaves specifically, but I can spot more than most would between the sim and the real thing.

Thank you, Kyle. I will definitely give it a try.Will monitor this thread.

Kyle, is that for FS2004/X? We're talking specifically about X-Plane here.

Yeah I thought that brand name sounded a bit odd. I'm looking for an X-Plane one, but thanks anyhow.