Demo - need a plane with good flight dynamics

[Kerosene31]

With the recent news, I re-downloaded the X-Plane 9 demo.

I'm trying to give it a fair shot, but I'm not finding many good planes to fly by default.

What freeware add-ons should I be downloading to see what the sim can really do? I'm impressed with the smoothness, but the controls feel twitchy, no matter how much I tweak them in the sim.

Any tips? I know the defaults in fs2004 are not great, if anyone can recommend some good freeware GA aircraft (preferably smaller single engine for now) that would be great!

Any other tips would help as well. I keep adjusting the linearity and other joystick settings, but everything feels like a figherplane.

[ladamson]

With the recent news, I re-downloaded the X-Plane 9 demo.

I'm trying to give it a fair shot, but I'm not finding many good planes to fly by default.

What freeware add-ons should I be downloading to see what the sim can really do? I'm impressed with the smoothness, but the controls feel twitchy, no matter how much I tweak them in the sim.

Any tips? I know the defaults in fs2004 are not great, if anyone can recommend some good freeware GA aircraft (preferably smaller single engine for now) that would be great!

Any other tips would help as well. I keep adjusting the linearity and other joystick settings, but everything feels like a figherplane.

X-Plane is "smooth" alright, and I mentally compare it to a magic carpet ride, rather than an airplane............although I've never flown on a real magic carpet!

But like you, I seem to find a lack of "feel". Every plane just "feels" the same; and I've said that for years. Feel in a flight sim is just a combination of what's seen on the screen and the resistance of the joystick/yoke centering spring. But yet the sense of "feel" is purely possible. MSFS has it..

L.Adamson

[azur]

X-Plane is "smooth" alright, and I mentally compare it to a magic carpet ride, rather than an airplane............although I've never flown on a real magic carpet!

But like you, I seem to find a lack of "feel". Every plane just "feels" the same; and I've said that for years. Feel in a flight sim is just a combination of what's seen on the screen and the resistance of the joystick/yoke centering spring. But yet the sense of "feel" is purely possible. MSFS has it..

L.Adamson

I've noticed that a little bit. It doesn't help that the systems in most aircraft look and operate nearly the same. Though that's slowly getting better with time as more addons and aircraft come out.

Kerosene31: The default aircraft are pretty miserable Have a look at X-Plane.org. Look in both the V8 and V9 sections. The easiest way to find the better ones is to sort by most downloads and look at the recently submitted aircraft.

Try the Socata Rallye, Piper Malibu (PA-46-310P), King Air B350, Stearman, Piper Warrior II and PC-7 Apache.

There's an OK PC-12 here: http://x-plane.sgier.com/en/pc-12.html though it's 2D panel only as it's effectively advertising for his payware 3D panel.

If you don't mind payware, Shade Tree Micro Aviation (STMA) have some nicely done light and general aviation aircraft. I like their DHC-2 Beaver, Super Cub - they go great with some of the awesome Alaskan scenery available. There's also Jason Chandler's Pipers, Cirrus' and other light aircraft.

[Kerosene31]

Thanks for the tips. I'll have to check out that Warrior. Any small Cessna or Piper would be best right now.

I think I finally got my controls a little more stable late last night, but didn't have much time to try them out.

I spent most of the evening trying to get the controls working, so maybe the experienced users could answer a few more questions:

-Can you enter a flightplan into the GPS? In the 172 I could barely even see the GPS, and there seemed to be no way to bring it up in a pop-up window?

-Are thunderstorms "dangerous" in XP? I know in MSFS you can pretty much fly through anything.

I'll have to try the demo some more and see, but someone might know these off hand.

Overall, I'm intrigued by X-Plane, but I'm not sure I can use it as my everyday sim. I can live without the eye candy and great visual models, but even the basic 2d cockpits are lacking as well. The ground terrain actually looks quite nice, but with no seasonal textures that makes it a hard sell. I couldn't fly around Buffalo right now and see everything green.

[azur]

Thanks for the tips. I'll have to check out that Warrior. Any small Cessna or Piper would be best right now.

I think I finally got my controls a little more stable late last night, but didn't have much time to try them out.

I spent most of the evening trying to get the controls working, so maybe the experienced users could answer a few more questions:

-Can you enter a flightplan into the GPS? In the 172 I could barely even see the GPS, and there seemed to be no way to bring it up in a pop-up window?

No, the default "garmin lookalike" GPS just does direct to. The "FMC" GPS though does flight plans and I usually retro-fit aircraft with it in plane maker when I need plan capability.

-Are thunderstorms "dangerous" in XP? I know in MSFS you can pretty much fly through anything.

They're pretty violent, and I remember thinking "why hasn't this aircraft disintegrated yet." I dont think it actually causes damage but that may be due to my settings. Whether or not they are actually dangerous, they seem it and I try to avoid them.

[Kerosene31]

I went out and bought the game on a whim. Actually I'm interested in the helo model at a minimum.

Honestly, I'm still searching for a plane with good flight dynamics. I'm not sure if it is a control issue or I haven't found the right plane, but most of the planes do not fly very well at all. I'll keep searching. Most planes jump off the runway like they have no weight to them.

Helicopters are fun to fly, and I didn't get too many yet.

BTW, I did fly into a t-storm. The plane bounced around and pretty much was uncontrollable, but didn't fall apart or anything. Still it was better than MSFS in this regard.

[pontiuspilotus]

See if you have any luck with this one

http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?...&showfile=6310

It's Paolo's Spartan, there is *some* sense of inertia to this one (well, because it's bigger!), and may be better than the twitchy default aircraft. Your mileage may vary, however. It has an FMS so you can input a flight plan via Goodway.

[azur]

Oh, simroutes.com has an export option for X-Plane flight plans which is very useful.

As the default FMS is such a pain to input into, CAX have a plugin which makes things easier, it's on X-plane.org

[pontiuspilotus]

Oh, simroutes.com has an export option for X-Plane flight plans which is very useful.

As the default FMS is such a pain to input into, CAX have a plugin which makes things easier, it's on X-plane.org

FSBuild also has an X-Plane export option.