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CT182T SkylanePublisher: CarenadoReview Author: Shawn WeigeltSuggested Price: $34.95/images/fsc/wbicons/store-buy-now-button.png /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-01.jpg /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-02.jpgIntroductionI was absolutely thrilled when theSeptember 24th announcement of the Carenado Cessna CT182T popped up inmy newsfeed. There it was, the gorgeous Turbo Skylane that Ihad missed during its X-Plane 10 run, being rebuilt for X-Plane 11. Isay that I "missed" the XP 10 Skylane, but the truth is that Ipurposefully didn't purchase it because I knew my, at the time,underpowered iMac wouldn't be able to handle the graphical demands ofthe HD textures coupled with Carenado's custom G1000 avionics. Now that I have a new(er) iMac and X-Plane 11, it is a realpleasure to be able to finally fly the airplanes that Carenado isbringing forward to the next generation. /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-03.jpg /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-04.jpgFollowing the development of the X-Plane 11 Carenado Skylane onFacebook was a combination of excitement for the file tempered bydisappointing comments from some within the flight simulationcommunity. The lack of contentment and gratitude that is so pervasivewithin our instant gratification culture is very troubling to me, andflight simmers are certainly not immune to this. Most of the commentson Facebook concerning the XP 11 Skylane revolved around whatairplanes individuals would like to have seen instead, and whatfeatures and avionics they think the file should have. This sort ofgriping is beyond annoying to me and is difficult to ignore. Still, Iresolved to maintain a positive attitude and judge the file based onits own merits when it was released. The Cessna 182 Skylane is the logical "step up" airplane for pilotswho have trained on or owned the smaller, less powerful 172 Skyhawk.The 182 offers significant performance advantages over the 172 inevery area while still maintaining that legendary high wing and easeof handling that Cessna pilots are familiar with. The Turbo Skylane,as modeled here by Carnado, offers even more advantages especiallywhen it comes to cruise speed and high-density altitude performancewhere the six cylinder turbocharged TIO-540 provides all 235 horsesup into the flight levels. One of the best features of the Skylanehas always been its load carrying flexibility. This trait hassomewhat waned over the years, however, and newer airplanes equippedwith modern avionics have much lower useful loads than the 182's ofyesteryear. The published useful load of a typical 2005 model CessnaT182T is 1,089 pounds. Against 87 gallons/522 pounds of 100LL, thatleaves a full fuel payload of 567 pounds. Good, but not great. /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-05.jpg /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-06.jpgWhile the Skylane and Skyhawk share a passing resemblance withtheir braced high wing and fixed landing gear, the Skylane isnoticeably sleeker and has a few other diagnostic differences to helpdistinguish it from its little brother. The rear passenger windowsare a good place to start, which look like right triangles in theSkylane and are trapezoidal in shape on the Skyhawk. The rear windowof the Skylane is a flat, single pane piece of glass whereas theSkyhawk's is more rounded off and has a central brace separating twopanes of glass. Skylanes have a three blade constant speed prop andhave a more nose up posture than a typical Skyhawk when on the ground.The aerodynamic wheel pants and sleeker vertical stabilizer are veryevident on the Skylane and it is obvious that Cessna engineers haveworked hard to squeeze as many knots out of the airplane that theycould. Based on pure aesthetics, the Skylane wins hands down in mybook, and is one good looking airplane. /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-07.jpg /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-08.jpgDespite the legendary status that the Cessna Skylane in all itsiterations enjoys in the real world, it is surprisingly absent fromthe X-Plane world. Sure, there are some older files out there madefor old versions of the sim, but no truly high quality payware Skylanehas existed for X-Plane in years with the exception of Carenado'sX-Plane 10 (and now 11) model. This is a serious head scratcher forme, and I hope other developers take note and produce their ownvariations of this truly excellent light airplane. The attentive Carenado development team has stepped up to the plateand their Cessna T182T is now available for X-Plane 11. I was veryexcited to finally be able to get my hands on it for review and washoping that it would live up to the hype I had built up for it in mymind. No question it looks amazing, but would Carenado's Skylane flyamazing as well? Does it fill the gaping Skylane hole in the X-Planeworld or is it just another "meh" airplane that leaves the sim pilotwanting more? Let's find out! /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-09.jpg /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-10.jpg Sights And SoundsPraising the visual modeling and texture work of a Carenado orAlabeo file is always the easiest part of any review I write,including the work of other developers. Carenado is, in my opinion,the industry leader when it comes to visual aesthetics and physicalmodel accuracy in light General Aviation aircraft. I understand thatthis is a bold assertion, but I stand by it. Sure, I have founderrors with a few of their products in the past (and the Skylane is noexception as we'll find out), but, by and large, Carenado consistentlyproduces the "realest" looking airplanes available, though otherdevelopers are definitely starting to catch up. Since the Carenado Skylane for X-Plane 11 is essentially a rebuildof their X-Plane 10 model, I already knew what I was getting into whenit came to the physical accuracy of the aircraft so there weren't anyreal surprises. Still, seeing screen shots and YouTube videos is onething, but having the real file running on your simulator is anotherthing entirely. Starting my tour on the exterior of the aircraft as Ialways do, I examined every angle and feature of the handsome CarenadoTurbo Skylane through my own figurative microscope. I carefullycompared the simulated product to several images of the real worldairplane and found that it more than measured up. Even the angle ofthe parked aircraft relative to the ground looks perfect. Carenado'smodel is astonishingly accurate and leaves nothing to be desired froma purely proportional perspective. /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-11.jpg /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-12.jpgThe HD PBR textures of the Carenado T182T are extremely well done.Reflections of both the metal skin and glass windows are convincinglyrealistic and the industry leading bump mapping really makes theairplane look "alive." I love the subtle wrinkle lines along therivets and seams of the aluminum skin and drinking in the beauty ofthe exterior of this aircraft is time well spent. With the airplane loaded in a cold and dark state, I was surprisedto find no static elements present on the exterior of the aircraft,contrary to what is typically the case with Carenado aircraft. Theairplane looked ready to start with two very realistic lookingCaucasian males in the cockpit. Fortunately, through the use of thetabbed "O" objects menu, I was able to select the "Static Elements"which removes the 3D pilot figures and adds wheel chocks, orange conesunder the wing tips, and a singular "remove before flight" cover overthe pitot tube. There is no tow bar, tug, or tie down straps, whichis a bit disappointing. /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-13.jpg /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-14.jpgThe Carenado Cessna T182T comes with five high quality liveriesthat, for the most part, seem to replicate factory paint schemes.While the liveries have been professionally created and applied, thereare some slight color differences with some that don't exactly matchthe Cessna colors, but I will chalk that up to artistic license onCarenado's part. As an American I can appreciate the N-numberregistrations, but there are literally no other nationalitiesrepresented here. All five paint schemes have American registrations.I can see how this could be a huge disappointment for sim pilots fromother countries. Another issue I have with the liveries is that thefactory schemes span a large chunk of time in the Skylane productionline. From what I am able to glean from my inside and out examinationof the aircraft, Carenado's rendition best matches a 2005 model TurboSkylane. Only one livery, the grey and red N2963N, is a 2005 paintscheme. /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-15.jpg /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-16.jpgSome folks may see my criticisms of the paint schemes asnitpicking, but I disagree. I like variety as much as the nextperson, but I like accuracy more. Flying around in a replica of a2005 model year airplane with a 2012 paint scheme absolutely kills theplausibility for me. I think Carenado was going more for variety andI completely understand that. I am definitely in the minority inwanting to only have paint schemes matching the model year of theairplane. Still, the lack of other nations being represented in theliveries is a missed opportunity for the development team thatcould've been easily addressed. Transitioning to the interior of the aircraft revealed abeautifully modeled cockpit replete with modern G1000 avionics.Everything looks perfectly replicated and accurate for an approximate2005 model year Skylane. The incredible texture work went a long waytoward convincing me that this is a relatively new and lightly usedaircraft that seems to have been lovingly cared for. The leatherseats look plush and real, as do the seatbelts. Some of the texturesgive the impression of worn surfaces, but they have been tastefullyapplied and not overdone. This again lends credence to the fact thatthis is not an old, beat up airplane that has been rotting on the rampfor years. This airplane has spent its life in a hangar and it shows. /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-17.jpg /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-18.jpgOne minor gripe with regards to the interior of the Carenado TurboSkylane is the movement (or lack thereof) of the yokes. Typically,Cessna yokes have a 90 degree throw, but on the Carenado model theyonly move about 45 degrees while giving the ailerons full deflection.This is grossly inaccurate, but indicative of this file being are-make of an older model built for X-Plane 10. Recent offerings fromCarenado have improved the accuracy of the flight control movement, soI will give the development team a pass here on the Skylane. I don't do a ton of night flying so I freely admit that the topicof night lighting is one I tend to forget about in my reviews. I madea point of taking some night flights in the Carenado Skylane, however,and found the interior lighting to be sufficient for working within adark cockpit. I particularly appreciated how the rheostats for thelighting functioned on the instrument panel. There is no click, hold,and slide feature as with past Carenado offerings. Rather, you simplyand intuitively hover your mouse over each knob and click to increaseor decrease the brightness. This is done in one-click increments asthough each knob has detents for the varying brightness levels. /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-19.jpg /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-20.jpgOne of my favorite features of any Carenado or Alabeo aircraft hasbeen the tabbed user interface menus. These are all present andaccounted for on the Carenado Skylane, and most of us in the flightsimulator community should be intimately familiar with them by now soI won't beat a dead horse. A feature I do want to note on thisairplane file is the inclusion of the tabbed "A" Autopilot menu whichbrings up a large pop-up of Carenado's rendition of the Bendix/KingKAP 140 autopilot. This proved to be very handy in flight and kept myeyes outside of the cockpit when setting the autopilot. Historically, Carenado sound files have been very good and haverivaled the quality of their physical modeling and texture work. Iwas fully expecting the sounds of the Carenado Skylane to be just asgood as a few of their recent offerings that I've reviewed, but,sadly, I was a little underwhelmed. /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-21.jpg /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-22.jpgThe switches and toggles within the airplane sound pretty good butdon't impress me in the way that some recent airplanes from bothCarenado and other development teams have. The start up sequence ofthe big, turbocharged TIO-540 was downright anemic in the CarenadoSkylane and was a huge letdown. I expected the engine torealistically cough and sputter to life in a way that immersed mewithin the cockpit. When I started up the Skylane, however, I had nodoubt that I was still sitting in front of my computer screen. Theengine sounds improved somewhat when the airplane is under full poweror in cruise, but still not as good as I expected them to be. Thebest part about the sound files, by far, was their volumetric, 3Dcharacter, especially when heard from the exterior of the aircraft orfrom the inside with the windows open. All in all, I like the soundfiles of the Carenado Skylane, they just aren't as good as some of thedevelopment team's recent offerings. /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-23.jpg /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-24.jpgFlight ModelTesting the flight model of any airplane I review is always myfavorite part and is what I consider to be of the highest importance.This is, after all, a review of a high fidelity simulation of a CessnaTurbo Skylane, for what I believe to be the finest flight simulatorcurrently available. With this in mind, if the airplane looks andsounds good, it had better fly good as well. Starting out at my home field of KTIW Tacoma Narrows Airport, Iconfigured the weather to no wind, standard day conditions as I alwaysdo. This eliminates the variables of wind, barometric pressure,density altitude, etc., and best enables me to compare the performanceof the simulated product to the excellent real world data tables thatCarenado provides with their airplanes. I first conducted severaltakeoffs and landings with the Turbo Skylane and found it relativelyeasy to fly. This is super subjective for me to say this, but theaircraft felt like a bigger, less responsive Skyhawk in the air whenit came to the controls. The plane seemed to wallow at slow speedscompared with the outstanding Carenado Cessna 172SP Skyhawk Ifrequently fly, and felt considerably more nose heavy. This trait isin keeping with some of the real world flight behavior of the Skylanewhen compared with the lighter 172. /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-25.jpg /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-26.jpgThe flaps of the Carenado Skylane were extremely effective (theterm "barn doors" immediately comes to mind) and I found that with onenotch of flaps on takeoff, a lightly loaded airplane will literallyfly itself off the runway at around 60 knots. I found that loadingthe aircraft heavier than the default settings helped the takeoffsfeel more authentic. I think the default payload setting was a littlemore than 160 pounds, which is kind of ridiculous. This airplane wasmeant to haul a better load than that, so for subsequent flights Iloaded it up closer to the 3,100 pound gross weight. Up around gross,I was still able to get around 1,000 fpm in the climb, which is veryimpressive, albeit all test takeoffs were flown close to sea level.Still, having the turbo under the bonnet will enable the sim pilot totake off from hot and high airfields with full power available. Thisis especially helpful if you find yourself frequently flying in themountainous American West as I do. Landing the Carenado Cessna Turbo Skylane came as a bit of achallenge for me and is something I'm still working on. Getting usedto the power and speed was part of the problem, and figuring out theappropriate flap and approach speeds was another. The somewhatlacking sound files aren't helpful for indicating power reductions.The engine just drones and gives very little auditory feedback when Ipulled the throttle back. This forced me to watch my manifoldpressure gauge on the G1000 too much as I tried to juggle my speed andnose attitude on approach. I found that flying short final at 70knots with full flaps worked well, but the nose high attitude of theairplane demands that the sim pilot keep the nose up in the flare toprotect the nose wheel. This is extremely accurate when compared withthe behavior of a real Skylane and in the flare your over-the-nosevisibility will disappear entirely. In other words, if you aren'tcareful, it would be way too easy to three-point the Carenado Skylaneor even put the nose wheel down first (a serious no-no). Landing theCarenado Skylane takes finess and seems to be a very accurate trait ofthe simulated model compared with the real world airplane. /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-27.jpg /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-28.jpgI conducted several cruise speed tests in the Carenado TurboSkylane, utilizing the provided cruise performance tables forreference. I did multiple cruise runs at multiple power settings andaltitudes and even up into the flight levels. This was again doneunder no wind, standard day conditions with the airplane loaded tonear gross weight. My finding was that the Carenado take on the realTurbo Skylane is consistently 8-10 knots faster than book values.This is a little disappointing to me, as this is the greatest cruisespeed variance between the simulated and the real world plane I'vefound in a Carenado aircraft in years. This is not a "deal breaker"by any means, and is something that could easily be rectified withsome Plane Maker tweaks, but one of the main reasons one wouldpurchase the Carenado Skylane over their Skyhawk would be to have afaster, more stable cross country platform. Having the cruise speedaccuracy be that far off the mark definitely detracts from theauthenticity of the file. /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-29.jpg /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-30.jpgConclusionThe Carenado Cessna T182T Turbo Skylane performs well on my modestiMac running the most recent version of X-Plane 11. The G1000avionics and excellent PBR texturing definitely cut the frames downbut by no means makes the airplane unusable. I have found, however,that theirCessna 172SPis less of a resource hog on my system. As always, be sure yourmachine measures up to the minimum requirements before making apurchasing decision. Carenado is one of the best in the business in providing itscustomers with high quality documentation included with every airplanethey produce, and the Turbo Skylane is no exception. The documentsare very comprehensive and professionally laid out. If you have anissue with your airplane and you can't find the help you need withinthe provided documentation, Carenado has a very knowledgeable supportstaff that is more than willing to help. /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-31.jpg /images/reviews/cart182t/t/Carenado-CT182T-Skylane-32.jpgCurrently priced at $34.95 USD, their Turbo Skylane iscompetitively priced. It is, however, an update of an older file andisn't without its issues as I've tried my best to outline in thisreview. Their built for X-Plane 11 Cessna 172SP, on the other hand,is one of their best products in my opinion and is only two dollarsless expensive. Honestly, unless you really need to have the Skylane,I think the Carenado Skyhawk is a better looking, sounding, flying,and performing file, and is more worthy of your hard earned money. The Carenado Cessna T182T Turbo Skylane is by no means a bad file,but I think it shows its age when compared with more recent offeringsnot only from Carenado but from other development teams that I thinkoffer more "bang for the buck." I guess the Skylane didn't reallylive up to the hype I had built for it in my own mind after all. Itjust needed to be better, especially when it came to the sounds andcruise performance accuracy. For a high quality replica of a CessnaSkylane, however, it is definitely the best one available for X-Plane11 and deserves serious consideration for your next airplanepurchase. /images/reviews/cart182t/CAR-920-ct182t-skylane-xp.jpgShawn Weigelt Purchase Carenado - CT182T Skylane For X-Plane 11
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/images/notams/notams19/care1018/care1018.jpgSpecial FeaturesNEW Full interior and exterior PBR (Redone completely)NEW 3D interior and exterior with MANY detailsNEW customized FMOD soundsCustomized X-Plane default G1000 /images/notams/notams19/care1018/ct182t-1.jpgFeaturesFull VR compatibleSpecially designed engine dynamics for XP11Flight physics optimized for XP11 standardsPhysically Based Rendering materials and textures throughoutPBR materials authored with industry-standard software used by the film and gaming industriesRealistic behavior compared to the real airplane. Realistic weight and balance. Tested by several pilots for maximum accuracy /images/notams/notams19/care1018/ct182t-2.jpgIncluded In The Package5 HD liveries1 HD blank textureCT182T G1000 Normal Procedures PDFCT182T G1000 Emergency Procedures PDFCT182T G1000 Performance tables PDFCT182T G1000 Reference PDFKAP140 Autopilot PDFRecommended Settings XPLANE 11 PDF /images/notams/notams19/care1018/ct182t-3.jpgPurchase Carenado - CT182T Skylane G1000 For X-Plane 11