AVSIM Special Feature Screenshot Tribute to FS2002 Part 10

For some time, many individuals have commented that MS Flight Simulator was a jetliner only flight sim, often mentioning other simulations as being superior for flying General Aviation aircraft. Again, with most of the thanks going to the 3rd party developers, MS Flight Simulator has always been an excellent platform for flying the smaller non-airliner type aircraft and the number of quality General Aviation aircraft that are now available for FS2002 is almost staggering to the mind. You can name almost any aircraft type or model and somewhere there is something available that will please even the most demanding of individuals.

Interestingly, as more and more of the freeware designers have moved over to the payware side of the equation, it has been the General Aviation type aircraft that have been the primary subject of most payware releases rather than the jetliners. There is an "egg vs chicken" situation among the payware vs freeware groups though, at least in my mind, as I'm not sure if it is the improvement in freeware releases that has forced the quality of the payware releases up the scale or if it's the fact that the payware releases have challenged the freeware designers to improve their designs—either way we all have some really terrific choices out there.

I've mixed my screenshots here between the freeware and the payware releases and many of the most notable payware choices (your favorite/s possibly) may not be represented, but this may only be for the reason that I don't have that particular aircraft. The four most obvious and popular GA aircraft missing from my shots (payware) are the Flight1 Cardinal 177 and Piper Meridian, and FSD International's Commander 115 and Cheyenne 400. Even though I did not include any screenshots of these four GA aircraft, I felt it necessary to mention them, as they are each typical of the high quality of choices available to everyone from the web.

Besides the screenshot examples of a few of the new payware and/or freeware releases, I have included some of the payware General Aviation aircraft that were originally released for FS2000, but have had updated files added for their use in FS2002. Also included are several of the default aircraft (Cessna 182S and the Baron) which have had freeware repaints and updated airfiles added. The default King Air, Cessnas, and Baron all have terrific VC panels included and I have to give the MSFS design team a thumbs up with them, not bad for out of the box GA aircraft. With the many available repaints and/or airfile updates, these are excellent GA aircraft (the default) to fly. I'm happy to report that the default Mooney Bravo gets its own VC panel, as does the Lear45, in FS2004.

Here's a short list of General Aviation screenshots representing the cream of the crop from a little Cessna 152 up to the best of the Business Jet! These screenshots are presented without comment:

Purposely separated from the General Aviation aircraft above, we've also included the GA aircraft that are more correctly referred to as "Sport Planes," rather that be a little ultra-light, a soaring aircraft, or even a 500 mph Reno Air Racing P-51!

As with all categories of FS aircraft for FS2002, the catagory of "Sport Plane" is filled with so many high quality choices as to be somewhat overwhelming for the average flight simmer, but its hard for anyone to complain because if you can think of an aircraft you would like to see in Flight Simulator, someone or some group has probably released it for FS2002.

Unlike previous versions of Flight Simulator, any request for a quality ultra-light wished for has been answered, particularly in respect to the LAGO payware download of ultra-lights. From realistic flight modeling to authentic sound files they're available. Besides the LAGO payware ultra-light group, there have been several very good freeware ultra-lights of very high quality, you just need to search the various web libraries for them.

The number of available air racing type planes has been pretty short, but the few that are available are quite good, especially the Reno Air Racing P-51 from Roger (AirBudda) Dial, Steve Small, and Mike Hambly!

A bit broader have been the choices of various "homebuild" style aircraft (as compared to the number of air racers) including aircraft from the vari-ez design up to the BD Jet.

Until recently, soaring aircraft specifically designed for FS2002 had been a bit short, but many of the really terrific designs originally designed for FS2000 worked just fine in FS2002, but in recent months several Gmax designed gliders have appeared and if there are any FS aircraft types that demand a dynamic VC then the glider would surely be at the top of that list.

The one sport plane type that there has not been a shortage of is those aircraft of the aerobatic type. Whether it be a Zlin, a Pitts, or Sukhoi they're out there and virtually everyone of them are available as freeware.

I would have been truly remise if I had not included the RealAir Simulations SF.260 or Bill Lyons' clipped-wing Piper Cub, as these two aircraft, despite being payware, are two of only three FS aircraft that can spin accurately and realistically! (The third FS aircraft capable of spinning realistically is the RealAir Cessna 172, which is available as freeware from the AVSIM library)

Following are a few screenshots of the sport planes I've listed above:

"Screenshot Tribute to FS2002" continues here:
Part 11: FS2002 Screenshots for 'Waterbird' aircraft