Hi allwhat would you say is the best virtual cockpits for fs9? both payware and freeware category?Small aerobatic GA planes, ive found the realairsimulations decatahlon to be outstanding and best VC ever! And for freeware the bill lyons grunman goose is outstanding!Now im looking for more, wouldnt mind a good modern jet and turbo prop?ThanksIanp.s the instruments have to be super smooth!

The two payware that are uppermost in my mind are 1). Digital Aviation's Dornier Do-27 - because of the additional animation, and 2) SibWings SAAB "Safir". Both have the most photo-realistic and functional cockpits of all FS aircraft I have flown. A close third place would be the Cessna T37 Tweet from Project Sierra Hotel. Freeware - almost anything by by Rick Piper or David Maltby.pj

Also check out the Jungmann on http://www.junkers-52.de! Aerobatic - YES, Free - YES, Excellent VC - Oh, god yes.The compass even stays level when you turn. You'll really enjoy it I think.His Ju-52 is just as good!And you can't go wrong with any of RealAir's planes.Have Fun! Paul

PDMG 744

Mu favourites...Freeware: David Maltby for jets Bac 1-11, TridentRick Piper for turboprop HS 748, 780Payware:Dreamfleet B727 (followed closely by LevelD sims B767)Dreamfleet ATR 72All in all, I feel the LD 763 is a better sim than the DF B727 due to the the more thorough systems simulation. But since the criteria is the VC, I find Dreamfleet is still the top with the extremely effecient use of photographic textures, which makes you feel like you are "there". Also the setup of the "view" is something all the above designers has moved to another level IMHO. I find the Freeware Aircraft I have mentioned is fully up to the quality of the payware I own, and they beat them in some areas as well. when I look at which planes I use, it's much the same hours they accumulate.CheersPeter

I heartily second the inclusion of Sibwings' Saab Safir and Digital Aviation's Do 27 on this list. Both of them have astoundingly good virtual cockpits that really push the state of the art. I'd also add in Digital Aviation's Piper PA-31T Cheyenne as a great small turboprop VC with fast gauge refresh. I also like Dreamfleet's Bonanza and Baron, both of which have excellent VCs but are more demanding on my system. And FSD is doing "version 2" refits on some of their older planes, which greatly improve the virtual cockpits. I have their Porter, Navajo, and Seneca, and all three of those got much improved VC performance. The VC texturing's not quite up to state-of-the-art (especially on the Seneca) but they're still very good to fly from the VC.There aren't that many jetliner VCs with fast gauge refresh. The best one I've seen is Wilco/Feelthere's Embraer Legacy business jet...it's based off the ERJ-135 commuter airliner, and has a glass cockpit with a VERY nice virtual cockpit, fully clickable, and with pretty smooth displays. The LDS 767 is not glass-smooth but very flyable from the VC. The Dreamfleet 727 is my favorite jetliner but I tend to avoid flying from the VC as the gauge refresh is just a tiny bit jerky.As for freeware, I highly recommend Rick Piper's awesome Hawker Siddeley HS.748 turboprop, and David Maltby's BAC 1-11 and Hawker Siddeley HS.121 Trident Two and Three. Those are the best freeware large-aircraft virtual cockpits I've ever seen. For smaller stuff, try Milton Shupe's Beech 18 or Spartan 7W.Lewis "Moose" GregoryRichmond, Virginia

For a freeware turboprop, I like the Venivionnes Rockwell Turbocommander 690B in the Avsim library- looks great and you can start from cold and dark in it. The one blemish is an inop avionics master- you have to fire up the radios in the 2D cockpit.For payware I like the RealAir Marchetti and the PMDG 1900C.Good topic.Best Regards, Donny:-waveFLYing? It's cool. Trillions of birds and insects can't be wrong.

>Dreamfleet B727 (followed closely by LevelD sims B767)>All in all, I feel the LD 763 is a better sim than the DF B727>due to the the more thorough systems simulation.Thanks for the kind words, but, I couldn't help wondering what systems you felt weren't simulated?Dreamfleet Project ManagerGreatest Airliners - DC-8Greatest Airliners - 727 Whisperjethttp://www.dreamfleet2000.com/gfx/images/F...BANNER_PAUL.jpg

All the flight related systems seems to work as expected, but at least the electrical power plant seems a bit off to me. I have posted about it on the dreamfleet forum some time ago to. It's no big problem, but if you are used to working with electrical power generation it seems quite a bit off. It defies some of the electrical laws. It will get rather technical if I must explain in depth. If you are interested I can dig out some reference material, but it's pain to translate for me, as I'm used to technical terms in my native language. For ref I'm not a pilot nor flight mechanic, but I'm an engineer and I have worked with electrical power generation for around 13 years plus 3 years of engineers school. But as I mentioned, the planes are close IMO, and it's the small differences I'm talking about, the B727 shines in some areas and the B763 in others.I dug out my old post where I try to explain it in simple terms:http://forums.flightsim.com/dc/dcboard.php...ing_type=searchCheersPeter

These are my nominees:PMDG 744LevelD767Supronov Design Yak-40Flight1 Super80Dornier Do27 by Digital AviationSafir by SibwingsReal Air SF260.Top quality but not my winners:Feelthere 737Dreamfleet 727Carenado GA

I'm at work at the moment, and this Junkers looks to be a real FIND! And I was going to do some household chores for the wife tonight. . . golly. . too bad. . :) Guess I'll have to learn German. .Many thanks Paul!regards,pj

My List in order...#1. PMDG 747#2. Level D 767#3. PSS 777#4. Ariane 738 V#5. CLS A340Looking forward to adding the Airsimmer A320 to this list!

LevelD is all I fly these days. For me, it is perfection. If I fly anthying else, it's the PMDG747 (a very very close second).

>>Payware:>Dreamfleet B727 (followed closely by LevelD sims B767)The 727 is definitely wonderful. My only complaint about its VC is the engineer's panel. It's not clickable in VC and I understand why, plus it would be too far from the view point anyway. However, it would be nice if there was a quick click spot in VC to open the 2d panels for convenient access. Also everytime the 2D engineer's panels are opened and closed in VC it automatically switches to 2d panel view. Then one has to press the "S" key to go back to VC view. All together is a lot of key pressing and that's slightly annoying. I don't know if the latest version still does that. I haven't used it for a long time.Jason

Having a non-functional engineer's panel is huge. This add-on can't begin to compare to add-ons like PMDG's 744, Level-D's 767, or even Ready for Pushback's older 747-200. You can't have a major panel in the VC non-functional and put the plane on the same level as other high quality add-ons. If the engineer's panel ever get's updated I'd put this plane in the same league as FeelThere's birds but until then it's mediocre at best (no cabin view, awkward looking VC compared to CS's 727, no cargo hold visible from within the plane, etc).Don't get me wrong the DF727 is a nice plane for the most part but the competition is giving so much more at this time (or even when the DF727 was first released that was the case). Visually it doesn't rank up there with the best. DF's A36 and Baron better represent outstanding quality in FS design over their 727.