Anyone Try the Carenado Saratoga?

[Guest HoggyDog]

Couldn't say, the Carenado is the only Saratoga I've flown in FS... as well as the ONLY aircraft in my "hangar" without a 2D cockpit with breakouts of critical controls.From purely a looks standpoint though, I can't imagine that any model could be better looking than the Carenado, and it flies fine.

I think, in all good conscience, that I should add two points to my mostly-negative carping about the shortcomings of the product a few posts above-1. Carenado is upfront about the lack of a 2D panel in their new Saratoga. Although they don't exactly "highlight" the fact, they do so state (parenthetically) on their website in the announcement and description of the package, as well as in the almost-identical "blurbs" on various vendor websites.2. Carenado does not explicitly claim that their 4 Saratogas are various-year models. Their description refers to each one as having "1970 paint," "1980 paint," "1990 paint" and "2000 paint." So even though many might leap to the erroneous conclusion that these were 4 successively-newer-model Saratogas and would therefore have successively-more-modern panels, Carenado makes no such statement. Caveat Emptor, I guess.And no, their attorneys didn't call me and suggest that I post this clarification. I just wanted to make it clear that my disappointment in their product was not due to any advertising or promotional deception on Carenado's part.

[Guest HoggyDog]

Follow up report: I found a Nav light switch! They work!Due to the lack of a 2D cockpit, it was quite difficult to find in the VC, but the good news is there IS a switch and the Nav lights DO work.Bafflingly, this aircraft does not appear to have an anti-collision (red, blinking or rotating) beacon. I was under the impression that red beacons had been required equipment for at least 30 years, a requirement NOT mitigated by the presence of strobes. I know of at least one Aeronca Champ owner who was required to retro-install a red beacon on his airplane some years ago.But, like the Nav light switch, maybe the beacon has somehow eluded me and now awaits my breathless discovery... :(

I don't see it from a purely looks standpoint especially not exteriour view.

Now that I've found the Nav lights, I think you should give this airplane a shot. It looks and flies beautifully, and I'm getting used to the lack of a 2D cockpit and antique Altimatic autopilot.

[Guest HoggyDog]

Follow up report: I found a Nav light switch! They work!Due to the lack of a 2D cockpit, it was quite difficult to find in the VC, but the good news is there IS a switch and the Nav lights DO work.Bafflingly, this aircraft does not appear to have an anti-collision (red, blinking or rotating) beacon. I was under the impression that red beacons had been required equipment for at least 30 years, a requirement NOT mitigated by the presence of strobes. I know of at least one Aeronca Champ owner who was required to retro-install a red beacon on his airplane some years ago.But, like the Nav light switch, maybe the beacon has somehow eluded me and now awaits my breathless discovery... :(

Final report: The Carenado Saratoga SP does NOT have a beacon anywhere- careful scrutiny of the exterior finds no beacon, and ultra-careful scrutiny of the VC (since I missed the Nav lights for the first 20-30 flights) reveals no Beacon switch. Although I think that this is a modeling error, I can live with it.The airplane DOES have a landing light (just under the prop hub) AND a landing light switch in the VC. Although the switch can be turned "on," the landing light NEVER lights up. I found it very hard to believe that Carenado would not have made the landing light functional, so I dug into the aircraft.cfg file to see if there was a landing light detailed there that was somehow being prevented from operating in my particular FSX installation (Shockwave lights, GEX, UTX, etc.). I am much dismayed to report that Carenado failed utterly to give this plane a functional landing light even though they modeled it on the exterior and have a "functional" switch for it in the VC. This pretty much kills night ops in this airplane. What a crying shame. :(

[theteeboy 0]

Nav lights are confusingly labelled in the cockpit as 'radio lights' - took me a while to find them as I had disabled tooltips! As they are using the same switch design as their Arrow IV, I wonder if they just copied and pasted some code from that. I would have expected the nav light switch to be on the side panel with all the other exterior lights.My landing light works fine - lights up under the prop and illuminates the ground, no problem (I downloaded on 19 Nov - have they fixed it?). If its not in cfg file they may have built it into the model.Apart from some wierd problems with the bottom of the HSI knobs not turning (but the rest of them do..) its a lot of fun.I wont mention the 2D radio/nav - how can they get 3D stuff on the Cessna 152/172 and go back to the sad old way on this? Its not as if its taxing your system. I'm getting 30+ fps on third party payware scenery.

[Guest dougwells]

I've got about 20 hours on the Saratoga now. I have to say, in general, I am very pleased.- Its nice to have an Altimatic IIIc autopilot modeled. No one has done one prior to Carenado. It's not perfect but pretty nice (the pitch command should work in all modes, not just the "Roll" mode")- Visually the panel, cabin and exterior is really quite nice. And, the plane is easy on my frame rates- I've modified my panel to include the RealityXP430, GTX327 and GMA340. I swapped the other Collins Nav/Com for a KX155- I also modified the aircraft.cfg to make the plane a turbo and tweaks the performance file to make the % power match real world performance and fuel usageNegatives- I can't get the autopilot to capture the glideslope (not a big deal for me)- Night lighting of the panel is a bit to weak (too dark) for my taste)- Also, daytime flying in storms causes the panel & cabin to be too dark for me- Heater doesn't work...it gets darn cold at 16,000 feet MSL in November :( :( (kidding!)I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to seeing what the developers have up their sleeves for the XMAS season!Doug

[Arklight1 140]

I wont mention the 2D radio/nav - how can they get 3D stuff on the Cessna 152/172 and go back to the sad old way on this? Its not as if its taxing your system. I'm getting 30+ fps on third party payware scenery.

I would imagine it has something to do with quite a few people wanting to add the RXP gauges to the aircraft. IIRC, doing so on the Carenado models with the 3D knobs/dials/switches was not very easy, if possible at all. It has been a while though since I checked this so I may be incorrect.

[Guest HoggyDog]

My landing light works fine - lights up under the prop and illuminates the ground, no problem (I downloaded on 19 Nov - have they fixed it?). If its not in cfg file they may have built it into the model.

After some correspondence with Carenado, which, to their credit, they answered promptly, I have found the missing landing light. Like ALL of the lights on this airplane, it appeared "obscured" in exterior view- I would look back at the airplane from in front of it, supposedly with a powerful landing light shining into my face, and could not see it at all. I did, however, see a dim-ish cone of illumination on the ground in front of the airplane. Aha! The light is "there," just invisible!So I installed Shockwave 3D Lights Redux and solved the problem. My landing light is now not only visible but realistically BRIGHT when viewed from in front of the airplane. Also, every other light on the airplane is transformed by converting to Shockwave lights. It truly has to be seen to be believed.Even better, I was able to force a rotating red beacon onto the vertical fin using the Shockwave lights! Carenado didn't model a beacon on their Saratoga, but now I have one on their airplane anyway. :( For those interested, I posted the Shockwave configuration (in aircraft.cfg) by which I fixed the obscured lights and added the missing beacon here: A2A Shockwave Forum.With these lighting issues fixed, I can say that the Carenado PA32R-301 has become my favorite cross-country airplane. If anyone ever makes a more modern panel for this airplane it will become perfect.