The Diamond Katana 4x release was pretty big. Uber-realistic functions of the plane, suggest you check it out if you enjoy any sort of GA flight:http://en.shop.aerosoft.com/eshop.php?action=article_detail&s_supplier_aid=11388&s_design=DEFAULT&shopfilter_category=Flight%20Simulation&s_language=english

This ^^^At that price, everyone should own it. Awesomely detailed yet it doesn't hit my FPS at all. It has reset the bar for all GA aircraft. :(

This ^^^At that price, everyone should own it. Awesomely detailed yet it doesn't hit my FPS at all. It has reset the bar for all GA aircraft. :(

I've been considering this, along with the Orbx Lancair. Does anyone own both, and which one is the better buy?

I've been considering this, along with the Orbx Lancair. Does anyone own both, and which one is the better buy?

I own both.If you want to go fast, go with the Lancair. If not, go with the Katana. They are completely different aircraft. I would say the Katana is "better" but if you want a plane that goes 300 mph, the Katana won't get you anywhere.

You should check out a few other FS aircraft if the 'wear and tear' appeals to you. Way back in the distant past, the Aeroworx Beech King Air had a persistent wear and tear/maintenance feature in FS9. More recently, A2A's astonishingly good AccuSim efforts (Spitfire, B-17G et all) have that too and A2A are currently beta testing some stuff which will push that kind of thing even further on their Boeing Stratocruiser, so that is worth keeping an eye on if airliner realism is your thing.In the whirlybird world, Dodosim's stunningly realistic Bell 206 JetRanger has a persistent wear and tear feature on lots of the parts which adds another layer of realism to what is already the best chopper for a flight sim. allowing you to virtually check the integrity of the mythical ******* Nut. It is worth noting too that for FS9, FSX and indeed X-Plane, you can get wear and tear and perform maintenance on any aircraft at all if you use them in combination with the wonderful Air Hauler add on.Back on a more forum-specific related bent, PMDG's FSX NG is going to have a lot of similar stuff of that ilk too of course, so it would seem that wear and tear is the de rigueur thing for simulated aircraft these days, which of course brings us back to probably why development times are a bit longer. It's amazing when you think about the fact that people were thrilled to bits just have twelve-sided polygons on their virtual aeroplane fuselages back in FS98, and an FMC was pretty much unheard of unless you bought that EFIS add-on. It's great that we have all that stuff pretty much built in now, but the cost is the time required to produce such funky and cool stuff.Al

Quite correct.I agree, but for future projects I wouldn't jump to lengths liek that. They are greta I own all 5 Accusim and the upcoming ones are welcome

Not to forget how busy dedicated sims are with DCS:Black Shark, DCS:Warthog out now, and of course the old favorite - Falcon 4.0 in its various flavors.If you want a real combat sim, check out those I just mentioned. Falcon 4.0 is getting on for 14 years old but still kicks the &@($* of everything on the market.Best regards,Robin.

Al, which Comet were you mentioning earlier? I really wish more classic jet airliners would be modeled accurately to today's standards.

That would be the one coming from Addictive Simulations, who also made a Trident and VC-10 in the dim and distant past, so it will not be their first old banger. More recently they made an excellent Pitts Special that won an Avsim plaudit. Not much info about it as yet, but apparently it will include the Comet 1, 4B and C variants, so presumably you can enjoy the pleasures of explosive decompression in the early variant with its dodgy square windows and suspect riveting metal fatigue features, as well as later ones that stay in one piece. Joking aside, I'm looking forward to seeing it, I used to love flying on the old Dan Air London ones, and it was the first airliner I ever flew on.Al

The Just Flight one looks good too.

Not 100 percent sure, but I think the Just flight may be a boxed release of the same Addictive Simulations one. Could be wrong on that, but I know that the guys at Addictive had some close ties with Just flight through Jane Rachel Whittaker's mutual dealings with both of them.Al

I own both.If you want to go fast, go with the Lancair. If not, go with the Katana. They are completely different aircraft. I would say the Katana is "better" but if you want a plane that goes 300 mph, the Katana won't get you anywhere.

Thanks for the reply. I'll take a look at their operation manuals and make a decision; maybe I'll get both.

Well, if flightsim has reached a plateau, perhaps this is the next step? It comes complete with wing views http://vimeo.com/13632838

I wish they update the pmdg 747 so it can be part of this "next step" in fsx

Wow, no one even mentions the LDS 757.Dan Cole

Wow, no one even mentions the LDS 757.Dan Cole

Have you heard news on it? :(

No-one mentioned this one either, looking forward to that:http://takeonthegame.com/Alright so they're calling it a 'game' but there will apparently be a pretty realistic flight sim in there.Al

Wow, no one even mentions the LDS 757.Dan Cole

No mention because it's vaporware? LOL!, j/k. I'm sure it will surface eventually, maybe even before Duke Nukem Forever, but I'm not crossing my fingers for a release anytime soon.