After a several year break from virtual flying in FS-land, I'm coming back Last I flew was in the FS2004 days, so I am not up to speed on all the new FSX addons and new payware planes. When I last flew, I had the original Ultimate traffic, some FSgenesis meshes, and various FSD, dreamfleet, flight1 and other planes, etc, etc, etc. But things have obviously changed over the years, so would like some advice on a few new planes for FSX. For a basic single engine, I used to fly the dreamfleet archer or the flight1 C172. What is a good equivalent for FSX now? For a slightly faster single, I loved the FSD commander in FS2000, what is the best Commander nowadays? The updated FSD or Carenado? Or is there another plane with similar specs that is great? I have read about the lancair, that certainly seems like it would be a fast single engine GA plane! And lastly, a light twin? I had the FSD Seneca, is that still good, or something else? I have seen all the glowing reviews on the Duke (normal and turbine), that seems a step up from a seneca. I'll probably eventually be adding UT2, new meshes, and other scenery addons, but the planes come first! Thanks!

You can use the carenado 172 and carenado beech baron 58

Anything by Realair, but I htink they dont do anything like a cessna, some good taildraggers though. You have already read the reviews about the Dukes. I cant comment on Carenedo but they seem to be often reccomended. I have UT2 and it certainly sorts out that aspect of the sim. I need advice on good addons myself. Need some ATC , might start a new thread for that...

Welcome back! Look at the fabulous scenery from OrbX before you buy any other scenery addon. Their Pacific North West is outstanding.REX clouds with HiFiSim's Active Sky Evolution for weather generation. http://fullterrain.com/product_nablue.html http://www.hifitechinc.com/products/active-sky-evolution http://realenvironmentxtreme.com/overdrive.html

Everybody raves about tha Orbx stuff, so it must be really good, but would I be right in saying that you still have to buy individual airports to populate the area though?. I was more tempted by that whole of Switzerland package, they advertise that every building has been accurately placed. Sounds amazing!

All of the airports have been given facelifts, and brought more akin to their r/w counterparts, given peopleflow and aircraft, etc., but there are small teams of devs who are actively bringing select airports - and the surrounding town areas - right up to highly purchasable standards. You can buy these or not, as you wish. You need to study their site and absorb just what they do, and what they have created.

@ironmaiden Thanks for the Carenado options. So Carenado has pretty good flight models for their planes? I thought (and could be wrong, or things could have changed in the past 5 years) that Carenado's overall reputation was a little lower then Dreamfleet, FSD, Flight1, and some others back then. (and I don't mean to start a flame war or anything). Without opening a huge can of worms, since everyone has different opinions, but what are the top-level companies now? I would guess at least Realair, Flight1, Easglesoft, FSD? So Carenado is up there now too? Thx.

Welcome back! Look at the fabulous scenery from OrbX before you buy any other scenery addon. Their Pacific North West is outstanding.REX clouds with HiFiSim's Active Sky Evolution for weather generation. http://fullterrain.c...uct_nablue.html http://www.hifitechi...e-sky-evolution http://realenvironme.../overdrive.html

Their PNW scenery does look great, but they don't have the Southeast US yet, bummer. Do you think it is better then FSGenesis, or pretty close? I have heard about REX (and GEX too!) and probably will get them sooner or later.

Yeah, bummer indeed. We need north and south Cal for sure, but at the rate they're (OrbX) churning them out I should expect one or perhaps both by this time next year.. To be honest - I haven't used UT_USA, GEX or FS Genesis for so long I shouldn't give any opinion, but I never thought that UT or GEX came anything close to that of OrbX. It depends, too upon what flying you're doing.. Tube types need good renditions of big city airports, like KLAX, KSAN and KOAK, etc... VFR types need good, detailed scenery - just like the stuff OrbX produces. Your call, my friend.. FSDT and a couple of others are making a number of very fine big-city airports right now, although FlyTampa is ignoring the west coast completely, and that's too bad 'coz they were the best.

If you're interested in a single-engine GA A/C that is something a little faster with a little more critical wing, take a look at RealAir's SF260. It's a great little 'sport number' and a lot of fun. Visibility is very good and the flight characteristics are both enjoyable and satisfying. Another fun ride is the Diamond 4X Katana! John

Don't go too mad on upgrades. FSX is 5 years out of date, new version could be out in 6/12 months. Anything you buy for fsx is unlikely to work in next version.