I've been waiting impatiently for the Skycatcher aircraft. But I'll wait even longer for Carenado or some other company to introduce it. Here's why. Abacus must have more money than God, but they keep creating Virtual cockpits that look like they're from FS 1. They are angular, totally unrealistic, and primitive. When are they going to learn that with VC flying (100% in my case), sim pilots are looking for something that looks realistic, functions realistically, and gives us the "as real as it gets" feeling. Years and years ago, I bought their Corporate aircraft, and I was pleased, because everything else back then looked like their planes and cockpits. Now....it just won't cut it. Abacus....FIRE your designers and get somebody in there that can design realistic looking planes...inside and out. If they have decent dynamics, I'll come back to you and give you a try. Until then, no way. I've learned. I won't buy a plane unless the VC is realistic looking. I really don't care about the "no VC airplanes". I use EZCA and real weather, and I wan't my planes to give me some feedback that makes me feel like I'm really flying (this is a "simulation"...not a game). I use a Microsoft FF2 joystick, and all put together, I'm looking forward to "moving forward" with this sim, not backwards. Do any of you feel the same way, or am I an "damn elitist" (and Republican)? Stan

Ditto. :D

Not every Abacus product is bad (their Hurricane has a decent enough stab at a VC for example). I tried their Skycatcher, it was okay but the real issue was the FPS, which was pretty low for a simple light single even bearing in mind the PFD, and not so much the look of it, which was nothing special admittedly, but I've seen worse payware. In any case it's a moot point since Flight 1 are currently making a Cessna 162 in collaboration, and with the cooperation of, Cessna themselves, so that'll be the one you want, since it is likely to rival Flight 1's excellent Cessna 182T with digital avionics. Al

I'm with you 100%, Stan. I have a 3840 x 1024 screen, TripleHead2Go, TrackIR5, EZCA, a home-made stick, a homemade yoke, an engine control quadrant, an' I sit in a sliding VW Jetta seat (without straps)... Next comes a ButtKicker. That's as close as I can come from my end: I expect the dev companies to simulate aircraft that I've flown or flown in, whether pic or 2nd Dickie or pax in as real a way as the leading programming technology permits. I don't want "graphically-created" cockpits with 'hidden lighting', flaps with 'hidden lighting', undercart bays with 'hidden lighting' - I want them to look, perform and sound like the real thing. If A2A, PMDG, Captain Sim, RealAir can do it - then that's what I will buy, and Abacus (and a couple of others) can sell to the ten-year-olds if they want. And if I have to pay for that technology, that's fine - everyone is entitled to make a living.. 2 cents.. (phew)

Abacus makes good scenery, but very poor aircraft.

When I read the news headline, I thought Flight1 had released theres. lol While Abacus add-ons may not be popular with many folks here, I imagine they do fill a demand for simpler and less expensive add-ons that a lot of people enjoy.

So many people on forums don't know ANYTHING about the FS market. They're easily one of the most successful addon companies, whether you agree with their products or not. There's a reason Abacus is still in business.

They are proof there is a huge Idiot demographic in FS.

They are proof there is a huge Idiot demographic in FS.

That is true as you've just demonstrated.

If A2A, PMDG, Captain Sim, RealAir can do it - then that's what I will buy, and Abacus (and a couple of others) can sell to the ten-year-olds if they want.

We all have to remember that at some point those ten-year-olds will become twenty-year-olds, with a corresponding disposable income and a growing interest in aeroplanes and sims, one which has often sprung from a seed that was planted by the simplicity and accessibility Abacus offers. Thus we owe Abacus more than most people are probably willing to give them credit for, and Avsim in particular does, because it was largely built on being a source for freeware files, which was mostly due to FS Design Studios' accessibility in the early days of making add-ons for FS. That should of course not be an excuse for Abacus to deliver poor products, and we don't have to forever bow in reverence to their large influence on the fledgling days of flight sim communities regardless of what they produce nowadays, but they remain the biggest flight sim add-on developer there is, by a long way, and in that role they still feed many new simmers into the wider and more complex payware market by their deeper penetration into the larger numbers of less hard core flight sim types out there, who later get into it more in a big way and start buying the kind of thing that is more popular among us lot. Al

Their 787 was just horrible. The nose was wrong, the wing always flexed, and the VC was just an old hud and defualt guges plastered on.

When I read the news headline, I thought Flight1 had released theres. lol While Abacus add-ons may not be popular with many folks here, I imagine they do fill a demand for simpler and less expensive add-ons that a lot of people enjoy.

There's a ton of freeware stuff out there that's far better than anything Abacus makes and charges for.

There's a ton of freeware stuff out there that's far better than anything Abacus makes and charges for.

Yup, but ironically, a lot of it is made with FSDS, which is by Abacus. Al

While Abacus add-ons may not be popular with many folks here, I imagine they do fill a demand for simpler and less expensive add-ons that a lot of people enjoy.

That's precisely the point. ABACUS' target market has always been the tens of thousands of folks who've never heard of AVSIM, Flightsim.com, SimOuthouse, or any of the plethora flightsim websites. Their market has been those who, while strolling through some store, see "Flightsimulator" on the shelf, and perhaps a few ABACUS titles on the shelf next to it, then decide to grab 'em as gifts for their young son. Understand this: ABACUS doesn't care so much about quality as they do quantity. That said, you'd be amazed at the number of well-known and high-quality developers who have produced under contract for ABACUS, albeit for the most part anonymously...

That said, you'd be amazed at the number of well-known and high-quality developers who have produced under contract for ABACUS, albeit for the most part anonymously... :lol

Such as yourself!