Hello Team!Well, what can I say. Yesterday I received my XP10 booklet. I have to say that before installation, my expectations were low mainly due to my old 3 year old system and my fear of it not handling XP10 very well - after all, it did nothandle the demo very well. I decided to jump in and install anyways and not wait to update my new rig in a couple of months. 7 hours later (yes, that's how long it took to install) and after the updates, I was done and ready to take XP10 for a spin. I deided not to look at frame rates period. I noticed how fluid the sim was. After spending a couple fo hours fiddling with assignments and settings, I took a couple fo different planes up to test things out. Here are my observations:1. I was pleasantly surprised with the fact that I did not have a slide show going on in front of me. My old and decrepit Quad Core Q9650 running at 3.0ghz was handling things well. There were some periods where things got choppy around KSEA but if I stayed away form enabling HDR things went well. Yeeeeee!!! I can run this thing!!!!2. Took the Cessna up and well......the same lousy handling from XP9 was evident but no worries as it's nothing Carenado can't fix. I like the C90 but I have some issue right now with the propeller lever conflicting with the main throttle - I still need to figure that one out. The Baron flies nice. The 777..................Hideous!!! Not only is it ugly but it flies funny. XPJets..........please come to the rescue with a decent 777 for XP10.3. I installed the ERJ140 I had purchased for XP9 and she's still a beauty - flies very well in XP10. Same with Heinz's 787 and a couple of other XP9 aircraft.4. The atmospherics are magnificent in XP10. Hands down one of the best I've seen. I was blown away when I saw how well it rendered the layers and the transitions. I picked KBYG to do my IFR testing and I could not have picked a better airport. Conditions were horrible today with snow, heavy winds, and thunderstorms in the area. I chose the CRJ900 I ported form XP9 and not only did it fly well but it got a run for it's money with moderate turbulence - it was great seeing how well XP10 handles turbulence.5. The one downer for me is the AI traffic. As I posed on another thread, I hope Austin & Co. can improve the AI engine to the point where we can have full airlines with their corresponding aircraft types following real schedules a'la Project Ai for FS - That would be awesome.6. I still need to figure out how to work the ATC engine - that will come later as I get acquainted with things.7. Anyone flown out of KMSY yet? The highways go up in the air and from shapes like roller coasters - I am reporting this one to the folks at XP10 support.8. I hope they add seasonalities and hope they give us snow where there's supposed to be snow as well as seasonal textures.9. I was dissapointed with the lack of a hat switch command. I had to spent like two hours trying to figure out how to configure the hat switch - grrrrrI think this platform is fantastic and a far cry from what we're used to. Once the scenery developers come to the rescue and the aircraft designers such as Carenado and the like start whipping out good aircraft addons (there are a couple already out there), I think we're going to be in good shape here.Thanks Austin!Sincerely,Dennis D. Mullert

I am awaiting my Christmas package from Laminar Research, but I have run the demo.The sky is incredible and a visual treat. The ground is a huge improvement. It adds a realistic wow factor for sure. I am not going to fuss about the logic of the roads or the moving vehicles on them. The point of this program is to fly aircraft, not chase down someones dodge pickup.The flight model is certainly differerent. Some of the aircraft in the program are better handling, some worse. I ported over a few of my own aircraft and again, some are a little nicer, another one is to put it mildly, a handful. so i have to do a bit more work tweaking them to be dialed in with 10,ATC and other aircraft are a lot better than before. unfortunately the other voices on the radio are generic monotonal robot voices. i would not be surprised if that is fixed in an update over the next few months.At this point, i am going to give it an entusiastic 2 thumbs up and keep checking my mailbox every 10 minutes.

The Carenado models are brilliant. But I think it is an Xplane dev who is doing the flight modelling for them.

Dennis i have all the Carenado planes, the best one, is the F33A Bonanza, although the C152II is right up there with it. The C172, is almost as good, I was just slightly read that as barely disappointed in the 172, and that is what I fly in real life. The Com 2 radio doesn't work but Com 1 does. also the Auto switch in the Com control panel doesn't work in XP10. In XP9 that switch turns on the background radio chatter, even if you have it turned off. In 10 there is not that option, and I assume to have background chatter you have to have AI planes working. I haven;t tried that on my poor old Q9550 CPU.Be aware all of the foregoing is strictly my opinion. We all have them don't we. :-)Edit: Be aware if you run any Carenado plane with a retractable gear n Plane Maker 10, The gear doors will not close after retracting the landing gear in flight. If you need to change liveries, do it in Plane Maker 9 then copy the whole file out of XP 9 into XP 10In fact if I have to make any changes such as liveries, in any XP 9 plane I do it in PM 9 then copy it over. I have not run into any problems save with the high performance aircraft, but knowing there are some changes I don't take chances. everyone else s mileage may vary.

I like the C90 but I have some issue right now with the propeller lever conflicting with the main throttle - I still need to figure that one out. The Baron flies nice

Dennis. Seems I submitted an update to laminar to be included in the next update regarding the props of the King Air. The blade angles hadn't really been set well and caused some governor issues....and also the prop levers weren't set up right either. I am not endeavoring to make the king air as 'serious' as a payware add-on, but certainly the basics need to work. After getting the next update, feel free to comment on anything "funny" and I'll keep an eye out. Also the Baron will be coming up with night lighting in the cockpit and the F4 flight model has been tweaked a bit. It wasn't my flight model but I couldn't help but mess with it as I thought the "old" one I had been given to work with was a bit...um...stale! I still have loose ends to tie up in the King Air so I suspect it will improve with time.-Tom KylerV10: Baron / King Air / Phantom / F22 / KSEA