G1000 - After shaking off the initial issues I had w/ the double characters and finally got into flying and operating this bird I have to say I'm quite satisfied. The inop flight planning portion of the G1000 is a bit disappointing. I guess that's why it is a $33 aircraft and not a $50 aircraft.. Not going to stop me from enjoying this aircraft though as I enjoy flying aircraft more than I do operating aircraft. :) The G1000 imo though has enough life kicked into it where it doesn't seem like a bland lifeless moving toy like the default G1000 does.. Nicely done w/ just enough added to it to really make it a thorough navigation tool.

 

Sounds - The sound set itself I love but it's the mixing of it that leaves a bit to be desired.. From in the cockpit startup has a decent audible throaty loudness to it.. Once the startup sequence finishes and transitions into the normal operating sound set it gets EXTREMELY quiet in the cockpit.. I understand these newer guys are quieter than their original counterparts but it presents a problem.. On average I am raising my headphone volume to 30% (via windows) to get a nice audible internal running sound. When switching to external view though I am getting BLASTED by high volume engine noise almost making my ears bleed.. It's very much like the Commander 114 as far as how high the outside volume is compared to the interior..

 

Flight Dynamics: First out.. I'm not a RL pilot.. Ok.. Now that that is out of the way this thing flies beautifully and reacts and behaves how I'd think a plane of this size would. It is NIGHT AND DAY different from the Carenado 182RG.. Dropping flaps isn't going to balloon you up to the space station with this one. Just subtle input to counter the induced drag like it should be.. The 182RG felt as if you hit a thermal every notch of flaps. Landing and take off is nice and smooth. Elevator sensitivity is absolutely perfect.. Also, no hot-shotting on the taxi way either.. You will tip her over!

 

Looks: The most realistic and best looking aircraft I have ever seen in FSX (Prepar3D) period.. From external textures, bumps and spec to the internal textures, just top notch flawless execution.

 

Random comment: The ATC Model name is the same used as the Carenado 182RG. What that means is if you have EZDok and have a Carenado 182RG profile the 182T will slip right in and be seen the same.. No new camera setup required, it will use the same you setup for the 182RG. THANK YOU!

 

Overall I can't complain and happy with my $32 purchase.. With the nice and quiet cockpit (just work on the volume difference from interior and exterior) and excellent VC layout this plane is going to be a nice touring GA aircraft.. The only thing I am sad about is that I will officially retire the 182RG... Unless someone can tweak the 182T flight model to shoehorn into a improved 182RG.. The 182RG in its current form though just can't compete on any level. It was my first payware plane, and I beat that dead horse with the best of them but... Oof.. Yeah it needs to be shot now..

I second that. Totally agree with what you are writing! :-) good first summary of this bird.

 

The flight model is really good, behaviour feels realistic (not a pilot myself either btw, so sompared to other GA flight models)

 

The textures both inside and out are out of this world, so detailed I will totally forget the flightplanning part, wil do that in plan-G

 

This is one of my favorite airplanes, just looking at the shape, and Carenado really created this virtual counterpart perfectly. Not a particular G1000 / glass fan, but now that it's on there, it's really handy and a lot of information is quickly available. Maybe not the depth some folks are looking for (the flightplanning part) but other parts of this aircraft are so beautifully done, that it does not disturb me one bit. The textures are the best Carenado did so far, endless zooming and still sharp and crisp looking.

BTW; my framerates did not drop one bit compared to the C90B or A36. Smooth as silk, some great programming went into this one. Probably some minor fixes are needed as described in the other post in this forum, and will need to do so "in depth" testing myself tonight, but as of first....I could not belief the details this aircraft has.

 

William

I just got done an hour long flight... You know what I noticed the most about the flight model? I'm not operating the trim like there is a second elevator bolted on the rear of the plane. Subtle trim input to take the `pressure' off the stick and she flies nice and level.. So many planes I have I'm applying insanely massive amounts of trim to take the pressure off the stick.. Even the revised F33A I've come close to burying the trim to get the pressure off the stick.

Great review! I have a question, I see that you mentioned the double characters, were you able to find a way around this? That's my only complaint as of right now!

I haven't fully got around it but not using the popup panel works right now. But it didn't before that's the strange part.. After just playing and playing finally it started not double typing if I used the G1000 directly.. It still double types if I use the popup panel.. My addons menu list wasn't showing all the addons either and I kept having to play with dll.xml.

 

Seriously intially this plane haunted my installation then it `cleared up' to the point it is at now. The addons menu is back to normal, the G1000 works if I access it directly.. It's just the popup version now that is wacky.

Thanks for the review Bill. Looks like my string of consecutive Carenado purchases will be broken with this one.

 

The plane looks great as always with Carenado, sounds like the FDE is solid as well, and I'd really love a newer 182, but I was already on the fence relative to the glass cockpit, and the implementation sounds like it has all of the limitations I was afraid it was going to have. In particular, old nav data, no flight planning and no WAAS are all showstoppers for me. These are things I've been able to have via RXP integration with all of my other Carenado planes. It would be hard to step backwards on features I have in older analogue-gauged planes, in a plane which is supposed to model a new full glass cockpit equipped 182.

 

If I'm wrong on these deficiencies, someone please let me know.

 

Scott

No that's about right and I completely understand your point of view. I don't doubt Carenado could pull off a fully operational G1000 w/ updated navdata but I have to guess they have weighed the option of production costs, the retail markup and how that would affect sales to do it all. I'd have to imagine the people who want all that are a niche sales demographic and there are already developers like Flight1 (and PMDG in the Airliner category) who cater to that niche. If Carenado's G1000 was equal to Flight1's how many of their customers would spend another $32 (probably higher) for what would essentially be a texture upgrade? I'd have to imagine not many at all..

I'd have to imagine the people who want all that are a niche sales demographic and there are already developers like Flight1 (and PMDG in the Airliner category) who cater to that niche. If Carenado's G1000 was equal to Flight1's how many of their customers would spend another $32 (probably higher) for what would essentially be a texture upgrade? I'd have to imagine not many at all..

 

The fact that Flight1 already had a similar plane with what figured to be (and turned out to be) a more complete G1000 implementation always left me wondering what Carenado was doing, as the market was limited from the start.

 

At any rate, enjoy! It does look very well done.

 

Scott

I guess catering to the people who fall into the same crowd as me.. I saw the Flight1 version in the past and pondered it a million times but time and time again I just could not justify paying $50 for an aircraft (the size of a 182 at that) regardless of features.. It's only a $17 difference between the Carenado and Flight1 model but from a potential buyers eye point that $17 is gigantic difference when you see "$49.95" vs "$32.95" being advertised.

 

To each their own. B)

I just got done an hour long flight... You know what I noticed the most about the flight model? I'm not operating the trim like there is a second elevator bolted on the rear of the plane. Subtle trim input to take the `pressure' off the stick and she flies nice and level.

 

 

SOLD!

 

That's pretty much the description I have been trying to come up with for a while when describing other aircraft and trim characteristics.

I guess catering to the people who fall into the same crowd as me.. I saw the Flight1 version in the past and pondered it a million times but time and time again I just could not justify paying 50 for an aircraft (the size of a 182 at that) regardless of features.. It's only a 17 difference between the Carenado and Flight1 model but from a potential buyers eye point that 17 is gigantic difference when you see "49.95" vs "32.95" being advertised.

 

To each their own. B)

 

The F1 version was on sale a few weeks back for $10 off.

 

Maybe F1 will be smart and repeat that offer now?

 

 

AFAIK, you could play around with the levels in the SOUND.CFG to boost those in-cockpit sound levels.

I'm holding out Hope that Carenado will bring The TC182T to X-Plane,I think it would sell very well there,The competition is pretty scarce for 182's