I personally enjoy the Aerosoft Katana 4X. The maintainence model is more or less the Accu-Sim deal, but with aircraft cleaning. The flight model seems nice, although it seems a bit pitch sensitive. Overall, the atmosphere is great

 

But put another one down for the A2A Cub too!

Flight 1's BN-2 Islander is awesome (both in the air and on the ground) and deserves more credit than it gets.

 

Aerosoft's DA20 Katana is ace if U wanna go low and slow.

 

Realair/A2A/Milviz/PMDG is probably the best there is, but every1 in the community knows that by now.

The new Carenado B200 is truly amazing even though I already had the CB90. It is extremely realistic, looks and sounds so GREAT! The Simcheck A300 is very dated and I would say pass on it.

So Just Fligh can make decent aircraft? I've kept away from them since wasting money on the DC-3 and Viscount...

Just Flight don't make aircraft at all: Aerplane Heaven made the DC-3, DC-6, Comet and the Viscount and CLS made the 146-200).

Dave

With 1000s of $ spent on addons since the FS2002 days I have learned one thing: Very few addons are worthy of my hard earned cash.

 

I'm very much loooking for a good classic prop/cargo plane, but haven't come over a decent one yet.

 

I can relate. If I took inventory of my payware and aligned it with any version of Flight Sim I have used, you would find that I buy everything and fly almost nothing. Sometimes the relief of seeing a release I have always been waiting for is enough to spend without reading up on bugs and fixes.

 

For good classic props, I am watching the PMDG DC-6. CS C-130 does a nice job for me with systems. My other near true-to-life favorites are the Leonardo Maddog for airliners and for Helicopters, DodoSim 206 and Nemeth CH-53E minus not having dripping hydraulic fluid in the pax/cargo area.

Realair/A2A/Milviz/PMDG is probably the best there is, but every1 in the community knows that by now.

 

Also, the Eagleseoft Citation X Extreme 2 is quite good. Graphics, flight model and cockpit are excellent. (Although I must admit some gauges and the FMC have minor glitches).

Overall IMO a must have if you like corporate jets.

So, in terms of "as real as it gets" we're just talking about 10-20 aircraft?

 

No, I don't think we are. I think we're talking fewer than that. The problem with these threads is that they usually devolve into a list of people's favorite aircraft, according to a range of criteria, with a few what's new thrown in as well. You gave a pretty specific list, and given that list, and assuming we are talking about, as your title suggests, sim aircraft that can provide as real an experience as possible, then you have your answers already, and quite a few I would argue fall outside that set of criteria. And you basically answered your own question in the OP.

 

The A2A stuff is probably at the top. RealAir's latest stuff, the Turbine Duke and the Legacy, also do a very good job of creating that real flying experience. I've never flown a 737 :-) nor even a JS41, in RL, but I think the turboprop does the best job of capturing that sense of realism of any of PMDG's offerings.

 

I'll refrain from listing the aircraft proposed so far that I believe don't come near the criteria you laid out. Some of the ones mentioned are good, and come closer than others, but the cream of the crop has emerged as a kind of consensus and you identified the key players to start with.

 

I'm really looking forward to the C172 from RealAir and the new GA aircraft from A2A. If they live up to expectations, they'll be hard to beat for that "as real as it gets" sim experience.

Lets see... I've been in a Grumman Tiger, 172, LearJet, Baron 58 and a B17. I've only flown the Tiger, and that was already air born (im not the pilot, family is)... AKA a poor mans autopilot (here, fly that way, i need a break...LOL).

 

The only plane I have that lights those memories is the Carenado B58. With the Oovee sound set, that thing takes me right back to those days. With TrackIR and EZdok, the act of flying and the environment is pretty dam close.

 

That would be my answer to "As Real As It Gets", based on my personal RW experience.

Leonardo MADDOG

 

The MOST complete simulation of any plane out there. Every switch functions even down to the circuit breakers!

Yeah I've just recently fallen in love with the maddog again it's so much fun

Also Carenado C208, has a cargo variant. Add the updated FDE from their downloads section, the Reality XP WX500 and RNP430 and you have a perfect airplane!

Carenado 185 and 208.... These really do it for me as far as feeling "real" goes.... QW757 is good as well.

 

Jeff