I have all the airliners deleted, they are horrible looking. Plus I pretty much have replacements for everyone. From the PMDG 737/747 to the Carenado B200. I do however still have some default GA aircraft and helicopters as I think they are still pretty good.

Hi Brian,

 

If you're new to FSX you might think the default planes are ok, but trust me, the quality of payware add-ons out there is hugely better than MS's default planes.

 

The only default plane I would ever consider flying is the C208B Caravan, because I feel the flight dynamics are actually better than in the Carenado C208B model.

 

But aside from that, I haven't flown a default FSX aircraft in around 5 years. :smile:

In addition to aforementioned planes, I'm in love with the gorgeous classics from fs9. Vega, Tri-Motor, D.H. Comet, they all have updates to be used in fsx. After ten years of simming the R22 is the only helo I'm able to fly. After Manfred Jahn's mods I haven't flown the pure default DC-3 though. As AI, the rest are welcome too with real life repaints.

I think that the default Goose is a great plane (and even more so with the "Redux" enhancement you can get over at aussiex.org), as are the Maule, the DC-3 and the C172. I think that the the Skyhawk will be replaced soon by a better version by either RealAir or A2A, though, as I did with some other planes, e.g. the Caravan, the Cub, simply beause they look a lot better IMHO...

And btw, I totally forgot to mention helicopters, the Bell is a nice chopper to get started, though the flight danymics are probably not very close to the real thing.

 

Regarding airliners, I have to admit that I hardly ever use any default one, because they don't look so nice, and they don't have a more detailed system simulation or even a basic FMC, which is the minimum I want to have in a plane.

I dabbled with MSFS in the early days (like two decades ago) so I really consider myself a complete FS novice. (...)

 

 

I was just curious about any FS9 airplanes you could keep on flying in FSX, but older stuff than FS9 doesn't make much sense there.

 

What hasn't been mentioned here so far, and could give you some nice transition from default to complex addons would be those Lionheart Creations airplanes:

 

Quite a variety there, not every LHC plane is to everyone's liking, but you might be lucky to pick one or two of them during one of those ever returning LHC sales.

I think that taking pleasure from default airplanes is just a matter of how you like your experience of flying. Some people don't take any pleasure in reading hundreds of pages of aircraft manual, nor or running checklists for a simple engine start. They rather just press ctrl-e for an auto start, and just fly. Nothing wrong with that, and I think in that case the default planes might be just enough.

 

However, if you like to understand and control the aircraft systems in depth, and/or to understand and follow detailed procedures pre and post flight, the default aircraft just won't cut it. Especially the airliners. That doesn't mean the default planes can't be fun, it's just a different thing.

I deleted everything except the Bell206, probably because i have no experience with helicopters and that one "flies well" for my needs

I had never flown a default aircraft, FSX or FS9. Only payware quality, if I fly an airliner it's a must to have FMS, never use default GPS, if I fly a GA I only use VOR navigation like in real world!!! 

I think that taking pleasure from default airplanes is just a matter of how you like your experience of flying. Some people don't take any pleasure in reading hundreds of pages of aircraft manual, nor or running checklists for a simple engine start. They rather just press ctrl-e for an auto start, and just fly. Nothing wrong with that, and I think in that case the default planes might be just enough.

 

However, if you like to understand and control the aircraft systems in depth, and/or to understand and follow detailed procedures pre and post flight, the default aircraft just won't cut it. Especially the airliners. That doesn't mean the default planes can't be fun, it's just a different thing.

 

 

It's not only about different people flying in different ways, it can also be about that very same person developing different tastes every other day:

 

- I could fly a, say, MD-11 (400+ crew alerting messages) one day

- and take a, say, PC-12 for a "walk" through ORBX scenery the other day.

I would say the default Maule is payware quality. Very, very good.

I fly the Caravan with AirHauler.  I can overload it and just give me enough runway and it will takeoff.  It will still criuse at a pretty good speed too.  It's great. 

There are lots of fun planes to fly in FSX.

 

None of them are as beautiful or as detailed as the best payware out there, but the difference is not a roaring gulf, unless you've become very intimate with FSX for many years.

 

I still hop into the default Cessna 172 frequently, easy on frame rates, easy to fly, feels good, excellent engine sounds.

 

The Grumman Goose is also great fun to fly, I enjoy it going from lake to lake in the Alaskan tundra.

My problem with so many of the default aircraft is that they seem slightly unfinished.  No option for a GPS mounted in the panel of the virtual cockpit and on some, when you lean forward and look out the window, there is no wing or a portion of the wing is missing.  The default DC-3?  Not the worst virtual cockpit in the world, but the left (port) propeller rotates in the wrong direction!  The King Air 350 should at least have a GPS in the center panel of the virtual cockpit.  To me, the default aircraft generally feel like they were released before they were finished.  So my solution is to look for nicer versions in payware or freeware.

Kind of agree with you.

 

And why would MS include an Airbus years after all those Boeings with STILL no default FMC/FMGS around. An Airbus without its FMGS is kind of nonsense!

 

Still, some of the default planes even have good-looking VCs and nice soundsets.

I think the answer to the question depends on what is meant by "good enough"?  Some replies answer that question in terms of looks, either VC or externals, some in terms of fun or easy to fly.  I still am unsure what the OP had in mind with his question, though.  But I'll add another perspective taking "good enough" as a question about realistic flight models...in other words, do any of the default aircraft do a decent job of modeling the flight behavior of those aircraft or just in general.  The answer to that question is definitely no.  But then neither do a number of payware aircraft.

 

Many replies have mentioned the freeware available to augment the realism of some of the default aircraft and some of them do indeed make a difference and I would recommend trying them all out for whatever default aircraft you want to fly.  

 

The Aces team seems to have put more effort into modeling the Beaver and the Maule than other aircraft, and they probably are the best of the default bunch.  There's some mods for the Bell JetRanger on Hovercontrol that make a decent heli of it.  But if you want anything approaching realistic flight behavior, you're going to have to go with payware, and a select group of payware at that.  It won't be hard to figure out which ones from a little browsing on the forum.