My Review of Carenado Phenom 100.Warning lots of pics!

[z06z33 763]

For the review I chose a long cross country quite literally across the county from KACK (Nantucket,Massachusetts) to my FS home base of KHQM (Hoquiam,Washington) with fuel stops at KFLD (Fond du Lac, Wisconsin) and KMLS (Miles City, Montana). My scenario was a delivery flight of my new plane.

 

 

 

About to climb aboard my "new" used jet

 Plush interior

 

Wow what a cockpit!

 

Seat feels nice

 

Engines running ready to taxi

Taxi out

Leaving Nantucket behind, headed to KFLD in Wisconsin

 

Climbing through 20,000

 

At a low cruise alt of 26,000 as there were 140mph headwinds in the 30k range.

Over lake Michigan.

Decent into KFLD.

On final.

Lets get some fuel stretch our legs and go.

Climbing out of KFLD for KMLS.

Headed to FL400

Nothing beats a sunset at 40,000 feet

 

Overall this is a great plane and is very worthy of its asking price. It flys like a fighter and has great equipment. Though some will find the Carenado G1000s lacking in depth I find that they get the job done just fine, Systems wise this plane is pretty basic but I like it that way. As usual with Carenado the visuals are top notch. As for Performance it could be better but no real complaints, On the ground I usually got in the 19-25 FPS range but once at cruise it stayed at my locked 30FPS constantly. My one dislike of this plane is the poor ground handling it takes 70% of N1 just to get it rolling and at least 65% to keep it rolling this isn't realistic at all and is something Carenado needs to fix. The FDE Seems believable though I've never flown a Phenom so I can't really say. One hint I will pass on to anyone who has this plane and is having FPS issues is to turn off the Co-pilots G1000 doing that gave me and extra 5-6 FPS. I give it a Thumbs up and say if your on the fence get off get this plane and fly it.

 

David.

Edited May 2, 2014 by firehawk44
13 images removed. Only 20 images allowed per topic. See AVSIM Screenshot Rules

[SpoonerFLIGHT 10]

wow! beautiful pics and plane.

[N1G 88]

Geez, I can smell the vinyl ( or is that leather?)

 

Thanks for the pics and  your input. Would love to have this plane but until they figure out what is causing the huge fluctuations in fluidity, I'm out. 

 

Bob

[Pappy_Eagle 0]

I almost listened to the crowd.  My experience background is light aircraft (RW and Flightsimming), so I do not speak in authority here, but .....  Been a MSFS user since 1995 and have owned three VA's with the current one being www.eaglevalleyair.com.  I own most of the HD aircraft owned by Carenado and from the startup @ FTX Bonner's Ferry to Landing at FTX Bozeman, this is one nice little jet.  Still working on that GPS input though.  LOL  Must read the manual.

 

I must say, I started and stopped this plane with A2A Accufeel engaged.  So, even the normal responses were affected, but I found the plane as good as my RealAir Turbine Duke, A2A 172R with its flight dynamics and gauges that they offer.  Is not every sound recorded.....  LOL why?  What sounds there were was just fine... even the engines.

 

On my flight, it climbed exactly as a B200.  She recorded 160 kts @ 1500 fpm to 10'k, then I dropped the fpm to 1000 and climbed to 18000 @ 154 kts IAS.  Power settings stayed at cruise settings of 82%.  Not bad...  even fantastic.  She picked up speed to a cruise of 230 IAS and a GS of 300 kts plus depending on the winds.  Taxi was done at 48% power with very nice nose wheel steering.

 

I own the B200, 208b, c90, 182T, tbm850 by Carenado and this little AC showed absolutely no impact on my FPS which is set 30.  I have a one year old computer which I built around a Intel i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) - Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H WP - 16 GB - 2X EVGA GTX660TI SC - Win 7 64

 

BTW, I own and fly 3 PMDG aircraft and 3 A2A aircraft.  I am a proud owner of a Phenom.  Thank you Carenado....  Cannot wait for your Hawker 850

[BilboBaggins 82]

What a stunning series of shots, Pappy_Eagle!  Some of those are prize-winning, IMHO.  If you're using ORBX scenery, you should submit a few over there for their monthly "best shots" contest (or maybe there's one here as well, dunno).

 

Anyways, thanks for sharing -- I love these kinds of storytelling pic sequences and try my own lightweight hand at 'em from time to time (over at ORBX forums), when I have the energy.

 

BTW if you DO use ORBX stuff, definitely check out the newly-provided global lights configuration tool; you can really adjust the look and feel of dawn/dusk/night flying with it for a wide range of aesthetic pleasures.

 

I hope this thread stays positive.

 

There's lots of excitement over Prepar3D's latest.  Why? Dramatic graphics improvements and innovations (the shadows stuff is phenomenal, btw, adjusted judiciously).  Sometimes we poo-poo emphasis on graphics but really, it's a fundamental part of the "you are there" experience.  I've slammed all the P3DV2.2 settings up high just to see what it will look like some day when compute power has caught up to the top end they're providing headroom for, and..... wow.  Unbelievable.  Even if only for a few brief, frame-starved moments.

[JesC 88]

Good to see all this positive feedback on the Phenom. I have no jet experience at all, real or sim, but have been looking forward to getting my feet wet with this one. So much of what has previously been posted has been negative that I had become hesitant. Your pictorial and everyone's positive comments have renewed my interest. Thanks!!

[tttocs 301]

Beautiful shots!  I've said it before, I'll say it again - that's one pretty plane.

 

Scott

[rsperge 182]

what a great review, nice to here some positive news, and yes I have the TBM 850, and if she flies like that I might say go for it.  Excellent pictorial, very nice set of shots as well.  Great wok, Indeeed!!!!

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[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

Great pictures! Despite the poor system modelling, the Phenom 100 does look amazing.

[DaviiB 104]

Beautiful shots. 

 

I must admit, I was very disappointed by the lack of system implementation, but this is a stunning aircraft nonetheless. I wonder if Carenado would ever consider letting someone else tinker with their avionics behind the scenes.....

 

One quick thing:

 

 

 

On my flight, it climbed exactly as a B200.  She recorded 160 kts @ 1500 fpm to 10'k, then I dropped the fpm to 1000 and climbed to 18000 @ 154 kts IAS.

 

 

If that's the case, something is definitely off with the performance. She should climb healthily at 200 IAS well up into the flight levels.

 

 

Another thing...with the sounds.....having flown on the real aircraft, the engine sounds seem off. Are they meant to simulate the sounds while wearing a noise-cancelling headset? Sounds almost muted.

 

They seem to have gotten the air conditioning sound just right though....that vent at the back of the cabin is LOUD (in flight).

 

[tttocs 301]

 

 

Another thing...with the sounds.....having flown on the real aircraft, the engine sounds seem off. Are they meant to simulate the sounds while wearing a noise-cancelling headset? Sounds almost muted.

 

That wouldn't surprise me.  I know Carenado has done this with the Malibu Mirage, and it's one of the only things I don't like about the Mirage.

 

Scott

[BilboBaggins 82]

For all my enthusiasm for the Phenom, I will agree that for those worried about the performance issues, wait to see what the consensus is after the patch -- I'm not having such issues, but clearly some are.

 

And if the FLC pitch-not-throttle and TO/GA things matter a lot to you, those criticisms are real, as well (and it sounds like the Flight1 Mustang has all that down if you want it).

 

If you're running this in P3DV2.2: work on tuning the new shadows options carefully; I think the EMB500 might be eating some frames there with some settings, have to give it more testing.

 

Steve

[alexcolka 183]

Amazing pictures, thanks for sharing, it makes me want to abandon work right now and head home to start those little engines. I'm so hooked up with this little plane despite the negative comments.

[nolatron 12]

Are you able to undock the display screens and move them to another monitor?