Which is best? S550, H850XP, or Phenom 300

[Greggy_D 935]

If you could only purchase one jet at this point, (and knowing the Phenom is only up to SP1) which jet would you consider in the best shape programmatically?  The S550 Citation, the Hawker H850XP, or the Phenom 300?

[C525B 86]

I think I need to know more about your needs/wants to best answer your question:

 

-Are you looking for the best out-of-the-box functionality with FMC, etc? 

-Are you willing to incorporate some modifications, such as a GTN750, RXP GNS, or ISG FMS in order to have sophisticated navigation?

-Do you have a late-model or high-end PC that will run these add-ons without performance problems?

[Guest]

Interesting question ... I have the S550 and like it for the price, but it does have a couple of issues remaining.  I'm thinking of trying out the H850XP and Phenom 300 ... would like to get a list of what doesn't work "as expected or promised" on both aircraft so I can decide if it's something I can live without.

 

Cheers, Rob.

[Greggy_D 935]

I think I need to know more about your needs/wants to best answer your question:

 

-Are you looking for the best out-of-the-box functionality with FMC, etc? 

-Are you willing to incorporate some modifications, such as a GTN750, RXP GNS, or ISG FMS in order to have sophisticated navigation?

-Do you have a late-model or high-end PC that will run these add-ons without performance problems?

 

 

Yes, to all of the above.   :smile:

 

Which would be the best out-of-the box jet?  

 

Which is the best with mods?  Not only with the GTN750 (and others) but also with our community's mods (Bert and others).

[warbirds 555]

Same here, curious to see the replies. 

[z06z33 763]

I like the 550 now that I have the GTN750 in it thanks to Bert. As for the Hawker I love it, you can run through most of the checks and it suits me fine. I don't see why people don't like it.

[C525B 86]

So, I have all three, and I've extensively tweaked all of them, using community mods and my own changes. 

 

Best out-of-the-box...

My feeling is that the Citation S/II is the winner here.  I love the S/II.  There was much talk in the forum about its FDE being wrong, but I think there were some misconceptions about the way this class of aircraft performs.  I've flown a C501 (Citation I/SP) in real life, and the performance of this S/II seems about what I would expect.  Climbs like heck at low altitude (granted you're typically doing <200KIAS in the climb) but peters out quickly in the flight levels.  You'll make FL410 on a good day only.  Its systems are not very complex, so there was much less for Carenado to get wrong. 

 

Skip the Navigraph pack and install some third-party navigation...that's really all this one needs.  ISG FMS with Janek's mod would probably be the thing that most closely resembles what you'd see in your average S/II, but if you don't have the ISG pack, then a GNS or GTN will do nicely.  You could also wait for the CJ2, but I assume that release will be plagued with problems from Carenado's Pro Line 21 system.

 

 

Most potential...

Phenom 300.  SP1 fixed the major A/P issues.  It remains to be seen what the expansion pack will add (or break), but that's where the aforementioned potential is.  The G1000 is fairly basic in functionality, but it very closely resembles the look and feel of the Prodigy system.  I believe that many of the issues with the G1000 can be cleaned up.  However, in its present state (pre-Navigraph), the navigation capabilities are being crippled by dependence on FSX GPS.  As always, you can get around this by adding a 3rd party GPS in a pop-up window.  I use the RXP GNS because RXP's "linkgps" feature will update your route in FS, thereby displaying your flight plan on the G1000.

 

 

And then there's the Hawker...

I'm a big fan of Hawker aircraft in general, so I suppose I invested more sweat equity in Carenado's Hawker than I might have otherwise.  The SPs were pretty worthless.  They fixed almost nothing that mattered.  The AP requires you to use hidden workarounds to be usable at all, although Bert Pieke mentioned that he was back to tinkering with it and he's had some good results.  I spent an entire day coding to make the systems vaguely resemble reality, and even then my efforts are being undermined by items that are hard-coded in the virtual cockpit model.  Anyway, the point is: any further development on the Hawker will be from the community.  This was obviously Carenado's worst release ever.

[raymar 969]

If I were ranking the three and was told the user would be using community mods and updates and RXP and GTN avionics, I am very clear that it would be:

 

1 being overall best of the three, 3 being the least desirable of the three.

 

1. Phenom 300

2. Citation S/II

3. Hawker 850 XP

 

I have all three and I have all of the add on nav packs from Carenado, and I have all of Bert's mods.

 

Regards,

Ray