The Carenado Meridian is out!

[nachezdc9 25]

Carenado is an underrated developer, I know that in the past they released some products with bugs, but sincerelly nowdays their releases are,t pretty bad, I enjoy a lot their navajo, shrike 500, citation and do228.

*aren't

[FLIGHTO 8]

Let me guess....

 

Everything that did not work in previous Carenado aircraft still does not work.

There will be someone along soon to ask how to get the GTN750 into the VC

 

How do I get the GTN750 into the VC? LMAO

 

Cant fly without this gauge now...

[PaulFWatts 100]

I've taken the plunge and purchased it and just done my 1st test flight (just a circuit at YBCG).

 

As others have said it looks fantastic and flew well on the circuit. I noticed that the displays pull some FPS compared to my "steam gauge" GA aircraft but still a good frame rate on my rig.

 

This is one of the few GA singles that has a pressurised cabin with a service ceiling of FL300 and a range of 1,000+ nm so will look forward to take it on a few long trips up above the weather.

 

Going to read the manuals and study the systems before trying out the "new improved" G1000. Will keep my fingers crossed that most of the systems work as expected (but brought the plane knowing that this may not be the case).

 

Will report back when I have a lot more time in the plane and have done a few trips testing out the systems.

[JYW 2,957]

I just caved and bought it too .... doh!

 

Now what's the chances that the FLC mode on that nice shiny GFC700 won't hold speed.....?

[BenSkoning 1]

Ok, here are my thoughts after a quick first flight (kege-ktex). Overall this COULD be a good plane with a few fixes. External texture work is typical for carenado but the interior bugs me, It is a mix of really nice textures and old dull looking ones. One example of this is the interior fan/vent thing next to the pilot. It looks like its from a much older carenado aircraft like the saratoga (non alabeo) rather than the newer phenom 300. Then there are the bugs, Nothing flight critical but still minor annoyances.

 

BUG LIST

 

Fuel auto/man - switch reversed

day/night - switch reversed

prop heat - clicking triggers sound but switch doesn't animate or light up

1/2 bank - while present in tooltip clicking does nothing.

 

I found these in the first 30 seconds of being on the ground. It seems like this plane was a bit rushed as any flight test would have found these.

 

Like I said before, It COULD be good if these things are fixed.

-Ben

[hjsmuc 393]

 

 

about the only plane developer who can cater to the flight schools

 

Makes more sense then, thanks.

[JYW 2,957]

Well, I really like it.   In fact, for a Carenado on first release, I really like it.   There are the usual bag of bugs but most seem minor (eg. Ignition on 'auto' has the ignition on permanently - just as if you had it on manual).

 

The interior sounds are pretty good - most are proper custom sounds from the Meridian (unlike some of Carenado's releases which use an altitude alert sound for the AP disengage!).   Most of the system tests have decent sounds too.

 

The G1000 does seem easier to use - I was able to enter a full flight plan directly into the MFD with no issues.

 

It flies really nice too.   Climb seemed about right, as did cruise.  Performed as expected on approach and finals at 85kts.

 

Best of all - I took off with HDG and VS (1500) set on the FD, and engaged AP.   At a stable 95kts, I engaged FLC, and (gasp), it held 95kts perfectly all the way up to 16,000'.

 

The prop RPM (which is automated on this aircraft - single power lever) did not go into the red either (only tested on one short flight).

 

It's a Carenado - expect it to be a Carenado.   But for me, it's great fun out of the box.  I like it a lot!

 

PERFORMANCE - yes, there is a hit. But as long as you don't have very high settings in FSX/P3D it seems fine.

 

As you can see in this screenie (FSX:SE), I was headed to Orbx Bar Harbor, in some quite thick clouds, with autogen at Normal, and most other settings quite high (no AI), and I had 40 FPS on the ground at Orbx Block Island, and 50-70FPS in the air.

 

[Gregg_Seipp 565]

 

 

Well, I really like it.

 

Hi Bill,

 

I hope you forgot to uncage the standby HSI.  Does it have navigraph support yet?  Should I be afraid to ask that?  I'll see what they fix before I make any decision.  Thanks for the mini-review!

[tttocs 301]

The JetProp has always been a bit of a guilty pleasure for me - I recognize its shortcomings, but with RXP integration to do the heavy avionics lifting, it doesn't matter so much that the G500s are mostly pretty faces, and some community mods helped as well.  But while I'd love a solid Meridian effort, a Carenado G1000 is just so... iffy.  I recognize that there have been some fairly well-received releases from these guys of late (albeit with the same list of "how could they have missed something this simple" complaints - anyone want to bet that the same pressurization setting bug that first showed up in the JetProp and was repeated on the Malibu Mirage is STILL there on this one?) but many of these have been analog, not well... Carenado G1000ish.

 

 

 

Does it have navigraph support yet?

 

The website says yes.

 

Scott

[JYW 2,957]

Hi Bill,

 

I hope you forgot to uncage the standby HSI.  Does it have navigraph support yet?  Should I be afraid to ask that?  I'll see what they fix before I make any decision.  Thanks for the mini-review!

Hi Gregg,

 

Yes, this was a quick and dirty test flight and I didn't uncage the standby ADI.

 

Not sure about Navigraph, I saw mention of it on Carenados promo vid but can't remember if it comes with it or will be an expansion. I think it comes with it on their latest G1000 planes.

[Gregg_Seipp 565]

 

 

Yes, this was a quick and dirty test flight and I didn't uncage the standby ADI.

 

I should probably be tied for even considering this airplane but I'm, sometimes, just wanting to take up a non-heavy metal airplane for a short sightseeing flight sometimes...load up a region and look around.  Not sure if this is the right airplane for that since regions are pretty heavy. 

[Gregg_Seipp 565]

Watching this video of the airplane landing, I remember how an airplane sways and, sort of, twists back and forth with the wind even in light wind conditions.  That's one thing I wish we could get in the sim...the constant hand movements that keep the airplane where you want it to be.

 

[Gregm8907 4]

I downloaded today and seems like the Navigraph Extension is not available at this time I also noticed when the main cabin door is open and you are viewing from the back passenger view the window shade stays in the same spot as the door opens but when viewing from the outside it looks normal. I'm also wondering if this aircraft really only does 85% torque as the max power setting???

[ryanbatc 12,770]

I just can't do it....

 

[JimmiG 244]

Ok, here are my thoughts after a quick first flight (kege-ktex). Overall this COULD be a good plane with a few fixes. External texture work is typical for carenado but the interior bugs me, It is a mix of really nice textures and old dull looking ones. One example of this is the interior fan/vent thing next to the pilot. It looks like its from a much older carenado aircraft like the saratoga (non alabeo) rather than the newer phenom 300. Then there are the bugs, Nothing flight critical but still minor annoyances.

 

BUG LIST

 

Fuel auto/man - switch reversed

day/night - switch reversed

prop heat - clicking triggers sound but switch doesn't animate or light up

1/2 bank - while present in tooltip clicking does nothing.

 

I found these in the first 30 seconds of being on the ground. It seems like this plane was a bit rushed as any flight test would have found these.

 

Like I said before, It COULD be good if these things are fixed.

-Ben

 

It's nothing new for Carenado, in fact it has been like that since the beginning of the company. Some of the bugs in any "1.0" Carenado product are just mind boggling. I can understand that under certain, unusual conditions, something might not work properly. But how in the world do they still manage to reverse the functionality of switches etc.? How hard is it for a beta tester to click the light switch into the On position and verify that the lights come on and the switch actually animates?

 

If Carenado made table lamps, the On/Off switch would be reversed, and the light would only function when turned upside down. The box would show a picture of a red lampshade but it would in fact be green.