Hi all,

I have followed this forum with extra interest.
A while ago I stopped buying Carenado aircraft because they always contained the same bugs/issues and most of them were/are quite silly.
Nevertheless this seems a nice aircraft so I'm considering to buy. 
I still do realize Carenado system model department isn't the best in the industry, but maybe the Commander is worth buying.

So, what is the verdict after the service pack?

Egbert

It completes my "must have" planes that I spent a lot of time with in the 90s lugging around freight mainly the Mu-2 and T Commander. I am NOT a cold n dark guy but auto start and you will not catch me loading a FMC. Odd for a former pilot but that resembles work and I go mainly for immersion and suspension of reality which the Commander does well. There are plenty of post about the engines/power/type but again I am not staring at it that hard and with so many variants yes it could be picked apart. Can't hot start it and afaik there are no failure features so not flying by the numbers has no penalty. Tricky ground handling feels about right. My only gripe is I probably fly more than most at night and the interior /cabin lights are all tied in together. To me some such as the adi are hard to see and I always had a peev about cabin lights ON at night. I run 4k on a 4.5 16 gig fire breather with a 1080ti and it runs for me just as smooth as their piston Commander.

So yeah if you have any history with the loud beast its a must have and a blast to fly.

4 hours ago, JIMJAM said:

It completes my "must have" planes that I spent a lot of time with in the 90s lugging around freight mainly the Mu-2 and T Commander. I am NOT a cold n dark guy but auto start and you will not catch me loading a FMC. Odd for a former pilot but that resembles work and I go mainly for immersion and suspension of reality which the Commander does well. There are plenty of post about the engines/power/type but again I am not staring at it that hard and with so many variants yes it could be picked apart. Can't hot start it and afaik there are no failure features so not flying by the numbers has no penalty. Tricky ground handling feels about right. My only gripe is I probably fly more than most at night and the interior /cabin lights are all tied in together. To me some such as the adi are hard to see and I always had a peev about cabin lights ON at night. I run 4k on a 4.5 16 gig fire breather with a 1080ti and it runs for me just as smooth as their piston Commander.

So yeah if you have any history with the loud beast its a must have and a blast to fly.

I have some hours in right seat of 690A/B with the TPE331-5. I'm waiting to purchase the plane, have the Shrike Commander, and have more RL hours in the right seat too, best twin of carenado so far. 

With your real experience, can confirm that the flight dynamics, performance and handling are good, and feels real compared to the Real 690,?  

Your opinion can make the purchase more soon that I expected 

Regards 

RB 

I took the plunche. Tomorrow maiden voyage!

I too enjoy Carenado's Shrike Commander even though I am not much of a fan for it's night cockpit lighting. I am seriously considering purchasing this aircraft also. For that reason, I hope there will be a few more assessments noted regarding version 1.2. For the responses so far, thank you for your helpful personal input and real life flight experiences in this aircraft.

"can confirm that the flight dynamics, performance and handling are good, and feels real compared to the Real 690,?"

Thats a impossible question given its a $50 sim with numerous options and also Active Sky which has options. I use the TM warthog which has settings and on and on.. I only have maybe a hr in the Car 690B and its the best 690B out there .... As I said I am not in it for training or realism but stress free enjoyment so I really have not seen if the startup proc,ITT temps ign %% etc are accurate. If you have ever flown in any of the Commander series its your typical high wing, low cg with a big tail. You notice your &@($* is literally inches off the ground and the feeling of speed is enhanced. Accel is strong and it breaks the ground quickly with a brisk climb. All are very stable and tighten up with speed. I have landed it on a few Orbyx fields iirc 3000 or so which it can easily do with full flaps down to 100-120k or so normal. I consider it a drive it on type with no bad habits. FPS is avg Carenado much better imo than anything with displays which kill my fire eating rig at 4.5 with a 1080ti.  I have not loaded it down or been very high yet so I don't have much more feedback to offer. Have not stalled it but should be sedated.If you are more a by the numbers type, systems junkie you might want to wait for that bunch to chime in.

Ive learned from past Carenado purchases to not waste my money.

For some strange reason I like the Carenado's much better in Xplane. Maybe Dan just does a better job at the conversions..hard to put a finger on it.

Xplane is tempting seeing its not much more than a new plane but I have bought 3 versions in the past and been disappointed all 3 times. Looked like someone just threw objects at the ground and I could not recognize my home field. IIRC isn't it mostly mouse driven? I just remember frustration, unfamiliarity and robotic atc. Every release was THE ONE and I was always underwhelmed. Admit I am not up to date on the payware supported by Xplane but good to know Carenado is involved as I am supportive of both.

I am running p3d v3 but tbo would rather have 3 root canals than reload the dozens of planes,Orbyx everything,ASC,REX..... I have NEVER had a ctd but also don't fly the PMDGs into massive overdone mega airports either. Running most things 1/2 up at 4k with 8 supersampling and the visuals are incredible. Think I will stay v3 and enjoy what I got until the next latest greatest.

That said just flew the 690 and other than the usual sloppy drunken FS2004 era ground handling when stopping using brakes it was a flawless flight.

3 hours ago, JIMJAM said:

That said just flew the 690 and other than the usual sloppy drunken FS2004 era ground handling when stopping using brakes it was a flawless flight.

R U using pedals (and hence unintenden differential braking) for the brakes?  I'm using a joystick button and there's no problem to keep her perfectly straight.

 

17 hours ago, Egbert Drenth said:

I took the plunche. Tomorrow maiden voyage!

Just concluded my first flight, ENBR-ENVA.
I like it very much, it is a joy to hand fly take off and approach.

Not yet used to the AP, IAS mode with the up/down scroll knob is a mistery to me and it seems the altitude alerter doesn't function.

 

 

I regret buying it.  

 

At least until it is fixed.  It's unusable in FSEconomy, which is my main platform.  Instead of having two wing tanks like it should, it only has 1 center tank.  FSEconomy won't rewrite their config to match the incorrect Carenado one because there are already 690 models out there that work just fine with the FSE configs.  It's on Carenado to fix this.

I've been burned by Carenado a few times in the past and have largely avoided buying their products.  But I LOVE the 690B and it seemed worth it to me at the time.  I have fond memories of the Venviones model back in the day and was hoping to re-live those flights.  Can't do it though.

 

Please, please, please fix!  This is an obvious, basic characteristic of the 690B!  How could you mess that up???

7 minutes ago, bdenny20 said:

Please, please, please fix!  This is an obvious, basic characteristic of the 690B!  How could you mess that up???

Apparently you don't know the 690B. It's not an 'obvious characteristic' and there's nothing to fix.

Straight from the RW manual:

The fuel system consists of twenty-two (22) light weight fuel cells, interconnected to form a single tank.

some had wet wings outboard 22 cells but all to to one sump. entire fuel route is as basic as it gets.TANK - CENTER FUEL SUMP - ELEC. BOOST PUMP - OIL/FUEL HEAT EXCHANGER - FUEL SHUT OFF VALVES - ENGINE

Good to know that prog does not work with it as I was looking for a prog to simulate freight. Maybe a simple edit can trick it??

You can of course change the single center tank to 2 wing tanks in the aircraft.cfg file, but I don't know if fuel is being used from both tanks at the same time. Guess you have to experiment.