Flew from Ciampino (LIRA) airport yesterday and had a great view of the Avanti taxiing for take off and also saw it climb out. I was so impressed that I decided then and there that I'd seriously consider purchasing FSD's rendition of it. I would welcome owners' views on this addon before I decide. I am aware, incidentally, of the contentious views that some people hold of FSD themselves, but would really like to hear how the addon itself performs. Thanks in anticipation.

I love the plane, but it is really hard to slow down. I think there is a flaw in the design of the actual aircraft (it needs a speed brake system). FSD just modeled it as it actually is. I have asked for anyone on AVSIM that has actually flown a Piaggio Avanti, if it is this hard to slow down in real life.Other than that, terrific A/C and Fast like a Ferrari. FSD ie Steve Small are really gifted A/C developers.Barry

I am not a real Avanti pilot, but I have had the opportunity to quiz two that drop passengers frequently at my home airport. Like you said she is a slippery bird! Neither thought speed brakes were needed (and it might even be a design complication to add them). They both said you have to plan a descent a little differently and allow some space for deceleration. No question though you can

But before you take the risk of sending FSD your money for their version of the Piaggio, I recommend looking at Mario Noriega's freeware version (especially nice if you plan to retrofit your Piaggio with RXP Jetline 2 gauges). File mn_p180.zip here on Avsim.RegardsBob ScottATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-V L-300Santiago de Chile

I don't like the FSD Avanti, nice panel, but the plane doesn't seem realistic at all. I don't fly the real Avanti, but I don't think it would fly as hard as the FSD model is to fly. I'd definately go with the freeware plane mentioned above.

The Avanti was my second aircraft, as I remember, and I still enjoy flying it. It seems to be very stable, well designed flight model, although I don't know the real aircraft, just by reputation... I generally like flying in the VC and in the Avanti it's no problem.Plus there are all those pleasantly wacky repaints. :>)I have had no issues with FSD.

>But before you take the risk of sending FSD your money for>their version of the Piaggio, I recommend looking at Mario>Noriega's freeware version (especially nice if you plan to>retrofit your Piaggio with RXP Jetline 2 gauges). File>mn_p180.zip here on Avsim.>Personally, I prefer a lot more 3D perspective, in my three dimensional virtual cockpits. In more cases than not, a complicated VC in freeware, ends up with less detail. It's just too time consuming, period.L.Adamson

>I don't like the FSD Avanti, nice panel, but the plane>doesn't seem realistic at all. I don't fly the real Avanti,>but I don't think it would fly as hard as the FSD model is to>fly. I'd definately go with the freeware plane mentioned>above.What did you find difficult about flying the sim version of the Avanti? I agree she is challenging to slow down (as she is supposed to be in real life), but aside from that I found her to be an excellent hand flier. I would be interested to hear what part of the flight model you are not happy with. Obviously flight models can be pretty subjective. Especially when you throw in different systems, controllers and settings. I am not in anyway arguing with your findings, I would just like to understand what makes or breaks a flight model for different people.Cheers,Douglas

Thanks for all your comments. I somehow missed the fact that there is a freeware Avanti available. I'll certainly give it a go before parting with any money.I'm interested in accurate FDEs or at least an FDE which reflects any particular features that an aircraft might have. I trust that Steve Small will have done his utmost, within the confines of MSFS to reflect the Avanti's flight characteristics, given that he has guru status in that area. If the aircraft really is unusual in it's descent handling and that reflects the real thing then I'm all for it and would enjoy the challenge of mastering it. One of my overall concerns was to check with users that the aircraft as an addon is not buggy or erratic.Thanks again to all.

Two things:1) The FSD Avanti seems to have a real problem flying an ILS approach coupled to the autopilot. Upon catching the glideslope, more often than not, the plane sinks like a stone and can only be recovered and landed by turning off the autopilot. Other users have reported similar problems - but no fix/explanation from FSD on this. 2) A long time ago, FSD promised to upgrade their configuration manager to take it advantage of the latest Reality XP versions. I don't think they ever got around to doing that. ricardo

Ricardo,I do not speak for FSD and I know some people have reported this issue. I think the problem with a fix is that nobody at FSD or the testers can recreate this problem. I am not saying it is not happening, but I suspect not being able to recreate it makes it very difficult to trace and fix without screwing something else up. I am not a programmer or developer so I am just making an educated guess, but I suspect the phantom nature of this issue makes it hard to do much about.I don

Douglas, thanks for your reply. I am, of course, not claiming that this is a universal problem; but I and other users simply can't get the ILS to work. Doing the exact same approach with comparable GA aircraft yields no problems. I might have to roll this bird out of its hangar and give it a few more tries. As for the Reality XP avionics addons - the only way I could get this to work was after Uwe Rademacher, who is/was a beta tester for Reality XP, sent me configuration files. Installing the avionics via FSD's load manager generated all sorts of problems.ricardo

I have it and it's a great airplane. Only quibble I have with it is that it flies a knife edge approach. You have to have all your speeds perfect gear and flaps down at the exact speeds recommended. If you are even a knot or two under the approach speed it will sink like crazy. I've no idea how the real thing handles but this effect seems a little exaggerated to me so I made a tweak in the .cfg file by adding a little lift and that cured it. Probably don't have a perfectly realistic flight model anymore but it flies great like that.

What's your tweak to the .cfg?ricardo

She's is flyable until you put in the last notch of flaps, she's not flyable after that. I can't imagine the real plane is that hard to keep in the air fully configured for landing.