Thinking about x-plane: What are the best faster GA aircraft?

[Gregg_Seipp 568]

5 hours ago, Paraffin said:

Mooneys are nice, but not exactly fast compared to a PC-12. 😉

If it's sexy and fast you want, short of the biz jets, go for the Carenado PC-12 or wait for the TBM 850. 

Another one to consider, maybe not a first choice but while building out your payware fleet, is the Mitsubishi MU-2 from X-Aviation. That thing is a real rocket for a turboprop twin, and a challenge to land due to the wing design. It's slippery on final approach, more like flying light jets. It's an older XP10 model upgraded to XP11, still with a few issues, but flyable. Very interesting aircraft.

Good points.  I think I have a common trait of getting something that I think, maybe, I might like only to find that, later, I really wouldn't.  That leads to a lot of hangar queens, of course.  I tend to like fast but very common GA type airplanes...ones you'd take your family in or to take small loads of cargo in, especially to needy places...things I could imagine liking to do.  Another thing I like to do is find YouTube videos of people flying the RW planes.  You can garner quite a bit of RW knowledge by watching them.  You're more apt to find the more common airplanes on YouTube.  (I learned a vast amount of information about flying a Citation Mustang there and, lord knows, with Steveo cranking out videos, there's a lot available about the TBM).  I love these people :).  So, yeah, the PC-12 should be a good fit since it fits all of those criteria.  The E1000 might fit the bill except for its unusual avionics package (again, why did they opt for that package instead of the G1000 the airplane comes with?  Strange.)   The Malibu Mirage (which has an XP10 version available, the Meridian, Cheyenne or Conquest would also work.  Perhaps one of the King Airs.

One point about all GA airplanes...the autopilot.  In P3D, for GA, they're rarely close and yet they're so core for flying the plane (many of them do a fairly poor job flying an ILS and will do a fairly good job of trying to kill the passengers).  Marshall Arbitman did this excellent overview of the autopilot of the X-Plane PC-12 showing what's right and wrong.  At least the video sets your expectations and he's opened up a good conversation which should be had for, not just the PC-12, but for all new airplanes because of how, often, bad they can be.  It should also be part of the more solid reviews after looks, power, and hand flying.  Point is, I'd be keenly interested in airplanes that got that aspect right or, at least, close to right.  (One of the many things I already like about X-Plane is that it has a GNS530 and G1000 built in, enabling airplanes to have higher quality systems than I have been generally getting.  This means that devs can, potentially, spend far less time developing complex avionics and more time on other crucial bits like the autopilot.) 

Gregg

[ryanbatc 12,846]

The XP11 PC12- I've got it - made a nice post in the screenshot forum - with GTN integration.

Somewhat basic flight modeling imo...  systems "medium"

Nice to look at and the GTN is the only reason I bought it

[Paraffin 2,197]

One more point about GA choices:

I like a good view forward and to the side of the pilot's seat, for sightseeing. Also helps if you're doing circuits, circle-to-land approaches, etc. 

In the "fast GA" category, that's why I generally avoid low-wing twins, which can be fast, but have those big honkin' engines and wings blocking the side view of the ground below. 

Not sure if this matters to you as much as the systems modeling, but it's been the reason why I've never bought a payware GA twin like a Beechcraft, and instead have a hanger filled with sightseeing planes with overhead wings like the Carenado C208 Caravan, Carenado 500S Aero Commander, the RWDesigns DHC-6 Twin Otter, the X-Aviation MU-2, and single engine planes like the PC-12. All with great side views, and a few of them like the PC-12 and MU-2 in the "fast" category.

[olderndirt 2,295]

Another that runs along fairly fast is the Cessna 210M - recently released after the 'Thandra' refurbishing process.  Everything works and works well.    

[Gregg_Seipp 568]

4 hours ago, Paraffin said:

In the "fast GA" category, that's why I generally avoid low-wing twins, which can be fast, but have those big honkin' engines and wings blocking the side view of the ground below. 

This is true...even for most single engines.  The Malibu's have great side views, though.  I do tend towards twins more since a fair amount of my flying is over open water.

[mjrhealth 820]

9 hours ago, Paraffin said:

One more point about GA choices:

I like a good view forward and to the side of the pilot's seat, for sightseeing. Also helps if you're doing circuits, circle-to-land approaches, etc. 

In the "fast GA" category, that's why I generally avoid low-wing twins, which can be fast, but have those big honkin' engines and wings blocking the side view of the ground below. 

Not sure if this matters to you as much as the systems modeling, but it's been the reason why I've never bought a payware GA twin like a Beechcraft, and instead have a hanger filled with sightseeing planes with overhead wings like the Carenado C208 Caravan, Carenado 500S Aero Commander, the RWDesigns DHC-6 Twin Otter, the X-Aviation MU-2, and single engine planes like the PC-12. All with great side views, and a few of them like the PC-12 and MU-2 in the "fast" category.

If you love teh MU2 than you will love this freeware

Let 410

Works fine in 11, is in process of being updated

 

Edited April 29, 2018 by mjrhealth