I'm in the market for a good, but not necessarily high level, bizjet for P3D. I currently have the Carenado CJ2 which has a below average flight model, imo. I'm thinking of the Falcon from Flysimware but open to suggestions. Eye candy is not the biggy for me, it's performance and the flight model. Thanks.

 

I7-6700k @ 4ghz
6gb nVidia 1660 video
16 gb ram.

Flysimware Falcon

Carenado Phenom 300

 

Flysimware Learjet 35A is fantastic. Super fun to hand fly. It is old school, but has the best steam gauge VC I've seen. On sale right now. FSW does an amazing job of keeping their planes updated and they are active and very responsive in the support forum. The 35A was released years ago, but is now on version 4.2g with PBR and dynamic lighting. Works great with the GTN750 - hand flying an LPV RNAV approach to minimums is just like the real thing. And of course you can couple the autopilot if you're feeling lazy ;-). The FSW forum on avsim has performance reference docs. Can't say enough good things about it. I have many many aircraft add-ons and only recently added this one to my hangar - I ask myself often where has this plane been all my life! IMO there's nothing that beats it at the $27 sale price.  Performance is good and as far as I can tell, it's the real deal from a flight model perspective.

I own quite a few biz jets, but haven't found the "one" yet.

Here is my personal ranking, based on the hours I've flown them:

1. Carenado Phenom 300

A pretty shell wrapped around default FSX/P3D gauges. Handles ok, not very frame rate friendly. Enjoyable to fly, if you can get over the fact that it's not very sophisticated systems wise. Mods available. 

2. Carenado Phenom 100

ditto

3. Carenado Pilatus PC 12

Ditto. A bit easier on frames. I've modded it with Flight 1's GTN 750 - thus making it a bit more immersive

4. Flight 1 Citation Mustang. 

Outdated graphics, very heavy on frames. Hangared. Still, has significantly more system depth compared to the Carenado birds. 

5. Eaglesoft Citation X for FSX-Steam

Very, very outdated vc graphics. That's an immersion killer for me. So, permanently hangared. 

I'd buy the Flysimware Falcon 50 if there were a proper tutorial available that takes the aircraft from cold and dark to shutdown. Sort of what Karl "Yoda"Kalbfleisch did for Flight 1's King Air. The Falcon 50 is currently on sale. If I can locate a proper tutorial, I'm buying it. 

Just my personal opinion. So don't get a heart attack should you disagree. 

The Flysimware Falcon is really nice if you like old-fashioned instruments and don't need the level of eye-candy that Carenado provides. I personally don't like the Carenado Phenom series. It flies nice and looks great, but the systems are not modeled very well. In particular, I needed to install the GTN 750 before it would follow a flight plan, and if I recall correctly the autopilot also behaved erratically without the GTN 750.

If you are not set on using jet engines: the very recently released Milviz King Air 350 has an executive cabin and can fly up to 35000' high. From the few flights I made in it it appears to be a really good model. Documentation is still very sparse, but they are working on a number of videos that show all the functionalities.

Peter

The soon to be released Xtreme Prototypes Learjet v3 looks stunning on their spec. sheet:

http://xtremeprototypes.com/en/product_GLJ25_se_v3r0.asp

It also features full 3D integration of 3rd party avionics such as the GTN 750, with one of the many available cockpit configurations featuring dual GTN 750s!

 

 

 

Edited December 28, 20196 yr by jzimmermann

The fact that the Flysimware Falcon 50 doesn't come with a tutorial is a deal breaker for me. The plane comes with a 50-page manual explaining the various systems, but what is missing is a tutorial on how these all interact, using some basic flight from A to B.

Now, I realize that a tutorial is not needed if all you need to do is a) turn the fuel pumps on, b) put ignition to auto and c) hit the start button. But the Falcon 50 is a bit more complex than that. 

Also, a short tutorial flight would probably eliminate a third of the questions on the forum. 

Ricardo, there is plenty of information out there, pretty much as good as a tutorial too, such as this video for example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoqeTkRyiUk

 

Thanks, jzimmermann, maybe I AM a bit cranky....missed this on my search through youtube....

No worries Ricardo!

I can tell you that the Xtreme Prototypes Learjet will likely be the highest fidelity bizjet for P3D once it's released.

Cheers,

Jerome

6 hours ago, cwburnett said:

Flysimware Learjet 35A is fantastic. Super fun to hand fly. It is old school, but has the best steam gauge VC I've seen. On sale right now. FSW does an amazing job of keeping their planes updated and they are active and very responsive in the support forum. The 35A was released years ago, but is now on version 4.2g with PBR and dynamic lighting. Works great with the GTN750 - hand flying an LPV RNAV approach to minimums is just like the real thing. And of course you can couple the autopilot if you're feeling lazy ;-). The FSW forum on avsim has performance reference docs. Can't say enough good things about it. I have many many aircraft add-ons and only recently added this one to my hangar - I ask myself often where has this plane been all my life! IMO there's nothing that beats it at the $27 sale price.  Performance is good and as far as I can tell, it's the real deal from a flight model perspective.

I concur with this. My favorite little BizJet. Watch that throttle!

Flysimware Lear 35.  Best with GTN 750

If you're looking for longer range, then the FSW Falcon 50 is the best option. (With the GTN.)

The FSW Lear and the XP Lear are very similar, and both very good...IMHO, the XP has possibly a better virtual cockpit than than the FSW. (Both with the GTN.)

From Carenado:

The S550 is a lot of fun (at a lower cost), but, should definitely be used with the GTN.

The Phenom 300 is nice to fly, but, extremely "buggy"...with the expansion pack or SVS, you'll never know from one flight to the next if you'll be able to program a flight plan.

The F1 Mustang is nice, hard on frame rates and a very slow jet aircraft!

My $0.02

Rob

I'm most excited for the Eaglesoft Citation X (coming soon TM hah)

But after seeing shots of the new sim I'd be happy to wait for some of these jets to be ported over.

Xtreme Prototypes is what I prefer, even at the v2.1. Really looking forward to the 3.0 release. Shame, I was hoping for that Christmas present, but it was not to be.