FSX-MS Poor documentation for Carenado aircraft

[forkedtail 5]

I have been simming for quite a few years and one recurring gripe I have is the lack of documentation for the use of Carenado's many fine aircraft.  It would be very helpful if some information existed for use of the various auto-pilots, instruments, and system that are not common to other aircraft.  I actualy avoid buying their planes because of this unless the plane is really older vintage.  This shortcoming becomes very obvious with later era planes.  Many other publishers do a better job of documenting the operation of their planes.  I was frustrated today trying to get their Beech D-18 to fly on auto pilot.

[BEARlyThereCDN 46]

My two issues with Carenado:

• Poor documentation
• No paint kits

I recently purchased the TBM850 (I fell in love with MSFS 2020's TBM and watching YouTube video's of the RL TBM's). No paint kit, no documentation on how to do a cold and dark. I learned more from the RL YouTube videos than I did from the Carenado purchase. 😒

After doing some research (which I should have done BEFORE my purchase 🙄), I come to find this is a issue with most of their products. Never again. As fast as Carenado gained a new customer, they lost one.

[TextRich 88]

Try contacting the company and giving them feedback.  I'm all for product reviews in a third party site like AVSim, but if you want that problem solved, see if they may have documentation hidden somewhere in your install folder or in their website.  Venting here is fine, but they may not visit this forum and be unaware of your complaint.

Edited February 8, 2020 by BF Bullpup

[stans 702]

38 minutes ago, BEARlyThereCDN said:

My two issues with Carenado:

• Poor documentation
• No paint kits

I recently purchased the TBM850 (I fell in love with MSFS 2020's TBM and watching YouTube video's of the RL TBM's). No paint kit, no documentation on how to do a cold and dark. I learned more from the RL YouTube videos than I did from the Carenado purchase. 😒

After doing some research (which I should have done BEFORE my purchase 🙄), I come to find this is a issue with most of their products. Never again. As fast as Carenado gained a new customer, they lost one.

I would add to that the sometimes poor flight model, poor systems modeling, and bugs that are never addressed.

[HighBypass 2,339]

FWIW - Here's a screenshot of the documentation folder which came with the Rockwell AC11 Commander 114 (purchased via Steam) it appears quite comprehensive..

Their 337 Skymaster has a similar folder. I cannot comment on Carenado's other aircraft as I do not have them. Hope this helps.

[Chock 17,769]

47 minutes ago, BEARlyThereCDN said:

My two issues with Carenado:

• Poor documentation
• No paint kits

no documentation on how to do a cold and dark.

Regardless of the documentation, either good or bad, quite a lot of the time you'll find that Carenado stuff is not the best port of call if you are interested in doing stuff such as 'cold and dark' start ups anyway. I don't think anyone will deny they have a history of having made some very pretty models, but the systems side of things is not and never has really been their strong point. To be fair to Carenado, I don't think they ever really claim otherwise and the price point of their products is perhaps another indication that this is the case.

This is somewhat reflected in their documentation too, in that a simple simulation will often have simple documentation, although this is not always the case from every company. For example, I think a lot of add-on makers could learn a thing or two from the documentation which comes with the NXGN Cessna Citation CJ4, which is excellent and very detailed considering the add-on itself is a very inexpensive one.

Personally, I will only really consider purchasing Carenado stuff if the following boxes are ticked for me: 'it's the only game in town' and I've thought carefully about being 'prepared to accept its limitations', in that systems-wise, it's almost certainly only going to be a reasonably okay approximation of how the real aeroplane functions, rather than some obsessive study sim treatment of whatever aeroplane is being replicated.

For example, I bought the Carenado ATR-72 (or A72 as they call it) because I needed a model of this to study some visual stuff for something I'm currently writing. I work on the real ATR 72, which means I can study those too. But since the real things tend to be in and out on really fast spins of as little as 30 minutes duration, and bearing in mind that I am at work when interacting with them, they are not their for my benefit, so my prime concern is (and should be) getting the things in and out safely and in a timely fashion, not personal projects lol. Hence me buying that Carenado model. Thus systems-wise it doesn't really matter that it doesn't do Hotel Mode correctly or doesn't have a realistic FMC or whatever, nor does its documentation matter to me either, in fact I haven't even bothered looking at the documentation for it at all.

Carenado stuff is okay if you are prepared to accept that they rarely fix bugs and you acknowledge that you get what you pay for.

Edited February 8, 2020 by Chock

[airernie 263]

46 minutes ago, HighBypass said:

Their 337 Skymaster has a similar folder. I cannot comment on Carenado's other aircraft as I do not have them. Hope this helps.

I have the 337 and while the folder lists several items there is no in depth information about the aircraft.  Just a list of procedures, and V speeds.  The file size is large because it contains a graphic backgrounds similar to what is included with the aircraft not because of the amount of information..

For the best 337 documentation, but sadly not so great a FS2004 to FSX port, you have to look to FSD International.  Now that's some documentation..

[HighBypass 2,339]

Thank you Ernie and point taken. FSD docs  -WOW!   This is why we all differ somewhat in our ideas and opinions - to me, the Carenado list of V speeds and procedures is (was, since looking at FSD!) comprehensive, in so much that I am using the plane in a home flight sim and not in full-on study level training.

[forkedtail 5]

Thank you all for the many interesting comments.  Glad to see I am not the outlyer on this issue.

[stans 702]

On 2/8/2020 at 8:00 AM, Chock said:

Personally, I will only really consider purchasing Carenado stuff if the following boxes are ticked for me: 'it's the only game in town' and I've thought carefully about being 'prepared to accept its limitations'

Me too.  Absolutely stunning models and often fairly easy on computer performance, at least with and analog cockpit, but beyond that it is a real mixed bag.