I have only been using MSFS2020 for the last several weeks, and am tempted by the Mooney M20R...but it's a Carenado! in my FS9, FSX and P3D days I bought a number of Carenado planes, but fairly quickly they ended up in my hangar. Either they were buggy (and Carenado has a reputation for not fixing bugs) or I was just disappointed with the aircraft because it didn't seem to fly correctly, etc. As I am mostly a GA flyer, I always went back to the reliable A2A PA28, Comanche, and Bonanza. I like the JF PA28 quite a lot. And I have flown the Carenado PA44, because no other twin with steam gauges is available for MSFC2020.

I have seen some comments from when the Mooney first came out, and after an update fixed some of the issues, that are quite positive. Now here we are in March, so more time to evaluate it. I am not bothered by the price tag. I just don't want to get my hopes up and be disappointed. So my question: is it really OK?

For one of the first addons to come to MSFS, it's fair to good.  There's really no extra features...it's just an analogue aircraft which was nice to have right away (after all the glass cockpit default planes).  I'd call it a "lite" complexity addon.  It's still a plane I use often.

Hi,

As a old time FSX and P3D'er I know to well from were your coming from and your right to fear any "Carenado". 

But I have the M20 and its wonderfull, it no A2A but imo its the best from them for MSFS. I did a flight in it today. It is really really nice. I would recoment it for sure. That and the JF Arrow, thats more A2A but its very slow. But a step up in depth from the M20.

Ryan above has made some wonderful liverys for it.

https://flightsim.to/c/liveries/mooney/

I love this one. 

Edited March 15, 20215 yr by Nyxx

It is quite good, a notch above the default aircrafts in the sim, I like it alot, but don't expect a study level aircraft.

The Mooney and the Just Flight Arrow 3 I would rank up pretty close to an A2A GA aircraft. Both are excellent planes. 

15 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

The Mooney and the Just Flight Arrow 3 I would rank up pretty close to an A2A GA aircraft. Both are excellent planes. 

Mmm. 🤨

In my mind, the Mooney, as an overall package, is probably the best Carenado GA single ever.   Flight model may not be as refined as some of the Berndt Stolle tweaked classics, but it's decent, there aren't any notable bugs at this point that I'm aware of, and it's a nice, fast, pleasant flyer with top-notch graphics.    It's not a deep systems plane, but it's one of my favorites.

In spite of the 'it's a Carenado' and all that implies both good and bad, I'd say it was worth having. Obviously it looks great, that's one thing you can invariably say about Carenado. Most of its avionics are custom made Carenado stuff broadly similar to what you find in their other add-ons, with only the GNS 530 being the default MSFS affair although of course that can be (and has been) tarted up with third party mods.

As far as performance goes, it's reasonably close to the real thing; you might find some of the mixture and prop settings don't quite match the fuel economy of the real thing, but I suspect that's more to do with the mechanics of the sim than being an issue specific to Carenado, and so it does pretty much what you'd expect the real thing to do in terms of flying it.

When people talk about the realism of A2A add-ons, beyond the flight model itself, what really sets their stuff apart is the same as what sets the FSL A320 apart; the little things which don't really affect how it flies, but nevertheless make it more like the real thing, such as the exact voltage drops on electrical meters when you turn various things on and off and the way a panel might vibrate a bit more at a certain engine RPM setting.

There's not much of that going on in the Carenado M20R, but then again it doesn't cost anywhere near as much as an A2A GA aeroplane and most people probably won't be bothered by that kind of stuff anyway unless they are intimately familiar with the real things. I don't think you'd be disappointed with it so long as you aren't expecting that kind of obsessive detail.

Edited March 15, 20215 yr by Chock

I bought it and I am glad.  I fly it a lot.  It has had 3 or 4 patches and is fixed up quite well now.  I think it is one Carenado plane that is worth taking a risk for the purchase price.  Go on!  

I bought it right away due to it having a steam gauge cockpit (vast majority of the default planes are glass).  I have not been disappointed.  I have never been disappointed with Carenado's aircraft (but then again, I've never flown 'study level' aircraft and just looked for something fun to get up in the air).

Mooney is the best Carenado airplane for MSFS up to date. Sadly each consequent aircraft they release fading away from M20. I'm not referring to visual but from starnd point of flight modeling!

I bought it day one and have flown it almost everyday since.  It's a joy to fly.  I have no IRL Mooney experience, but I've heard from a few different people who have, that the flight model feels really good to them.  If GA is your thing, I'd definitely say get it.

1 hour ago, Nyxx said:

Hi,

As a old time FSX and P3D'er I know to well from were your coming from and your right to fear any "Carenado". 

But I have the M20 and its wonderfull, it no A2A but imo its the best from them for MSFS. I did a flight in it today. It is really really nice. I would recoment it for sure. That and the JF Arrow, thats more A2A but its very slow. But a step up in depth from the M20.

Ryan above has made some wonderful liverys for it.

https://flightsim.to/c/liveries/mooney/

I love this one. 

 

I can't believe I didn't swap those colors earlier.  Red and grey look so nice!  Did you check out the new "jagged" blue or red paints?  (Not done by me).

Hello, i loved  A2A PA28, and waiting for Aerostar 600 but i have M20R and PA44 and they are 2 very good planes i fly all the time.

Franck

I wish someone like Rob Young would redo the flight model for this plane, as a Mooney owner, I can say with confidence that the flight model is nowhere close to the real thing. Mooneys take a lot of time to slow down, need to plan way ahead. Some good examples are:

- when shooting an approach and wanting to get the approach speed to the numbers, on the real plane you have to plan ahead, bring MP to 17" and hold attitude and let the speed decay (slowly).

- The other one is when getting ready to enter the pattern, same thing, need to plan ahead. 

- Doing stalls, with Mooney it is almost a guarantee that a wing will drop (even when keeping coordinated), power on stalls, the nose will drop considerably

I have not seen any of these in the P3D version, I dont own the FS20 for these reasons, although I will probably get it eventually. The graphics are very well done, I just wish A2A or similar would tackle that plane (even the older Mooneys like E or C model with the Johnson bar would be fun to see in FS)

Happy landings!

John