Carenado Seneca Released

[Bobsk8 12,521]

2 hours ago, Dillon said:

They've never been study level but decent just the same. They actually exceed that tag line you quoted especially with this latest rendition of the Seneca in FS2020.  I skipped FSX because that sim was a hog on day one and never ran right even on later hardware.  The development of that sim had future hardware requirements totally wrong when it came to CPU multi-core versus dual core.  The tweaking requirement was the worst we've seen in the hobby.  Then came P3D.  It was better based on FSX code requiring an insane hardware requirement for things like the video card.  What you got in return was not that much different from FSX but it was more stable.  Much of the aircraft I purchased from Carenado was for FS9.  So yes you could say I've been under a rock for the most part until now as I wanted a platform first and foremost to run decently let alone the add-ons on top of it.  Carenado has always delivered.  Even today all their birds to me are decent and look great.  The Arrow has it's place right along side the JF version.  Both are two different generation of the Arrow and the nuances of both are nothing more than you would see in the real world.  What Carenado is doing now is outstanding for FS2020 especially looking at what's in store in their hanger.  I can't wait for most of those birds to be transferred to FS2020. It's the same as looking at FlightBeam's and FlyTampa's offerings and wanting to see those renditions in FS2020.  The new sim makes things shine more than what we saw in older versions of Flight Simulator.  So with a new well running sim (advanced features, supported, and taking advantage of the latest hardware) much of this stuff will shine more than we saw before.  Carenado has way too many amazing titles to sit back and judge them on past mistakes or oversites.  I'd rather look at how bad FSX was in general versus holding anything over our add-on developers.  We need our community to advance this hobby and keep elevating the standard.  We wouldn't have the quality of the default planes in FS2020 if it weren't for the standard developers like Dreamfleet, Carenado, and Eaglesoft laid out so many years ago starting with FS9 all the way up to today.

Holding on to sour grapes only get's you left behind... 🧐

The Carenado Arrow is a horrible  representation of that aircraft. Just put it into a stall, and you will see why. I know of no Piper aircraft that stalls and enters a spin like the Carenado Arrow. 

[Treetops45 1,081]

The S-TEC AP - I can VS to a desired altitude then hit ALT to hold that altitude, but can't find where to preset the desired ALT & let the VS take the aircraft there, then have it level off automatically.

Is this as it should be?

T45

Edited May 3, 2021 by Treetops45

[Dillon 2,197]

1 hour ago, Bobsk8 said:

The Carenado Arrow is a horrible  representation of that aircraft. Just put it into a stall, and you will see why. I know of no Piper aircraft that stalls and enters a spin like the Carenado Arrow. 

I haven’t used it much since the latest patch and the JF release.  I’ll have to check out it’s stall behavior.  That being said their 182 is worse in a stall as it enters a spine you can’t get out of.  Now that’s bad.  The model is bad as well as you either sit so low in the cockpit to see your turn in taxi or adjust to proper height and see nothing from side to side.  The nose is pitched too high on the ground.  I saw one at my local airport and the owner let me check it out.  There are some similarities but the Corenado model is overdone.  Chock said it best in the above post. I find most of their work decent with a few exceptions.

[Matchstick 1,885]

1 hour ago, Treetops45 said:

The S-TEC AP - I can VS to a desired altitude then hit ALT to hold that altitude, but can't find where to preset the desired ALT & let the VS take the aircraft there, then have it level off automatically.

Is this as it should be?

T45

You can't - altitude pre-select is an optional extra for the S-Tech 55x and presumable Carenado haven't sprung for that on this model.

[Bobsk8 12,521]

43 minutes ago, Dillon said:

I haven’t used it much since the latest patch and the JF release.  I’ll have to check out it’s stall behavior.  That being said their 182 is worse in a stall as it enters a spine you can’t get out of.  Now that’s bad.  The model is bad as well as you either sit so low in the cockpit to see your turn in taxi or adjust to proper height and see nothing from side to side.  The nose is pitched too high on the ground.  I saw one at my local airport and the owner let me check it out.  There are some similarities but the Corenado model is overdone.  Chock said it best in the above post. I find most of their work decent with a few exceptions.

I got their 182 as my first purchase from the Market. Flew it about twice and that was enough for me. It's on blocks in the hangar. 

[Matchstick 1,885]

3 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

I got their 182 as my first purchase from the Market. Flew it about twice and that was enough for me. It's on blocks in the hangar. 

The 182 really isn't good but the M20R and Seminole are both substantially better to fly at least.

Edited May 3, 2021 by Matchstick

[Bobsk8 12,521]

1 minute ago, Matchstick said:

The 182 really isn't good but the M20R and Seminole are both substantially better to fly at least.

Yeah I like the Mooney and flew it all the time until the JF Arrow was released. 

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,798]

11 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

Yeah I like the Mooney and flew it all the time until the JF Arrow was released. 

The Carenado Mooney still better for longer flights on autopilot.  50 knots faster and it lets you do VS/FLC altitude changes.

 

[Cpt_Piett 4,522]

6 minutes ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

and it lets you do VS/FLC altitude changes

The Mooney autopilot confuses me. That is the altitude management. I select target altitude, then "ARM" then "ENGAGE" (if I remember correctly). I then fiddle with the clickspot to change to vertical speed and fiddle even more to set VS. I don't think it could be more cumbersome. 

Does the Seneca have a similar version? 

[Chock 17,769]

36 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

I got their 182 as my first purchase from the Market. Flew it about twice and that was enough for me. It's on blocks in the hangar. 

The Carenado 182T is almost certainly the least impressive of their MSFS releases; it is the one I'd be least likely to recommend. It was significant in being the first payware plane to make it out of the door for MSFS, and on the subject of making it out of the door, it does at least demonstrate you can have them working in MSFS, but beyond that it is hard to recommend it in favour of other offerings.

Taken in isolation as something to fly about in it is alright, but on a side-by-side test with the default 172, it's not significantly different from that 172 in flight characteristics, such as having better penetration as the real thing does, given its increased weight, different wing, engine, prop etc. The real 182 is far better in IMC than a 172 which is why Cessna makes them and why people buy them, but not in MSFS with the Carenado depiction of it. Ultimately this means there isn't really much justification for having it in your virtual hangar since you've already got an aeroplane which does pretty much everything it can do by default, and in fact you have two if you bought the Premium Deluxe version of the sim.

I was glad when the 182T showed up however, since it proved we would not be waiting forever to get some add-on aeroplanes for MSFS and I think the fact that Carenado got the first punch in was a shock to some developers and gave them a bit of a spur to up their game too, so even if I don't fly it much, I do still kind of approve of it for these reasons at least.

 

Edited May 3, 2021 by Chock

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,798]

28 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

The Mooney autopilot confuses me. That is the altitude management. I select target altitude, then "ARM" then "ENGAGE" (if I remember correctly). I then fiddle with the clickspot to change to vertical speed and fiddle even more to set VS. I don't think it could be more cumbersome. 

Does the Seneca have a similar version? 

Mooney for me -   so long as you are not in ALT hold mode already -- just set the altitude and hit the arm button.  It will default to a 500 fpm climb or 500 fpm descent to your selected altitude and then switch to hold mode. Really simple, select altitude and hit arm.

I think there are situations where you have been already on altitude hold where it may default to 0 fpm and you need to play with VS but that rarely happens for me. 

It may work better for me be because I have the gn530 mod installed ? Not sure.

No idea about the Seneca.

Edited May 3, 2021 by Glenn Fitzpatrick

[Treetops45 1,081]

1 hour ago, Matchstick said:

You can't - altitude pre-select is an optional extra for the S-Tech 55x and presumable Carenado haven't sprung for that on this model.

Figured as much.

It climbs pretty quickly on VS so its not a P.I.T.A

T45

[Matchstick 1,885]

Just now, Treetops45 said:

Figured as much.

It climbs pretty quickly on VS so its not a P.I.T.A

T45

Do you know if the the HSI/GS indicator on this Seneca gives GS information when doing an RNAV approach ?

[Cpt_Piett 4,522]

19 minutes ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

Really simple, select altitude and hit arm.

Thanks! 

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,798]

4 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

Thanks! 

Pretty sure it works that way by default but if not install the gn530 mod.

In fact install it anyway it is a huge improvement over the default 530 and lets you do things like retrieve flight plans.

Note there is also a mod out there that puts a touchscreen 750 into the Mooney instead of the 530.

Edited May 3, 2021 by Glenn Fitzpatrick