This morning I was 100% not going to purchase this.  I had read the very picky "review" on the main flightsim forums from someone who likely is a real pilot on the type.

But since I have Premium Deluxe already the total cost was only 13 USD.  That is extremely cheap - it's hardly more than a full meal at McDonald's for me.  I beta tested the ancient Flight1/Dreamfleet version with Hans many moons ago.  So I thought ah what the heck I'd give it a chance.  And then I started taking screenshots haha.... so I turned my flight into a full flight with STAR and coupled ILS.  The routing was Sarasota FL to Jacksonville FL.  KSRQ FABES TEBOW1 KJAX

Long story short - wow it's a lot better than I thought!  It's worth the price of admission even if I were to pay 20 USD.  I like the avionics - they seem quite deep except for VNAV which I couldn't get to engage.  I only get a PITCH HOLD message.  It may be a descent mode I need to engage in the FMS - not sure yet.  The sounds are okay but I'm not totally sold - they do sound like the king air 350 hehe.  As far as I know the P127M aren't quite the same sounding as the PT6- though both engines share similar mechanics.  Handling seems excessively touchy with regards to pitch but roll is fine.  I flight planned about 280 true at 17k.  Ran into rain showers arriving at JAX so opted for the ILS 8.  Please note that the flight plan track is not coincident with the ILS (on the MFD)...  it's just the end of the STAR - so there is not an issue there.  There are a few different systems to display and even a video camera picture hehe - it's probably static.  I really think most simmers would be okay with this addon - and it does fit the bill for a regional airliner.

There is one annoying bug - the dynamic tail number is mirrored and I'm quite frustrated by this.  It's so easy to notice and it should have been something they addressed prior to release.  Ideally I'd also like VNAV to work but maybe it's a PEBKAC issue 🙂

Hope you enjoy these!

mirror by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

Nice pic ruined by the mirrored reg grrrr

mirror2 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

mirror3 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

The cockpit is very dark - probably related to msfs overall being dark in cockpit with bright skies - I tweaked the cockpit pics a touch to brighten them

mirror4 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

mirror5 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

But the interior textures are very high quality

mirror7 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

The avionics are small but readable

mirror8 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

The EFB is included but appears somewhat lite in features

mirror9 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

mirror10 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

mirror11 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

mirror12 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

mirror14 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

I guess this is sort of a revisionary mode with systems on the MFD

mirror15 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

mirror18 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

Rainy Florida no surprise!

mirror19 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

mirror20 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

This is my favorite pic

mirror23 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

Or this one...

mirror25 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

The exterior model and textures is quite good maybe not the best of the best though.  Again think of the price point 🙂

mirror26 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

mirror29 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

 

 

Amazing. Thanks for the review and experience.
Are there any liveries for this yet?

Great review and superb pictures!

And I fully agree. For that price the ATR is a steal. 

1 hour ago, ryanbatc said:

Handling seems excessively touchy with regards to pitch but roll is fine. 

 

 

Much appreciated for the review.

One question, please. Is any aircraft config file available for editing? 

As with all things in life, it's always best to let the dust settle before arriving at a conclusion. There's a lot of pressure on developers to develop aircrafts that are perfect. This is understandable. However, most sim developers are not companies with large budgets. One developer needs to earn money for a year or two before an aircraft is completed. This translates into up to 300,000 us dollars. Moreover, each aircraft has a huge learning curve with respect to systems, dynamics and other aspects of an aircraft. It's a tough challenge. It's not an apology for poor products. It's the reality of this particular hobby. I remember when FS9 was so easy for aircraft panel designers. In fact, even I had fun creating and editing panels with the famous FS Panel Design. MSFS presents a whole new paradigm, and I suspect that a few more years will need to pass before things begin to flow smoothly. Let's hope that MS keeps supporting it.

Thanks for the pics and the short review, Ryan. I bought it too, at $ or €13 it's a no-brainer. So far I have only hand-flown it, but over on YT I read a comment by a rw ATR pilot, who said that its overall functionality is 80% of the real plane. Over time I expect us to get to 90%, maybe even more, with Hans giving us updates. Of course we all want 100% on day one, but who has delivered that in the past, not even PMDG, so let's be a bit patient, I'm confident we'll get there in the not too distant future. 😉😉

1 hour ago, anden145 said:

Amazing. Thanks for the review and experience.
Are there any liveries for this yet?

Oh certainly!  https://flightsim.to/c/liveries/atr-42-72-600/

1 hour ago, Tim-HH said:

Great review and superb pictures!

And I fully agree. For that price the ATR is a steal. 

Thanks Tim!

51 minutes ago, LRBS said:

Much appreciated for the review.

One question, please. Is any aircraft config file available for editing? 

All I see that might be helpful is a filed called target_performance.cfg - I've never actually heard of it but it has some useful variables inside.  I believe the main aircraft.cfg is hidden behind drm.

49 minutes ago, flyforever said:

As with all things in life, it's always best to let the dust settle before arriving at a conclusion. There's a lot of pressure on developers to develop aircrafts that are perfect. This is understandable. However, most sim developers are not companies with large budgets. One developer needs to earn money for a year or two before an aircraft is completed. This translates into up to 300,000 us dollars. Moreover, each aircraft has a huge learning curve with respect to systems, dynamics and other aspects of an aircraft. It's a tough challenge. It's not an apology for poor products. It's the reality of this particular hobby. I remember when FS9 was so easy for aircraft panel designers. In fact, even I had fun creating and editing panels with the famous FS Panel Design. MSFS presents a whole new paradigm, and I suspect that a few more years will need to pass before things begin to flow smoothly. Let's hope that MS keeps supporting it.

Hah I recall FS Panel software - you make good points overall.

33 minutes ago, bernd1151 said:

Thanks for the pics and the short review, Ryan. I bought it too, at $ or €13 it's a no-brainer. So far I have only hand-flown it, but over on YT I read a comment by a rw ATR pilot, who said that its overall functionality is 80% of the real plane. Over time I expect us to get to 90%, maybe even more, with Hans giving us updates. Of course we all want 100% on day one, but who has delivered that in the past, not even PMDG, so let's be a bit patient, I'm confident we'll get there in the not too distant future. 😉😉

How do you think it flies?  I basically have zero recollection of the old ATR's flight characteristics.  And the only other larger turobprop I knew was the Majestic in P3D.  And I always thought that was one touchy too.  Maybe a feature hehe?

Ryan, nice job. Glad to see I wasn't the only one experiencing the Vnav anomaly. Not sure if its my lack of knowledge how its suppose to work or its just wonky.

57 minutes ago, ryanbatc said:

I basically have zero recollection of the old ATR's flight characteristics. 

Same here, but I thought her flight characteristics are ok for a plane of that size. But that's just me 😄

Great shots and analysis! Like so many things in life, people are quick to jump and criticize instead of first concentrating on the positive. BTW those clouds rock!

Andrew is a NZ ATR pilot (and flightsimmer) and he will walk you through the plane! 

EDIT: ... and I see has already been referenced in the MSFS main forum!

Anyhow, nice set Ryan - "This one" is the shot alright.

 

 

 

Edited April 27, 20233 yr by WingZ

Nice shots Ryan.

Thanks for the review Ryan along with the images.

Some interesting and valid points from others posting here and he price appears very reasonable for what you get.

 

Excellent work Ryan, the perfect aircraft along with its accompanying scenery, well done...

 Darryl