13 hours ago, Orlaam said:

Quite a few things will help.  Hardware.  You don't realize how much hardware matters until you get something decent.  Personally, I find a good yoke important, along with pedals.  I can do the Airbus thing with a side stick, but it's not the same for some reason.  Also, some aircraft are horrible with the flight dynamics.  The A2A Comanche is a very difficult plane to land imo.  I've only used it in 2020, but the wind effect is not easy to deal with, and speed must be dialed in perfectly.  I don't find it too enjoyable because it is so difficult.  

Also, I find 2024 to be much better in terms of wind control and centerline tracking.  Now the default Cessna 408 seemed to be decent for being forgiving.  I've flown it once, I just dislike the G1000/3000 integrations.  I like the Cessna 404 as well.  The Cessna 152 is decent too, although I can tip over in turns (not exceedingly unrealistic).  The Longitude and CJ4 are great.  Haven't messed with anything else default to comment much.  I know the C208 was a floating joke in 2020, so I doubt it's changed.  

I really like the Black Square flight dynamics, but they have only released the Starship in 2024.  It is a slightly harder plane to land, as you can't kill power and not float forever or drop like a rock.  I love the Starship myself.  The Black Square developer is working on a new Baron and C208.  Those will be great.  Hopefully the Duke will be ported over to 2024 as an official update.  It's a phenomenal add-on in 2020.  His planes are more complicated though.  I heard the COWS is a great add-on as well.  Not sure if it's 2024 compatible yet.  

I also advise against land-rate monitor tools.  They seem to be very unrealistic and set unrealistic expectations.  Looking at an outside replay is a much more reliable way to just see how the landing appears.  

Just a few of my landings, and I never use a Yoke, just a Trustmaster T16000M joystick. I am pretty good at landing an aircraft in real life too. 

 

Landing rate	Distance	Flight time
23JUL25 2005Z	KSPI		KMKC	Beech 60 Royal Turbine Duke (B60T)	-40 ft/m	244 nm	01:12	View
23JUL25 1618Z	KPIT		KLOM	Beech 60 Royal Turbine Duke (B60T)	-197 ft/m	254 nm	01:03	View
23JUL25 1406Z	KEWR		KPIT	Beech 60 Royal Turbine Duke (B60T)	-7 ft/m	310 nm	01:29	View
22JUL25 2059Z	KBTV		KEWR	Beech 60 Royal Turbine Duke (B60T)	-58 ft/m	263 nm	01:07	View
21JUL25 2048Z	KMVY		KBTV	Socata TBM-850 (TBM8)	-82 ft/m	243 nm	01:09	View
21JUL25 1659Z	KJFK		KMVY	Socata TBM-850 (TBM8)	-82 ft/m	188 nm	00:47	View
21JUL25 1346Z	PHTO		PHMK	Socata TBM-850 (TBM8)	-68 ft/m	157 nm	00:43	View
20JUL25 2019Z	RJOT		RJFT	Socata TBM-850 (TBM8)	-17 ft/m	210 nm	00:55	View
20JUL25 1402Z	RJTT		RJOT	Socata TBM-850 (TBM8)	-78 ft/m	316 nm	01:23	View
19JUL25 2047Z	RJBB		RJTT	Socata TBM-850 (TBM8)	-107 ft/m	311 nm	01:18	View
19JUL25 1628Z	RJAA		RJBB	Socata TBM-850 (TBM8)	-98 ft/m	320 nm	01:17	View
19JUL25 1422Z	KMKE		KMSP	Socata TBM-850 (TBM8)	-58 ft/m	276 nm	01:16	View
18JUL25 2131Z	CYDA		CYXY	Socata TBM-850 (TBM8)	-138 ft/m	302 nm	01:15	View
18JUL25 1644Z	PAFA		CYDA	Socata TBM-850 (TBM8)	-68 ft/m	330 nm	01:23	View
18JUL25 1419Z	PANC		PAFA	Socata TBM-850 (TBM8)	-41 ft/m	244 nm	01:00	View
17JUL25 2156Z	KDAB		KATL	Socata TBM-850 (TBM8)	-89 ft/m	337 nm	01:19	View
16JUL25 2216Z	KFLL		MYGF	Socata TBM-850 (TBM8)	-97 ft/m	84 nm	00:30	View
16JUL25 2015Z	KATL		KBQK	Socata TBM-850 (TBM8)	-84 ft/m	226 nm	01:01	View
16JUL25 1828Z	KGNV		KATL	Socata TBM-850 (TBM8)	-76 ft/m	301 nm	01:19	View
16JUL25 1415Z	Unknown		KATL	Socata TBM-850 (TBM8)	-55 ft/m	151 nm	00:42	View
13JUL25 2036Z	EBBR		EDDV	Pilatus PC-12 (PC12)	-113 ft/m	301 nm	01:20	View
13JUL25 1635Z	LFSB		EBBR	Pilatus PC-12 (PC12)	-46 ft/m	291 nm	01:20	View
13JUL25 1409Z	LOWI		LFSB	Pilatus PC-12 (PC12)	-105 ft/m	232 nm	01:06	View
12JUL25 2206Z	KSAV		KATL	Pilatus PC-12 (PC12)	-73 ft/m	215 nm	01:03	View
12JUL25 1712Z	KABE		KBED	Pilatus PC-12 (PC12)	-170 ft/m	249 nm	01:04	View

 

The nearest I think I’ve ever come to losing an aircraft was on take off, and it was very close.

Forgive me if I don’t go into the details , my current employer wouldn’t like it.

24 minutes ago, martinboehme said:

I don't think it's that clear-cut.

Let's take a look first at GA. Here's the NTSB's GA accident dashboard for the period from 2012 to 2021:

https://www.ntsb.gov/safety/data/Pages/GeneralAviationDashboard.aspx

At first glance, takeoff does seem to be more dangerous than landing. While landing is the phase with the greatest total number of accidents, takeoff has far more fatal accidents (145) than landing (67).

 

I'm not sure where you are getting it. For GA aircraft loss of control is number one killer. Within "loss of control",  maneuvering for landing is number one contender.   

Edited July 24, 2025Jul 24 by sd_flyer

11 minutes ago, jon b said:

The nearest I think I’ve ever come to losing an aircraft was on take off, and it was very close.

Forgive me if I don’t go into the details , my current employer wouldn’t like it.

I've seen several very experience retired airline pilots died during  an engine failure in light twin right after take off. Some of them where actually test flying aircraft after engine maintenance... Roll over and crash 😞

21 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

I am pretty good at landing an aircraft in real life too. 

 

You are lucky Bob. I'm only confident in one thing - I can land ! But still not sure if I'm pretty good and landings! LOL I remember during power off 180 I could touch wheels right at second centerline still I thought my landings were pretty crappy, but good enough to pass exam LOL

21 minutes ago, sd_flyer said:

I'm not sure where you are getting it. For GA aircraft loss of control is number one killer. 

That's exactly what I said?

46 minutes ago, martinboehme said:

By the way, although many pilots are rightly concerned about the possibility of an engine failure, the dominant cause of fatal accidents in GA is loss of control in flight with 976 fatal accidents, compared to engine failure with 214 fatal accidents.

 

10 minutes ago, sd_flyer said:

You are lucky Bob. I'm only confident in one thing - I can land ! But still not sure if I'm pretty good and landings! LOL I remember during power off 180 I could touch wheels right at second centerline still I thought my landings were pretty crappy, but good enough to pass exam LOL

One of my Instructors had me practice one-wheel landings in a crosswind. I got so crosswinds never bothered me. 

40 minutes ago, martinboehme said:

That's exactly what I said?

 

What I meant that it was still accounted for landings, although if you ask me engine failure right after take off would be most scariest scenario for me

3 hours ago, jcomm said:

Yes, unless your engine fails, sometimes the only propelling your aircraft, right when all or a good deal of it's power was needed... That's what makes takeoffs a LOT more dangerous than landings, across pretty much the full spectrum of aircraft types... specially when around the airfield a place to land safely is difficult to find...

With age, whenever I travel in an aircraft I feel "respect" for the takeoff... OFC other phases of flight have their potential problems too, but the takeoffs are particularly critical.

I work right in the middle of Lisbon Airport, and believe me, each time I see a heavy A342 taking off from rw 20 I think to myself, what if ....

As a glider pilot IRL I evaluate and try to know very well all my options for each airfield I operate from and type of launch I can use. As a simmer I used to enjoy playing engine failures and other critical failures when taking off from airfields situated in tricky places if you need to find some spot to land in an emergency. It's a very interesting type of challenge, that you can play with in FS 2024 thanks to the very detailed scenery, pretty much all around the World.

I see what you're saying, but we're talking about a sim where an engine failure is guaranteed never to happen.  Worst case, you get a CTD 🙂

6 hours ago, Virtual-Chris said:

The Asobo Caravan can remain airborne at much lower torque settings but it seems to me that it’s got the opposite problem where it just wants to float forever. Neither of them seem to be modelled accurately, and they are not even in the same ball park 😑

When are you pulling back power? Once you have the runway made you can slowly pull back power and glide down to the runway, this may help a bit with the floating. I haven't had an issue with floating on the Asobo Caravan, but I have had issues with it seemingly entering beta when I cut the throttle so that may be slowing me down more (I don't have detents for beta/reverse on my throttle, and it's most noticeable if I cut the power during short final because the nose drops).

But forget the Caravan or the Kodiak... how are you at landing the default 172? A lot of folks go straight to the bigger planes when in real life you would be starting on a lowly trainer like a 172 or Warrior. If you master the lower and slower aircraft, you can use those skills as you go on to bigger and faster things.

And it's been said here before but it bears repeating: It's easier to land a plane in real life! I use that as my excuse whenever I have a hard landing in the sim (but it's been a while since I've landed in real life, so those would probably be worse!)