On 5/4/2026 at 6:15 AM, sd_flyer said:

Last time I tried landing with full gross weight around 75 kts I lost elevator authority. I cranked full power and tried to pitch nose down, but instead Kodiak went straight up, fell on its tail and crashed. So there is still issue after 2 patches.

 

On 5/4/2026 at 6:55 AM, hangar said:

k, I'll wait then since the flying aspect of an addon aircraft is always what's most important to me.
 

Im a little perplexed at this as I don’t have the issue unless the speed drops to 70 or less - Even at max landing weight of 6690-ish. 

The IRL POH doesn’t really focus on landing speeds or configurations, except for short field. There they do recommend max flaps and a 74 knot Vref approach, maintained with pitch rather than power.

I haven’t been able to find performance charts for landing, but I just can’t believe a max weight landing is going to involve the same speeds as a min weight landing…? Just doesn’t make sense to me.

in any case, the addon is perfectly happy on approach at >80kts with full flaps at 6690lbs. Seems reasonable to keep the speed up, esp with gusts  

I also leave a bit of power on until the mains touch, as the POH calls for idle simultaneously with touch down and not before.

Flown like that, the plane is an absolute pussycat. 😎🤙

 

Edited May 5May 5 by UrgentSiesta

2 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

 

Im a little perplexed at this as I don’t have the issue unless the speed drops to 70 or less - Even at max landing weight of 6690-ish. 

The IRL POH doesn’t really focus on landing speeds or configurations, except for short field. There they do recommend max flaps and a 74 knot Vref approach, maintained with pitch rather than power.

I haven’t been able to find performance charts for landing, but I just can’t believe a max weight landing is going to involve the same speeds as a min weight landing…? Just doesn’t make sense to me.

in any case, the addon is perfectly happy on approach at >80kts with full flaps at 6690lbs. Seems reasonable to keep the speed up, esp with gusts  

I also leave a bit of power on until the mains touch, as the POH calls for idle simultaneously with touch down and not before.

Flown like that, the plane is an absolute pussycat. 😎🤙

 

The problem with Kodiak with first sign of stall with correct recovery technique it loses control due lack elevator authority . Which cannot be true for real airplane unless in erroneously loaded with CG aft. BS Caravan is much more realistic with this respect .

17 hours ago, sd_flyer said:

The problem with Kodiak with first sign of stall with correct recovery technique it loses control due lack elevator authority . Which cannot be true for real airplane unless in erroneously loaded with CG aft. BS Caravan is much more realistic with this respect .

When I went to flight school, stalls were always something to be strictly avoided. 🤷‍♂️

while the speeds may not be exactly right, I’d rather have a livelier flight model and tack on a few knots.

The Caravan is great, just like the Turbine Duke, but they’re both waaaay too stable and easy to fly.

There’s no challenge in flying them even on windy, gusty afternoons, which isn’t anything I’ve ever experienced IRL.

Like I said in another post: BS are perfect - IF all you fly are early SoCal mornings. 

Edited May 6May 6 by UrgentSiesta

53 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

When I went to flight school, stalls were always something to be strictly avoided. 🤷‍♂️

But airplanes can still almost always get out of them, especially small airplanes like the Kodiak.

No way the elevator loses its authority in a stall.

1 hour ago, ATRguy said:

But airplanes can still almost always get out of them, especially small airplanes like the Kodiak.

No way the elevator loses its authority in a stall.

Yes, no argument there at all. 🤙

I guess my point is that if I excluded every addon based on its edge of and post envelope flight model, I might not have more than a couple…

To me, that’s only important if the aircraft is intended to be flown at the edge, such as aerobatics, military, and primary trainers. 

This is none of those, and while I’d love to see it added, I’d rather they focus on cleaning up in-envelope/normal behaviors. Hopefully that’s coming with the pending second patch.

2 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

When I went to flight school, stalls were always something to be strictly avoided. 🤷‍♂️

 

I wasn't expected to stall at 75 kts with full flaps and AOA in green. Also a curve ball to you flight school training, when you land GA (on the numbers) at the point of touch down you should be at full stall.

Back to Kodiak, I used slider to load it at 100% assuming it would distribute the weight correctly and place cg at the normal range. But here is aerodynamic inconsistency, if Koidak's CG was aft than stall speed should be much lower and recovery nearly impossible (flat spin) . So Kodiak need some fine tuning FM. As you can see below 76kts is part of emergency ditching 

Short field should support up 74 kts

On 5/5/2026 at 4:36 PM, jon b said:

If you dropped me into that Kodiak blindfolded and let me fly an approach I could tell you straight away who made the flight model. It’s exactly the same as their PC12

Absolutely.

Yet strangely, SWS's older aircraft (RV10 and RV14) have what I consider some of the best light aircraft FDE in the sim.

Things went strange from the PC12 release.  

And this Kodiak definitely has similar issues with controlability on approach.  

2 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

Yes, no argument there at all. 🤙

I guess my point is that if I excluded every addon based on its edge of and post envelope flight model, I might not have more than a couple…

To me, that’s only important if the aircraft is intended to be flown at the edge, such as aerobatics, military, and primary trainers. 

This is none of those, and while I’d love to see it added, I’d rather they focus on cleaning up in-envelope/normal behaviors. Hopefully that’s coming with the pending second patch.

Oh perfectly fair, yeah. 

1 hour ago, sd_flyer said:

I wasn't expected to stall at 75 kts with full flaps and AOA in green. Also a curve ball to you flight school training, when you land GA (on the numbers) at the point of touch down you should be at full stall.

Back to Kodiak, I used slider to load it at 100% assuming it would distribute the weight correctly and place cg at the normal range. But here is aerodynamic inconsistency, if Koidak's CG was aft than stall speed should be much lower and recovery nearly impossible (flat spin) . So Kodiak need some fine tuning FM. As you can see below 76kts is part of emergency ditching 

Short field should support up 74 kts

Yes, yes - been there, done that...

Again, here's the thing: I don't think this addon has ever been sold as a "Study Level" machine or regarded as suitable for IRL practice - has it? Nope. In fact, it's only recently become a better than average addon for anything other than screenshots.

Further: how many aircraft addons perform as exactly to the POH as you're demanding of this one...? Not Many is the correct answer.

If you're not willing to budge on some relatively minor inaccuracies such as a few knots of airspeed, then this clearly isn't the addon for YOU. It's just unseemly to be as hyper critical as you're being, IMHO. 

15 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

If you're not willing to budge on some relatively minor inaccuracies such as a few knots of airspeed, then this clearly isn't the addon for YOU. It's just unseemly to be as hyper critical as you're being, IMHO. 

I don't think it's unreasonable to ask that an aircraft adheres to its published takeoff and landing speeds... we're not talking about exotic stages of flight here.

The Kodiak's landing speed ranges from 60kts (empty) to 75kts (full), so it shouldn't be falling out of the sky at 75kts even fully loaded. That said, SWS has stated they are improving the ground effect with the next update, and all flight dynamics are going to be native 2024, so hopefully this improves things.

Also found this tidbit on Reddit from a real Kodiak pilot:

Quote

The trick to not bouncing the airplane AND not landing halfway down the runway is to MAINTAIN 75 on final THEN keep SOME power in until you touch. The blades will flatten to maintain rpm on the pt6 if you pull power in the flair which creates as much drag as if you put a wood disk at the nose of the airplane same diameter of the prop and slam you into the ground, unlike a regular piston engine. Right before the flair and into the flair you are gently pulling power out then as soon as you touch beta, or if on nice runway maybe full reverse

 

3 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

Yes, yes - been there, done that...

Again, here's the thing: I don't think this addon has ever been sold as a "Study Level" machine or regarded as suitable for IRL practice - has it? Nope. In fact, it's only recently become a better than average addon for anything other than screenshots.

Further: how many aircraft addons perform as exactly to the POH as you're demanding of this one...? Not Many is the correct answer.

If you're not willing to budge on some relatively minor inaccuracies such as a few knots of airspeed, then this clearly isn't the addon for YOU. It's just unseemly to be as hyper critical as you're being, IMHO. 

This is big inaccuracy especially if doesn’t follow emergency check list and certified critical aoa . Kodiak need some work if sws capable to admit and fix

3 hours ago, Funky D said:

I don't think it's unreasonable to ask that an aircraft adheres to its published takeoff and landing speeds... we're not talking about exotic stages of flight here.

The Kodiak's landing speed ranges from 60kts (empty) to 75kts (full), so it shouldn't be falling out of the sky at 75kts even fully loaded. That said, SWS has stated they are improving the ground effect with the next update, and all flight dynamics are going to be native 2024, so hopefully this improves things.

 

17 minutes ago, sd_flyer said:

This is big inaccuracy especially if doesn’t follow emergency check list and certified critical aoa . Kodiak need some work if sws capable to admit and fix

Here’s the thing:

I was looking for an excuse to check out Australia, so I figured this is as good a reason as any. 

Loaded up at Tindal, all seats had butts in them with reasonably accurate adults, plus two kids in the back two seats. 

With just over half fuel, that even left some room in the CG for 40-ish pounds of bags in the far back for a total weight of 6690lbs (max landing weight).

Weather manually set to calm and ISA conditions. Tindal is at 430msl, so close enough for me.

Took off, stayed in the pattern, followed the speeds, and focused on hitting those published numbers, aiming for 74, but letting it flex up to 80 if needed for glide slope.

And wouldn’t ya know it, I just didn’t have any issues after 5 laps. A couple of times I even mistakenly let the speed dip down into the high 60’s, and while the aircraft got noticeably mushy (as expected), it didn’t depart.

The main thing I see here is the flaps drag does still seem to be too high, as if I follow the short field procedure, the necessary down angle to maintain 74 kts at just above idle seems excessive.

Now, this isn’t an addon that I fly often, in fact before the v2 upgrade I hadn’t flown it in literally years. So my technique with the plane isn’t smooth.

But as I said before, it’s fun to fly because it’s lively and you have to pay attention to it, just like IRL aircraft.

So, in sum, this addon isn’t bad at all and should be fine for anyone who’s interested in this type of aircraft.

I look forward to the pending second patch to see how that affects drag and other physics aspects.

 

3 hours ago, Funky D said:

Also found this tidbit on Reddit from a real Kodiak pilot:

 

This is great to see from an IRL Kodiak pilot. And it mirrors pretty well with what the addon does.

The POH notes say that power should be kept on and gradually reduced to idle just at touchdown.

like the guy says, it’s not a piston engine and you can’t fly it like one. 🤙

21 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

This is great to see from an IRL Kodiak pilot. And it mirrors pretty well with what the addon does.

I quoted that post mainly because some folks have noted the Kodiak can sink like a brick, and cutting the power too early could be the reason for it.

I haven't flown the new Kodiak much either; I'm waiting for the next patch to make it compatible with the sky diving missions. I feel like some complaints like the extra draggy flaps are warranted, but there are also folks in other forums complaining about things that likely aren't broken at all.

Needing too much rudder trim is a common complaint... from watching YT vids from Missionary Bush Pilot, the real Kodiak actually needs more rudder trim on takeoff (he uses full right rudder trim). It does seem overly difficult to keep the Kodiak coordinated during transition phases of flight, but I've never flown a beast with this much power so can't comment on that.

I haven't done much off-field landing to experience the "bounciness" of the gear that people have complained about, but the fact that it has any bounce is an achievement... I think the sim can be too forgiving, and I think a lot of sim pilots come in hot during landing but rarely get a bounce or balloon as a punishment.

You can see this in AvAngel's review of the Kodiak... she comes in a bit too hot for a beach landing, cuts the power too early and sinks like a brick, and then gets bounced all over the place. Since you basically need to turn off crash damage in the sim, it's hard to differentiate between "bad physics" vs a genuinely bad landing that would have broken a gear or flipped you in real life, but just catapults you a bit in the sim with crash damage disabled.