Some developers you want to support because they just do such fine work you have to say yeah I will purchase that put it in the hangar and now and then have a play. I am a a bit of a sucker for the Beech Bonzanza and particularly with the Thranda's work so now the F33 Debonair and the V35 Bonanza are in the hangar. The Bonanza Beech built them by the thousands - still waiting for an analoque A36 but I am sure Thranda will come good there. Having flown the Bonanza a few times in the RW gutsy beast nice and comfortable armchair flying It seemed like. Touring the countryside in your favourite armchair - that was Beech and the Bonza.

Thranda's output is exceptional and worthy of my attentions. After all two Bonanzas (F33 and V35), A C206, A DHC2 Beaver, the Kodiac, Cessna 337. alas the Wilga, Pilatus Porter or the Pc12 and the C208Grand Caravan are not my cup of tea so leave be.

Edited Sunday at 03:21 AM4 days by coastaldriver

Got a few of theirs myself

Never got anything from Thandra, but I'm tempted :-)

I buy (too) many aircraft from developers because I want to support them. I have a few I seldom if ever fly but I want the few X-Plane developers to survive and continue. Thranda is doing good work. Give them a try if you haven't already done so.

I do my best to support the developers as much as I can. But I also find it important to join their discord as well. It is the best place where you can make your voice heard on the things you may want. The feature request I think is very value in letting them know through voting for the feature that were requested as well as letting them know the platform/OS you are interest in seeing support.

yes the cost is minimal to help maintain a healthy model ecosystem in XPlane. There is also a healthy freeware or community model developers beavering away mostly in the light aircraft areas but a few standouts and plenty of updates still a few about drop a new one and then leave them incomplete - intentions getting in the road of execution. Now and then some crash outs. A lua stuff up can ruin your sim day real quick.

17 hours ago, coastaldriver said:

Some developers you want to support because they just do such fine work you have to say yeah I will purchase that put it in the hangar and now and then have a play. I am a a bit of a sucker for the Beech Bonzanza and particularly with the Thranda's work so now the F33 Debonair and the V35 Bonanza are in the hangar. The Bonanza Beech built them by the thousands - still waiting for an analoque A36 but I am sure Thranda will come good there. Having flown the Bonanza a few times in the RW gutsy beast nice and comfortable armchair flying It seemed like. Touring the countryside in your favourite armchair - that was Beech and the Bonza.

Thranda's output is exceptional and worthy of my attentions. After all two Bonanzas (F33 and V35), A C206, A DHC2 Beaver, the Kodiac, Cessna 337. alas the Wilga, Pilatus Porter or the Pc12 and the C208Grand Caravan are not my cup of tea so leave be.

I just got their PC-6 and it’s REP upgrade because a taildragger turboprop is “interesting” 😁

Also includes floats, skis, tundras, external “drop” tanks, etc.

It’s also one of the few TP’s that are certified to use Beta prop in flight (allows a steep dive without overspeed)

And because of the high wing and large glass doors, the sightseeing view is quite nice.

For me, it’s a lot more satisfying than a C172/182 and is obvs far more capable.

So far, so good 👍

P.s.: for an analogue A36, check out the PAE rendition. Has REP built in, too - quite immersive!

14 hours ago, jcomm said:

Never got anything from Thandra, but I'm tempted :-)

Dude, For real, pick one up and add its REP. Extremely good experience.

Or their PC-12 is well done (no REP yet, but it’s in the pipline). “NoJoe”, a long time Thranda guy, flies PC-12’s for a living and is making sure it’s a representative addon. 🤙

Tho there are plenty of good XP devs, one of my personal favs is VSkyLabs.

IIRC, Huff, the lead dev, is a former fighter pilot.

All their addons are native XP code, so they definitely perform and fly well.

The thing I like most about VSL tho, is their constant stream of uncommon aircraft that use XP to its aero engineering strengths.

NOTAR helicopter? Check.

Rutan Pond Racer? Check.

Plywood 1st Gen jet fighter? Check.

“Fake” stealth fighter? Double Check!! 😎

Tho the Org sale is over, the VSL Rutan canard delta is presently on sale for half off at $20:

VSKYLABS Aerospace Simulations

VSKYLABS Rutan LongEZ. Highly Engineered LongEZ Simulatio...

The Rutan LongEZ is a high performance home built aircraft, designed by the aerospace legend Burt Rutan back in the 80's.

Weird plane? Yet another great reason to fly XP!! 😁👍

16 hours ago, jcomm said:

Never got anything from Thandra, but I'm tempted :-)

JC you are truly missing out. Well worth it have numerous from those guys. VERY GOOD WORK!

20 hours ago, coastaldriver said:

Some developers you want to support because they just do such fine work you have to say yeah I will purchase that put it in the hangar and now and then have a play. I am a a bit of a sucker for the Beech Bonzanza and particularly with the Thranda's work so now the F33 Debonair and the V35 Bonanza are in the hangar. The Bonanza Beech built them by the thousands - still waiting for an analoque A36 but I am sure Thranda will come good there. Having flown the Bonanza a few times in the RW gutsy beast nice and comfortable armchair flying It seemed like. Touring the countryside in your favourite armchair - that was Beech and the Bonza.

Thranda's output is exceptional and worthy of my attentions. After all two Bonanzas (F33 and V35), A C206, A DHC2 Beaver, the Kodiac, Cessna 337. alas the Wilga, Pilatus Porter or the Pc12 and the C208Grand Caravan are not my cup of tea so leave be.

Oh, and another other:

A. Thranda makes all the Just Flight conversions for XP (e.g., the Piper Arrows).

B. The best bang for the buck airliner in XP, the JF BAe 146, was also converted by Thranda. 🤙

C. They also used to do all the Carenado conversions, but that relationship went south…

Edited Monday at 12:20 AM3 days by UrgentSiesta

11 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

C. They also used to do all the Carenado conversions, but that relationship went south…

Yes, sadly Carenado went south and not only abandoned X-Plane but will not allow Thranda and others to re-tune their XP11 planes to XP12 levels with a couple of exceptions before they cut everyone off. They had several that we still "need" in XP12 like the Beech 1900, B200 KingAir, C182.

6 hours ago, mldavis2 said:

Yes, sadly Carenado went south and not only abandoned X-Plane but will not allow Thranda and others to re-tune their XP11 planes to XP12 levels with a couple of exceptions before they cut everyone off. They had several that we still "need" in XP12 like the Beech 1900, B200 KingAir, C182.

There are so many genuinely great addons in XP that I’ve never missed their mid-grade stuff at all.

Well, I did enjoy their PC-12 with (I.e., “because of”) the REP upgrade. But any standalone Carenado…? Nah - that’s an easy pass.

For e.g., why waste time with the KA 200 when the AFL is available? And Thrandas own stuff is easily as good as Carenado

And if it’s any consolation, they’re STILL mid-grade even in MSFS 2024.

My personal stance is: “Friends don’t let friends buy Carenado.”

4 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

There are so many genuinely great addons in XP that I’ve never missed their mid-grade stuff at all.

Well, I did enjoy their PC-12 with (I.e., “because of”) the REP upgrade. But any standalone Carenado…? Nah - that’s an easy pass.

For e.g., why waste time with the KA 200 when the AFL is available? And Thrandas own stuff is easily as good as Carenado

And if it’s any consolation, they’re STILL mid-grade even in MSFS 2024.

My personal stance is: “Friends don’t let friends buy Carenado.”

The Saab 340B is a good tweak on the basic Carenado. Thranda made some better versions. My complaint is not that we no longer have Carenado, it is that they have blocked better developers from being able to make better planes out of their list. They no longer sell to XP12 users. they used to let Thranda (and others?) work on their planes. No longer. Who knows why. It's not costing them anything now, except that those who have both XP and MSFS are not buying Carenato for MSFS.

Well, it’s their IP to do with as they please, after all.

And anyone can certainly still buy their XP 11 addons.

As to why they haven’t upgraded those from 11 to 12…? Well, even tho the graphics files come across decently, all the coding has to be re-done from scratch. So it is still a tremendous amount of work.

Once Thranda dropped out (presumably because it wasn’t profitable for them), no one else seems to have stepped up to partner with Carenado.

Given the high number of sales for MSFS, The subcontractor work was probably more trouble than it’s worth to manage.

And it may just have been that MS forbade them from continuing on in XP…? Seems similar to how iniBuilds abruptly exited the XP market, as well. 🤷‍♂️