Funky D

Texture-wise, I think the new satellite imagery and PG come close to the resolution of DD's Chicago Landmarks, minus the crazy performance hit. You can see signs, murals and graffiti on buildings and read billboards along the expressways. The elevation data also seems to have been updated, at least on the PG, which makes things look more sharp and less "melted". I'll take the darker buildings downtown over the light-colored buildings speckled throughout DD's scenery that stood out like a sore thumb. The dark buildings are unfortunately a result of the satellite data... glass buildings tend to be too dark and while there is some reflection on some of the buildings, it's not as intense as the reflections you see off a glass building in real life. Once you add shadows as well it all becomes too dark at a distance. It would be nice if there were a "lite" Chicago Landmarks addon created some day that only included the most popular landmarks with less of a performance hit than the DD scenery. Giving proper textures/materials to 20 or so buildings downtown could go a long way to brightening up the area, but it may be tricky to make it fit in with the PG.

It is strange that this person seemingly created an AVSim account solely to bash this plane. It's almost like too many good things were being said about the iFly and they wanted to bash it a bit for the "algorithm". Anyways, I'll leave those conspiracy theories at the door.

Last I checked, it wasn't compatible with 2024 (duplicate taxiway markings and other weird stuff). It was a great airport in 2020 tho!

They finally updated the 15-year-old satellite data in Chicago... Maggie Daley Park is no longer an ugly construction zone, but the sim overdid the trees as usual. Would have been nice to see a bespoke KPWK, but I'll take the updated imagery (even prior to the update, the PG in Chicago was pretty high res).

The marketplace version has been updated. Flies like a different plane, in a good way! Much more stable and predictable... in the past I was always fighting with the rudder/rudder trim to try and keep it coordinated. Now I can set full right rudder trim on takeoff and not touch it again until cruise. Turns don't send the turn coordinator flying all over the place anymore, I can easily predict how much rudder it needs. Pattern work was much less work than prior to the update. Short final was also predictable. I won't resurrect the Kodiak vs BS Caravan thread, but @sd_flyer , you can now bring this bird in fully loaded at 75kts without falling from the sky. I floated it to test the stall speed and it matched up to the speed tape, although I don't think it's normal to bring it in that slow IRL (and controls were unbearably sluggish at those speeds). I just did some pattern work and a quick skydive career mission to make sure that was fixed (it was), but my initial impressions were good. The Kodiak has been collecting dust in my hangar, but suffice to say I will be flying it a bit more now. I'd encourage anyone else who has shelved it to give it another go!

Some aircraft are modified as well... I read there are aftermarket autothrottle systems available that some Phenoms have installed. The factory-available autothrottle has only been around for a year or so and none of the real pilots who tested this addon have used it, which is why it was omitted. Looks like 72 Phenoms were delivered last year and I'm sure not all of them are fully decked out, so the autothrottle versions are likely still pretty rare in the wild.

I've found the FADEC system handles this nicely though... even if the throttle is slightly off, the power numbers are usually dead on or within 0.1-0.2% of what the target should be. You can use the power numbers instead of looking down at the throttle as well... as you pull back the throttle after takeoff for instance, you'll notice the power status on the MFD changes from TO to CLB along with the optimal power setting. Get close to these target numbers and the FADEC seems to handle the rest.

Not sure how many "VIP's" you've had to deal with in real life, but this sounds pretty realistic to me! You are basically dealing with a millionaire/billionaire toddler who is used to getting everything they want on a silver platter. Anything that isn't perfect is your fault, because you are the only one they can blame!

I'm wondering if this is basically a compromise to deal with poor ground handling in MSFS. Since you don't really flare with the Phenom as much as you pitch up and fly it into the runway, firming up the suspension may cause bounces or other weird behavior. I've dealt with the same issue in higher crosswinds, but I have yet to have a wing strike (even though it sometimes looks like I should have gotten a wing strike!) Try switching to a different livery and then back... it's mentioned in the manual that this "resets" some of the tablet functionality. What you're experiencing definitely sounds like a bug that a few others are experiencing.

If only Asobo would take notice... This tool seems to cover a few of my main gripes with career mode mission generation: appropriate airports and performance data for aircraft. With a week of actual human man hours and some custom curation of data, you've addressed what Asobo's procedural mission generation system still fails with 1.5 years after launch. Since I'm usually in career mode this tool doesn't have much use for me, but I appreciate your contribution to the community nonetheless!

This whole thread just makes me question why publishers like Orbx still exist if they don't test or offer assistance to the developers that release products on their behalf? What benefit do they provide that you can't already get by just releasing directly through the marketplace? I would guess any sales gained by including the consoles would surpass the lost revenue from those who refuse to purchase from the marketplace. Like others I was a huge fan of Orbx in the FSX days, and I bought a few of their airports for 2020 that were barely above FSX standards. That was enough to show me the glory days for Orbx were over...

Updates are released to the marketplace within a day or two of the dev sending it to Asobo for review... multiple devs have confirmed this on the official forums. It took much longer a year ago, but the Phenom is proof that marketplace updates can be released quickly. When devs release "exclusively" to other stores first, they are likely doing so because they make more money selling through those channels. When they delay updates, they are likely using the early updates they release directly as beta tests to avoid releasing a buggy update to the MP.

I haven't, but it's probably easier to deal with all of those comments in one place. Raul has also been active on the official forums but the moderation is stricter over there when insults start flying. I reluctantly tried landing on a 4500ft runway last night... winds were calm, and I floated a little bit (still need to get used to flying this thing into the ground as required!) I was very careful with the brakes, only using a bit of pressure at speed and then increasing as I slowed down, and also letting off and back on as I got slow. Had plenty of runway left, so I think braking is just a matter of practice to find the sweet spot. Definitely not flying this bird into any runway less than 4000ft though!

I've never seen this... since this was your first time flying the aircraft, maybe something wasn't fully loaded? Not sure if it uses WASM or not, but I've had quirks the first time I've loaded other WASM aircraft that were fixed after a reload. I'm not sure if you can call the flight dynamics broken... we'd need a real Phenom pilot to confirm, and real pilots did test this. The plane hand flies great; it's just the ground handling at high speeds during takeoff and landing that get squirrely. When I do nail the touchdown it feels great... you really get the feeling of planting the main gear on the runway. I'm wondering if some compromises were made that cause the unstable behavior on the ground. If it does need to be tweaked, hopefully FSR can maintain at least a bit of the challenge in crosswind landings, because many aircraft feel way too stable when you land with a side load, when they should really be rolling a bit in the direction of the load.

The bleed air light should be on. Looking at the Phenom thread in the official forums it looks like other folks are having this issue as well, so it might be a bug that doesn't happen for everyone. You could try switching liveries, I read this helps to "reset" the EFB which could help?