JYW

I completely agree Jon. I had v1 and wasn't blown away with it. V2 is an absolute transformation and has some of the best sounds I've heard in the sim. I have no interest in the fictional 400hp version but the main (real) aircraft version is extremely immersive and, as you alluded, rarely spoken of / underrated. Performance and airframe wise, it's similar to the SWS Rans RV-8 which is also a great addon, but the Gabriel is definitely a tier up in quality and immersion.

So SU7 was installed to some, and then was pulled?

He's the world's greatest snake oil salesman - in some people's opinion 🙂

Over the years, I must have had 20+ refunds from Steam. The last one was an addon for Dovetail Train Sim Classic that was absolutely garbage, but not broken in any way. When applying for a refund from Steam, there are selectable reasons, including words to the effect of "I don't like it". The only time I've been refused a refund from Steam was when I'd waited longer than 24 hours, or had inadvertently run the sim for longer than 2 hours. That one can catch you out. You can use the product in question for only 5 minutes, but if you're host sim session has been longer than 2 hours, you won't get the refund - because they can't track which addons you were using with the host sim. JF have always had that wording. It was on another forum many years ago that someone stated that you can raise a ticket for a refund (but I don't think they actively promote this point). The last refund I had from JF was for JF Traffic 2024, around 4 months ago. On some occasions they've offered a licence transfer to another product in lieu of a refund, which I've gladly accepted. JF are a great company and I would not want to take revenue from them, if there's an alternative that suits both parties.

You spoke my mind! + 1000% It's fine to point out things like "they offer it - it's your choice to buy it", when you're getting the lowest relative prices for MP addons in the world! As you are trying to highlight here @DD, some of us are at the other end of a highly immoral scale of blatent profiteering. The price differential between MP addons between the US and the UK is shocking. (And it's not like MS are paying to ship anything over the Atlantic! 😄). Products being sold only on the MP forces users in countries like the UK to have to submit and pay these extortionate prices - if we want the product. When the FSW Lear was £61 on the MP, it was possible to get it for £39 direct from FSW (the converted US price). That option, of telling MS to stuff their insanely inflated UK prices, and buy from a reputable dev or third party store is something that those of us affected by this scandalous practice don't want to disappear - as I'm sure people can imagine.

Being in the States, I can understand why your perspective here is so black & white. If you'd paid up to 40% more than the US equivalent currency cost for your last 10 purchases from the MP, you might feel differently. A Brit YouTuber whose name escapes me did a brilliant video about 3 months ago, proving that MS charge UK buyers higher prices than anywhere in the world, for MSFS MP purchases. There are some insane examples, such as the FSW Lear, when first released, that was $49 for US customers, and GBP 61 ($80) in the UK. If you were subject to this phenomena you might feel differently. We're not materially richer than people in the US here, by any measure. The absolute opposite is true. I won't dignify any claim from anyone here that my comment is somehow is support of piracy. I have never used a pirated software product in my life and don't even know where such things are found!

I'm afraid this is patently incorrect. Over the last 20 years, I've had around 5 refunds from Just Flight - all no questions asked. To put it into perspective, that's from around 200 purchases. But they have a ticket system that has a configured option to request a refund. Also, on your first point, purchases from the STEAM platform can be refunded without question, within 24 hours or 2 hours of the product's use - whichever comes first.

..and this is the huge point with SI. The difference in quality and immersion between using it to fly in the US and using it anywhere else. If I were to give SI a score for flying VFR in the US, I would give it 9/10. Seriously. Come out of North America and it becomes immediately obvious how much the US has been prioritised over other areas and countries (perhaps understandably - I'm not challenging that choice, just the huge differential in quality). Flying VFR in Europe (outside of the UK, Germany and France) I'd score it 3/10. In Scandinavia they have a couple of voices that you can tell they're trying to make sound like 'chilled' ATCs. But they sound absolutely ridiculous, like they're being played at 0.25 speed.

This is the biggest thing I dislike about SI ............ and they made a huge fanfare when they moved all of the settings to the web browser, about 6 months ago.... like it was a good thing! Full disclosure; I use BATC and my son (an avid simmer also) uses SI. He loves it. He's into Discord and sees no issues with the way the team behind SI conduct themselves sometimes. I was a SI user for 18 months but after criticizing the product in a thread here on AVSIM, Brian (SI CEO) kicked me off the service and refunded every penny I'd paid. To make it clear, this is not something I asked for nor wanted. So, different perspectives see things differently. The single only thing I'm envious of with my son's SI set up, in the GA AI traffic. The ATC? Not at all. My son flies 90% in the UK and Europe and dozens of countries still only have American-accented ATC and pilots. I can't remember which way around it is, but in Norway and Sweden, one is set up with authentic accents from that country, and the other has nothing but American accents. So you cross the border and all immersion is lost when a heavy Texan-accented, deep throaty ATC starts talking to you, in the middle of Scandinavia. That's my biggest issue with where SI is after 2 years; the accents outside of North America should be sorted by now. They seem to do it on a country by country basis. Logic would suggest that it would be better to have generic European accents in countries that aren't set up for regionalization yet. In other words, A Norwegian accented ATC in Sweden is better than all American accents. But that is definitely not how it works.

Yeah, that "Two Oh Six" is awful! 😄 If that had to do that, "Two Zero Six" would have been much better.

Ah thank you, for some reason I thought it was Scotland. Couldn't be more different. 😄 I have almost every payware scenery for the PNW (and some great freeware too) but haven't flown from 1WA6 or 7S3 for a long time. Time for that to change.

Where are you in this pic? It looks incredibly evocative and immersive! Scotland?

That's a different version from the payware AS Twotter that was sold for MSFS2020. For the free native version, AS improved the visuals but stripped out a lot of the systems and complexities. It's one of the worst flying default aircraft as a result. Mind you, the payware AS Twotter wasn't much better! But this free rebuild is a huge improvement. It won't work with the default 2024 Twotter though. It get's installed over the AS payware Twotter for 2020 (even in 2024).

Yes, my apologies I was completely wrong. I've been having some axis issues that caused me to get weird, intermittent power results on the climb. Sorry for the false report!

I might be wrong on the turbocharging - apologies if so. My testing was very rudimentary and Ryan's more thorough feedback is more reliable!

Oh yes. One of the defining negative aspects that makes this very much a Carenado plane. I only took it to 9,000' but I definitely started to lose power, and on pulling back the mixtures... BAM! there's the power back. Such a fundamental.

Well I caved and bought it. I think it really comes down to how you like to fly in MSFS. If you're into bush flying (which I'm not!) there is a lot on offer here and the overall quality is quite good. The usual textures and modeling that Carenado do so well. Sounds are better than past offerings but a headset mode would really improve things. Flight dynamics are a little better than their 182s, 210, Baron, etc but still feel a little generic. The only real additional feature that comes from their new tablet, is the ability to add the cargo pod, etc. Apart from that it;s just a redesigned UI to choose your GTN750 and make the other usual changes. The KFC225 AP is bog standard Carenado, that comes in almost everything and is completely unrealistic in how it operates. It's just a skin for the absolute default KAP140, with all it's inaccuracies. I will fly it very rarely because IMHO, it still feels like a Carenado a lot more than it feels like a 206. Just very generic. But they should be given credit for at least advancing their features a quality - a little.

Welded gear 😄 I'm in exactly the same boat. I know people are seeing (and pointing out) some good firsts for Carenado with this, but I'm seeing things like (i) exactly the same panel that's in so many of their other aircraft, (ii) same KFC225 autopilot that's in everything, etc. Even with the new features I don't think it will float my boat. I have their 210 and fly it for about 5 minutes per year. Just too 'samey' as an aircraft type. Flying Carenado these days just feels soulless, compared to Black Square, A2A, COWS, etc.

Yet the cost firmly still reflects the inclusion of the VTR. Do you really expect potential customers to pay the same amount for just the aircraft, as those who will use the aircraft and the VTR? All I see in your reply above is social media nicities "Come and hang out with us™️", etc. Some of us can see right through it and know the difference between someone genuinely interacting open-mindedly with the community, versus simply using a forum such as this as a PR / marketing channel.

I did miss that, and it's very exciting news so thanks @Bernard Ducret !

If Carenado could add a headset simulation feature, as part of their RealXperience features I could really get on board with this.

It's highly likely it will turn up on Flightsim.to

For me personally (and perhaps others), it's not a case of scepticism, but of simply having no interest in a training package, while still being interested in flying the Cheyenne. I work in education, training and development, and the last thing I want to do in my sim time, is a structured training course 😄 I'm just raising this point, to suggest that perhaps it's not so much the case that there are many prospective purchasers out there, but that they are skeptical about the VTR and/or AI or buying credits. Simply that they want a good addon plane but have no interest in structured training of any type.

Bought it the day of release for 2024 and yes, if you even fly the 172 occassionally, it's a must have. Upgrade from 2020 version at £4 was indeed a bargain! Boris always prices his work incredibly fairly. Contrast that with the very expensive recent release of the TBM sound pack....

😄 I'm currently exploring whether I can replace that track with some James Brown more hardcore funk. It's a nice touch though isn't it! For those not aware what we're referring to, this EV-97 model comes with a MP3 player in the cockpit, that when played, plays a nice 'lounge synth funk track' 😊 The volume buttons even work so you can choose between quiet background music ambience, or blasting it out while you put some holes in the sky.