Cloud Surfing

I would separate two things: the base sim load and the amount of content it has to scan or validate. With 2024, a fairly clean setup feels quicker than 2020 to me, but once you add downloaded world updates, marketplace aircraft/scenery and Community scenery, the start can still become slow. With fewer than 50 add-ons, I probably would not add another manager as the first step either. I would first try a clean Community folder test, then compare it with only the scenery/aircraft you really need for that flight. If the difference is big, then a linker starts to make sense, even if you only use it for scenery and liveries rather than everything. For aircraft alone I would not expect miracles, but scenery and streamed/downloaded content seem to be where the difference shows up most.

The split is useful, but I still treat Community2024 as the clean/native side and keep anything older or uncertain out of it until I've tested it. It makes troubleshooting a lot easier, because if something odd happens after an update I can disable the legacy batch first instead of trying to remember which add-on came from where. For aircraft and utilities I'm a bit more cautious than with simple liveries or scenery. Some 2020 packages work fine, but I don't assume they are harmless just because they load.

I haven't picked this one up yet, but this thread has been useful because it shows the kind of details that matter after the first impression video is over. For a business jet I care less about the headline feature list and more about whether the avionics, VNAV/approach behavior and general IFR workflow feel believable over a normal sector. If those parts are solid, the Sovereign+ becomes much more interesting to me than just another fast default-style jet.

That's a smart way to handle the airport problem. An owned-airports filter is probably more useful than trying to guess what everyone has installed, and keeping it in browser storage is the right kind of simple for this sort of tool. I also like that it still keeps the route generation quick. For me the value of something like this is getting from 'I have time for one flight' to a plausible SimBrief sector without turning the whole evening into planning.

The route/add-on check is the part that interests me most too. Once you have a pile of airports, liveries and GSX profiles, it is very easy to forget that one scenery is not active before starting the flight. The Addons Linker transition would have to be really clean though. A lot of us already keep the Community folder almost empty and let symlinks do the work, so I would want Preflightly to detect that setup instead of asking me to rebuild the whole library from scratch. If it can handle that gracefully, the flight-planning side looks quite useful.

That 90/120 minute slider makes the tool a lot more useful for airliner flights, in my opinion. For PMDG/Fenix type flying I often want something short enough for an evening, but still long enough to feel like a proper IFR sector rather than a quick hop. One small filter that might be useful later is an airliner-friendly option, basically avoiding routes into very small strips or awkward airports when a heavier aircraft is selected. Even without that, it's already a nice idea.

From what I’ve seen so far, most of the examples are still Garmin-style glass rather than more complex airliner displays. I’d probably wait for a confirmed PMDG 737 report before relying on it for the PFD/ND, but if it handles those cleanly it gets a lot more interesting for me too.

I've had that happen a couple of times when GSX seems to keep stale SimBrief/turnaround state after arrival. What usually works for me is either re-importing the SimBrief flight after landing, or just not pre-selecting the arrival stand before departure and setting the gate once I'm actually on the ground at destination. If I lock the stand in too early, GSX sometimes seems to compare against the wrong airport and throws that mismatch message. If you're using turnaround mode, I'd also try clearing the active turnaround/services first and then calling progressive taxi again.

A one-week no-commitment trial is a sensible way to do it. For me the main test would be how it behaves in busy IFR arrival and departure banks with my own traffic models, because that is where these ATC tools usually separate themselves pretty quickly. If the trial lets people judge that with their normal setup, it should answer the real question better than any feature list.

If you only want pushback for GA right now, I honestly think GSX is a bit overkill just for that. I use GSX mainly because I also fly the 737 a lot, so for me the extra ground stuff and airport coverage make the price easier to justify. If your current use case is mostly the Bonanza and you do not care about servicing, I would probably try the cheaper or freeware route first and only move to GSX if you know you are going back to airliners regularly.

Same here on the immersion side. I can live with a generic accent a lot easier than a broken callsign, and QANTAS turning into CANDICE would definitely pull me out of it too. For me the actual vectoring and traffic handling still matter more overall, but better regional pronunciation would make the whole thing feel much more convincing.

For me the easiest way to tell is just to look in the Community folder and check whether the AIG OCI package actually has a sounds folder in it. If traffic is spawning but the airport still feels oddly quiet, that’s usually the first thing I check before assuming the injector is the problem. I only run AI Manager when I’m installing or updating. For normal flying it’s just the injector on its own. If Verify Setup keeps passing but you still have no ambience, I’d also try a quick test at a busy default airport with higher traffic density, just to rule out it being a low-traffic moment rather than a bad install.

For me GSX is still useful, but mostly for ground-side immersion rather than something I expect to be light. In 2024 I notice the hit more at heavier airports, especially once you already have extra traffic and scenery in the mix. If a flight is otherwise smooth and GSX is what tips it over, I usually just skip it for that session rather than chasing ten different tweaks.

I haven't seen anything credible for 2024 either. I'd be all over a good Cheyenne if somebody does one. Right now the closest substitutes for me are the Lear 35 when I want that older-school business jet feel, or the CJ4 if I want something more modern, but a proper Cheyenne would still be an instant buy.

Same here. I usually skip the cinematic promo videos and wait for a proper systems walkthrough or a cold-and-dark startup instead. That tells me a lot more than five minutes of dramatic camera cuts. If the airplane is good, it will still look good without all that fluff.