I've been away for a year... what's the best plane

1st Official Post

    Hello everyone,

    Have been playing around with Xplane 11 and DCS for a year. I missed the colours, fps and crisp image of afs2 however, especially in VR. So...I came back to afs2. There have been many updates so my question is: what is the best Plane to fly? I would like to learn something new

    I was a bit bored by the sterile c172 and fly on rails behavior. What is the most accurate and fun plane to fly around. The fighters look cool but I'm guessing there a bit arcade. Looking at the wiki tells me the a320 and q400 are the most serious planes. What do you guys think??


    Thank you!!

    Q400 is the number one when it comes to 'serious'. The Airbus is a good number two, specially after the last update. If you really want to LEARN something, go for the Q400: it is a plane that will keep you seriously busy: the Airbus can be flown with just a few presses of buttons.

    Another contender might be the Learjet but I haven't really given that one a try yet... But I know some others love it and it has become even better after the last update. Whenever I get tired of the Q400 and Airbus the Learjet will be my next plane.

    Other than those I only fly the C172, which is great for VFR and checking out scenery, as simple as it may be.

    Gotta love the Learjet and 737, at least I do!

    Windows 7 (64-Bit), Asus Sabertooth (Intel Z87) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0, Intel 4th Gen Core i7 4770K (4.5GHz Overclock) Quad Core, Cooling Antec 920 Dual Stage CPU Liquid Cooling,16GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM 1866MHz, 6GB Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan, GDDR5, PCIe, 950 Watt PC Power & Cooling MK II.

    If you have not flown for ages you will feel more at home in the Airbus flight simulator simulator simulator8).

    Try streaking some brown sauce on the back of your white shirt before your next washing machine runX( and simulate wondering where it came from? Try the 737 or Learjet and be the boss, do your own trim.

    Hello Jozef,

    Welcome to the ASF2 flight sim users support forums.

    It appears to me that the Q400 has the most up-to-date panel and comes with a short flight tutorial. The HUD was just added so you will have to work that into the existing flight tutorial for now. Lots of bells and whistles, literally. There seems to be an unlimited number of alarms if you do not fly according to the manual. This discourages one from "jump in and fly".

    The a320 has some new sounds, has the first cut at waking up the CDU for the sim - 20 new pages but not complete yet - you can follow along and check performance and such as you fly. This one also has a short flight tutorial but, has a lot of automation and not much flying - push buttons, turn knobs, wonder what is happening, just like the real world version.

    The Learjet 45 has a very nice and clean panel and most basic flight instruments and gauges work but a lot of depth is missing for now. The latest update added the thrust detents and some numbers to look at for fuel flow and a few Crew Warnings are now present. You can view and zoom in on your flight plan and monitor progress and you can set the ref Vspeeds. The upper limit for sim flying is FL390 - FL410 even though the real world version goes to FL510 and most of those flights are in the mid to upper 40s. No hints from the dev when this might be addressed. CDU is dead, but has as a very nice FGC for AP,

    The 737-500 is an older model 737 with round gauges but has a nice digital MCP for the AP. We only have the most basic information for this one, no flight tutorial, with a fixed weight (very light end) so we are left to guess the performance numbers. Still fun to fly. Max altitude is FL370 (real world and sim version) This one has the smallest engines available so the climbs are slow and time consuming but the cruise speeds are accurate. No fuel flow indications just yet, but could be in work soon. CDU is dead.


    All four will fly a flight plan using the autopilot, fly an ILS approach and the controls are responsive. Be sure to visit the wiki pages and read about each one, except the B737 - no really useful information there.

    These four planes could not be more different with nothing in common with any of the others so it comes down to a personal choice. I suggest you spend some time with each one and see which one likes you best. There is also a 747 but it is in a different class than these four.


    Regards,

    Ray

    • Official Post

    Each aircraft has something special I think. It comes down to personal taste and they are all quite enjoyable I think.

    The most automation you'll find in the A320, nice to fly manually, normal flying techniques have to be unlearned for this one.

    Learjet 45 is a great starter airplane, even has full electrics now. And I like its autopilot and its awesome performance, yet it is slow enough to land at literally any airport.

    Q400 has a lot to manage in terms of engine systems, which can be fun. But constantly needs attention or it screams at you ;)

    737 is very intimidating once you set the visibility to zero and set night time. Now best of luck to find that airport, without any form of navigation display! One of the most scary things is right hand pattern in Geneva, starting towards the north and turn towards the lake, then judge the turn in complete blindness, autopilot and flight director off!

    • Official Post

    Baron is nice to fly but the constant speed propeller has a sound that is literally never changing (in sim and real life) unless you change the blue levers every now and then. The Baron has a full electric system and all of it's instruments are working just as well as in the Cessna, so you can do a lot with it.

    The C90 is not quite as advanced and also has a never changing constant speed propeller sound (like in the real world), but you can certainly fly it, the autopilot is similar to the Learjet but not as tidy and the navigation source is a bit hidden, but it's something different every now and then.

    If you go for the fighters, F18 is the way to go I think, it has a little more to do, e.g. new heads up display functions, has foldable wings, a canopy that you can open and few other things. But not for serious simming at the moment, more for fun.

    I'd recommend the Learjet 45 for now unless you want to do less and let the automation take over, in which case A320.

    When you manage the autopilot in the Learjet you can also manage the Q400 and C90, if you can manage the A320 you could try the 747, which is actually very similar to flying the A320 just bigger, except when you fly manually you need to trim...

    Q400 would be the next logical step after the Learjet 45, the Q400 just adds a bunch of things that you need to worry about and increases the workload by a factor of 3 or 4 at least.