X-Plane 11 Throwdown

Flight Sims
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As cabin fever and boredom sets in I find myself spending more money on X-Plane. This thread serves for you to weigh in on the best module in each class. I find the quality of modules in XP varies greatly. Some of them my have 4k textures but limited systems interaction and a simplistic flight model. The gauntlet has been laid down. What are your favorites/must haves and why?

MODULES MUST BE XP11 & VR COMPATIBLE

General Aviation:
HotStart TBM 900.

This has been the surprise winner in GA for me. The flight model feels extremely believable, the systems are study level, and it has a unique damage persistence feature that keeps track of your maintenance costs, damages, battery run down, etc. (I fodded the engine because I didn’t put the caps on the intake and exhaust when i landed the other day.) It’s got plenty of power, full avionics, pressurized, etc. Excellent in VR.

Airliner:

Zibo 737x mod

Can’t beat free, and this thing has it all. Not a huge fan of airliners, but it has great visuals, sounds, systems, and flies about what I would think a 737 would. It is also great in VR. Haven’t spent enough time in it for a full review.

Military Aircraft:

I don’t own any, so I’m looking for recommendations. The hawk trainer looks decent.

Helicopters:

X-Trident Bell 412.

I have reservations with this one. I drank too much and picked it up one night. VR is a little janky, its like its stuck in ergonomic control mode with makes handing the cyclic and collective a little akward. Hard to explain, but you have to tilt the controller rather than raising it up. Also can’t comment on the systems because I haven’t been to far into it yet. As most drunken nights go, she looked good so I took her home.

Airports:

KSAN by MisterX6.
Freeware that looks great. Also has MCRD in pretty decent detail so I had to get it.

Stuff I have accumulated through Corona Time:
Saab 340A by Hot start
King Air 350 by AirFoil Labs
Diamond DA62 by Aerobask
ERJ Fleet by X-Crafts

I’m looking forward to yalls recommendations/favorites.

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I’m a big fan of the X-Crafts ERJs simply because they are easy to fly and start…and have very good VR integration. I’ll have to think on some of the others. The default MD-80 (82? 92?) is also quite good.

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I approve that Bell 412. Unfortunately cant help with VR, but on pancake screen she is really nice.

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How did I miss this article? Just bought the entire fleet on xplane.org. got all 7 of them for $90.

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Let me know how you like them. I think that overhead panel is the bees knees in VR…very easy to use and excellent readability.

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So @Gunnyhighway are you going to join us on the latest Air Mail trek?

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I’m a big fan of Aerobask’s products.

I’ve been flying the Pipistrel Panthera for a few years now and I love it. Good for VFR/IFR and when I’ve got a few beers in my it’s got great agility and power for when I want to fly the pattern and do very short finals (think carrier ops) and such. I think the wings might come off of the real thing, but I have had a blast in that one. The graphics are somewhat dated, but that doesn’t bother me a whit.

Also from Aerobask, is the Eclipse 550. Same avionics as the Panthera, but packed in a personal jet. Lot’s of fun.

I check the Aerobask website almost daily waiting for the Falcon 8x; considering the developer, I’m very confident that this will be a winner.

Hot Start’s TBM 930 is another favorite of mine. Great developers with excellent attention to detail.

Just Flight’s Turbo Arrow is pretty good too.

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I love the Aerobask products. I haven’t had a chance to give them a whirl in VR yet, so I’m not sure how manipulating those knobs on the Skyview avionics is…you could always use the mouse though.

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That one is on my wish list for sure. I should probably pick it up.

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Yes, it is very good.

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One of my favorite parts of the TBM 900 is how closely it aligns with the real plane. I watched a few of these TBM training videos to learn how to start it and some operational issues like the inertial separator.

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I have one complaint on the Aerobask. I have their Fokker Dr.1 and they just pull it off the store. I would like to see them update it rather than abandon.
Maybe they are working on the update… one could always dream.

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In progress. Going to keep a log of my maintenance costs.

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First impressions:

The E135 through the E650 are outstanding in VR. Really going to enjoy them. I like how you can open the door and sit down in one of the passenger seats in VR.

The E175 and E195 are a different story. They don’t seem to be as up to date with VR integration as the others. You cant manipulate the yoke with touch controllers so I cant fly them. I did manage to start them up though. Going to have to pancake the big boys I guess. Great recommendation over all though.

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Many thanks for this thread . I have been contemplating downloading X-plane while DCS is broken , particularly as Vulkan has dropped , and these reviews are helpful . Thanks again .

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I will add one more helo. This freeware / donationware Bell 429 is very nice also. Together with Bell 412 these are my two favorite helos in XP11

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No recommendations from you @PaulRix !? You have it all :wink:

Wondering why you are not writing any main page MS articles about XP modules :slight_smile:

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So many modules, so little time… well, I guess that I have some time while we are all in lock-down.

Let me look around my X-Plane hangar and I will see what I can come up with. :wink:

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I found a mod to improve the VR functionality of many planes.

Might be old news to you guys, but his mods for the King Air, Saab 340, and Bell 412 fixed all of my VR hand control issues. Highly recommend if you are a non-hotas VR flyer.

@smokinhole:
what do you think about the Pitts in xplane? Have you tried it?

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Yeah, they do good work. I think they even work with some developers during development… Here is a link to the full downloads list of threads:

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