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  • Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.

    Post 16 Update

    Post 17 Warning

Lack of freeware

Brian_Gladden

Brian_Gladden

SOH-CM-2025
Bit of a rant here.... Something I've been frustrated by since I made the 2020 switch is the greatly reduced number of freeware aircraft available in 2020 vs. the number available for mature FSX/P3d. And don't get me started on the Payware situation. I'm not usually a heavy iron flyer but I flew the wings off stuff like the Eric Cantu 737-200's with a basic VC (even with the default -800 FSX VC installed) going into gravel strips in AK and Canada.

Not everyone needs (or wants... at least me anyway) a study level payware addon with a 40 page manual (PMDG anyone) that costs nearly as much as an hour in a real 172 dual... (well 20 years ago anyway when I had money for stuff like that) I want to load it up and fly. Not spend an hour programming the FMC before I even start it. Even the default A320 or CJ4 is a pain. Closest Payware I've seen to the "Old Days" is the Asobo HU-16 Albatross. Heck, I ran out my 30 minute IFR clearance in the CJ4 last night getting the damn FMC set up. I've been around FS since FS V 5.1 and started building my own aircraft (FSDS, remember that? Or even Aircraft factory 99...) back in the FS 98/FS 2000 days. FS 2004 seemed to be the near peak for freeware, until tools like Model Converter X and FS panel studio came along and helped boost the FSX and early P3d versions airframe count. It took me quite a while to get comfortable with FSDS back in the day, but I couldn't even make a box in G-Max. Blender to me is what I use to make a milkshake... 😁

With the awesome effort on projects like the B-24 conversion. I applaud the folks working on projects like that. I guess I'm just an old fogie. I started the journey with FS as a (relatively) cheap hobby. But now it seems to be like when I was in my 20's and heavily into 1/10th scale RC cars. I ended up with enough $$$ in hardware then to build a real full size race car for my local track. Also when I was working, I had plenty of payware FS stuff, but the simpler side like Virtavia. I guess I kinda long for those days again...
 
I understand that setting up the FMC can be painful. But in that case, why do you use it ? Why don't you just start the plane and take off like in the good old FS9 days ?
The autopilot of these liners will let you use manual input values on the autopilot panel, won't they ? At least that's the case in the freeware A320, if I remember correctly...
And if you just want to "follow the magenta line", most aircraft will just let you use the route you defined on the flight creation page, which takes what... 30 seconds ?

When it comes to the lack of freeware airplanes in general compared to FS9 and FSX, the amount of work required to model nicely an aircraft in the new sim seems to be much greater than what it used to be, if my understanding is correct.
 
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Daube said:
the amount of work required to model nicely an aircraft in the new sim seems to be much greater than what it used to be
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Exactly. Many people who were prolific freeware creators for FS98 and FS2000 slowly drifted away when the increased detail of FS2002/2004 became the norm. Fast forward to today and the amount of work necessary for an acceptable model, certainly a subjective yardstick, has increased geometrically; many of the people willing to invest this time to create one aircraft are offering their services to payware companies where they at least get some renumeration. So, from FS98 to now each sim offers less and less choices of add-on aircraft but better and better quality; personally I think FS2004 hit the balance point - many aircraft and decent level of modeling - and that has kept many people using it.
 
In the time of FS9 or even FSX/P3D one could hope to make a freeware in 3 months in most cases. Now we can’t do anything in less than 6 months (and more) because the level to which we have accustomed users has been considerably raised.
That’s why a lot of people rush on older generation addons to upgrade them: it’s always the modeling time that is saved.
The first Stearman package took me 9 months, the second was faster but it took 6 months to complete everything we wanted to incorporate into the plane.
The Aéronca 7AC took more than 6 months to mature, to the great despair of the person who had requested it and who found that it was not progressing quickly enough.
The Canso PBY is quite particular because although it was started in 2013 on an XP9 modeling basis, it had to transform its sources to be able to work with GMax and make a correct FS9 model. Then I ported it on FSX/P3D still with Gmax. Since 2020, it has been revised again to be developed under Blender and it will expire by the end of 2025: there are still 6 different 3D models in the same addon.

So, yes it is true that it takes even longer to develop under MSFS 2020 but rest assured it’s worse for MSFS 2024 :banghead:

To complement the answer of Jankees: which are among the aircraft presented, those that have been developed from a blank sheet and not from an already existing product for an old version of FS?
 
Ah Eric Cantu - I loved his stuff - that 737-200 was a favourite of mine too along with the wonderful and cutting edge (at that time) F-16's from Kirk Olsson. There are lots of things I miss about the old FSX/P3D days but on balance I'd say we are spoilt today for the choices we have and the fact that the hobby is probably in as rude health as it ever has been. I think the option is there for most aircraft (even the PMDG jets) to just get up and go to be honest. However the quality of the scenery and graphics that we have today are light years away from "the old days" (by which you could mean 2019 and before). Delighted too that thanks to U-tube railway modelling and plastic kit modelling are seeing a real resurgence as well- at least it appears that way looking at the volume and quality of new releases in those parallel hobby segments.
 
DennyA said:
Make sure you check out Restauravia. 16 really awesome freeware planes of a wide variety of types and eras there, with sections for both FS2020 and FS2024.

Click to expand...
I have a couple of Restauravia planes. While I live 3 miles from the Quebec border, I don't read French and I failed it in High School. Too bad because I loved Tim Conrad's Paris Jet in FSX/P3d but the lack of Imperial measurements or English label options doesn't float my boat.
 
jankees said:
Lack of freeware?
GKC(00007) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

MK-S (00009) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

AJEE (0003) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

414 (0001) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

D20(00003) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

quack (0003) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr


jk0062 by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

alsace (00010) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

and I can continue for a while...
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I have all of the above. I ended up deleting the Goose since I couldn't get it to work right. That brings about another pet peeve. Making classic default aircraft with original panels and fly them in a modern sim. It would be nice to have the option for a more modern panel set up (Like Bagulu's Hawk XP or the freeware 206). If I had the money to restore a classic like a Goose and fly it regularly. The panel would look like a Garmin catalogue...
 
The OzX Goose doesn't really work anymore.

The commercial version is dramatically better and is just $20. (Which negates your freeware request, I realize, but it remains one of my favorite FS2020 planes. Flew it constantly until I got the FS2024 Albatross.)

As for Restauravia, I'm a total moron when it comes to math, but years of flight simming have taught me that km/h is roughly .6 mp/h (learned that one in the 90's flying the Me-262 in Jane's WW2 Fighters) and even I can make that rough calculation. A little mental work for "free" is a fair trade as far as I'm concerned, but I understand we all have different investments we want to make in "fun" hobbies. :) I can't read the French either, but looking at analog gauges, you can pretty much figure them all out without being able to read the labels.
 
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Another fan of Eric Cantu's 732, used to fly and screenshot that all the time! I'd love to see the old Trident, 1-11 and VC10 get some love as well. I don't have the patience to learn the complex airliners so it keeps my flight sim costs down.
 
Brian_Gladden said:
lack of Imperial measurements or English label options doesn't float my boat
Click to expand...
Lol, I have a couple of very nice Soviet helicopters in which everything is labeled in Cyrillic. A few of those gauges are English so a mouse-over gives an English popup, and just sitting on the ground trying things occasionally divulges functions, but there is a rather complicated looking autopilot with several knobs and switches and two display panels which I've no idea how to use. I've "cheated" with some European aircraft and replaced metric gauges with Imperial ones, even going so far as editing the graphics so they look original. (I really need to get a life.)
 
The two I tried (Ouregan and Vatour) both had Knots and Feet ASI and altimeter and half-english labelling (pieds per minute for rate of climb :) )
The Vatour is particularly nice and I might finish the job on the english labelling.

BUT BE WARNED - the site appears to have been hacked and my Google Chrome is now throwing multiple scam virus warnings, I'm going to have to re-install it to clean it up :(
 
Speaking of Bgaurant... anyone know how to get the actual 430 GPS to show up on the GPS model? I got the KLN-90B to work after a deep dive to find it on Github. Looking at the folders, it appears the model with the 430 on the panel was left out of the most recent upload. It must have existed at some point since there are screenshots of it.
 
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