X-PLANE NEW GA

TOO HOT TO HANDLE?
I know now that the HotStart TBM 900 was a little too 'hot' for me to start off with. It's a true "STUDY GRADE" aircraft and on top of learning how to configure everything in X-PLANE, it's just too much study and not enough fun!

I had no idea that you couldn't choose to start with the engines running or that you always went back into the cockpit in the same state you left it. That's not very helpful when you're trying to learn. So with that in mind, I looked for a very realistic GA which gave you the option to run with a few cheats until such time that you could do everything from scratch including cold-starts, etc.

Thankfully, I stumbled upon Airofoil Labs King Air 350 and it seems to offer everything I want at this stage. It is another "STUDY GRADE" aircraft but has clickable options to start Cold, Ready to Taxi or Ready to Take-Off. That's just perfect for everyone! It means I can have some much earned fun flying after the big PC Build and still have scope to get more serious in a few weeks time.

I also like the idea of the Beechcraft's twin engines and the traditional cockpit. Enormous levels of detail have been applied to this aircraft and it's not only gorgeous looking on the outside, but also on the inside - cockpit AND passenger section. This aircraft's level of realism (from an operational point of view) is quite staggering!! All systems including Electrical, Fuel Systems,  Pneumatics, Fire Protection, Ice and Rain Protection, Pressurization and Oxygen, Hydraulic Power and Avionics are modeled perfectly, down to the very last detail, demanding considerable skills and to master.

So for now, I'm going to focus long and hard on this aircraft and use it for all my X-PLANE learning phase. Once I've mastered this, I should much more easily be able to jump from one aircraft to another.