Time for Turboprops

By Spencer Doyle

If you’re a fan of Microsoft Flight Simulator and single-engine turboprops, the past couple of months have been a real treat. MSFS has seen three different high-quality turboprops released by highly respected studios since October. Starting with the Black Square TBM 850 available for $41.99 from www.justflight. com on Oct 5th, to the FSReborn FSR500 (based on Piper M500) available for $32.99 from the in-game Marketplace on Nov 3rd, and finally the SimWorks Studios Pilatus PC-12 available for around $27 on the Contrail web store or directly from SWS at https://simworksstudios.com.

At first glance, you might think these 3 aircraft are too similar, but a closer inspection reveals that each offers a bit of a unique experience.  Let’s first look at the TBM 850 from Black Square, which was the first of the 3 to release, and the most expensive at $41.99.  Black Square is a developer that has earned a solid reputation with the MSFS community by taking base-game aircraft such as the King Air, Baron, Bonanza & Caravan and offering high-fidelity versions that utilize analog gauges instead of the glass cockpits they come with by default.  All of these releases are highly regarded by the community.  With the TBM 850,  Black Square was now creating their own model from scratch, and they did not disappoint.  The model is indeed high-quality work, and the aircraft comes with GNS 530 stack or PNS GTN 750 and TDM GTN 750 avionics options.  It does not have an EFB, but instead uses menus embedded in the avionics to control things such as failures.  The TBM 850 can be configured for failures to occur randomly or to occur on a schedule if you want to train on something specific.  The aircraft also uses “selective” state saving, which will save things such as radio configurations, fuel tank levels, and the condition of your engines.  The TBM 750 even simulates FOD (foreign object debris) when you don’t properly utilize the inertial separator.  

The FSReborn FSR500 was the next to release, and comes in between the other two in price, at $32.99.  If you have an Xbox, you’ll want to take a look at this one, as of the time of this article, it is the only one of the three that is available for console.  While the other 2 offerings have analog gauges, the FSR500 comes with glass G1000 NXI avionics and is easily one of the better implementations of the G1000 NXI unit available in MSFS. Raul Morales of FSReborn is a passionate developer who is known to push the bar in his projects. FSReborn had previously released the Sting S4, believed by many to be the best Ultralight available in the simulator, so the FSR500 was also highly anticipated. Raul has indeed delivered an experience that pushes the boundaries with his latest offering. Most impressive is the fact that the FSR500 can even experience a bird strike. This isn’t a random occurrence; it is actually looking at NOTAMs about birds in the NOTAM. Be careful and read your real-world NOTAMs when you fly this aircraft. The FSR500 also comes with a nice EFB tablet that integrates SimBrief & Navigraph charts, handles maintenance & realism options, and even allows you to take care of your passengers by keeping the temperatures in comfortable ranges and offering coffee and snacks. Fuel trucks will drive out to your plane when you refuel, and luxury vehicles will come drop off your simulated passengers. You can even use the EFB to choose between a rather large list of different vehicles. While the passengers themselves aren’t modeled in the sim, there are several ways you can impact their overall mood, so you want to have a look at the EFB and make sure they’re not cold, hot, hungry, or thirsty, and you’ll want to stick those butter landings to really impress them.

Finally, the SimWorks Studios Pilatus PC-12 was released on Dec 6th for around $27 (depending on exchange rates). SWS has released several aircraft for MSFS, and all of them have seen success and praise. Their Zenith CH701 is one of my favorite bush plane options and a top 2 ArkanStol plane in the simulator in my opinion. They have released Vans RV-10 & RV-14 as well, which are both solid light sport options. Their most popular release, though, has been the Kodiak 100 Series II & III Amphibian, with this offering remaining in the Top 3 on the community-ran poll since its release. With this solid lineup, the Pilatus PC-12 also came with great anticipation. SWS has opted to release the PC-12 as a cheaper package without random failures, which will be added as an upgrade package later. Much like the TBM 850, the PC-12 is also an analog cockpit with similar avionics options, including a GNS 530/430 stack, GTN 750 or TDM 750 NXi. One thing you’ll notice right away with SWS’s offerings is how closely they must work with the real aircraft manufacturer. Both the Kodiak and this latest Pilatus PC-12 contain different factory configurations and factory paints. You can switch to 4 or 5 blade props, and different interior configurations for commuter cabins, cargo, or executive cabins. Unlike the other two aircraft, the SWS Pilatus PC-12 actually physically renders your cargo. If you have passengers on board, they will be rendered in the cabin, complete with minor animations so they will move around a little. If you’re hauling cargo, that will also be represented in the cabin depending on how much weight you have onboard. The PC-12 is already a very solid offering but will improve as other roadmap features are implemented, such as a weather radar, and several EFB tablet features such as integrated charts.

I mostly focused on the aircraft’s differences above, but they are also similar in a lot of ways. Each aircraft has been praised for its flight model, each has solid 3D modeling and textures, each has a good sound pack, each has fully functional circuit breaker panels, each comes with very well-done manuals, each has its own versions of static elements (chocks, pitot covers, opening doors, etc.), and each comes from top-tier 3rd party developers with a reputation for supporting their products. Whether you buy all three or choose just one of them, you really can’t go wrong with any option here.