NZFF

I know some of you will shudder at the thought of freeware aircraft and I figured this topic has already been covered before. But new freeware aircraft are released all the time, with increasing quality. I wanted to know what your picks are as your favorite freeware aircraft, as there are many designers and design groups that stay out of the spotlight. Your thoughts and screenshots would be appreciated.

I was very impressed with the efforts of the people at Classic British Flight Sim and their releases. I already have there Argosy and there Beaufighter and today I downloaded there Hawker Hunter (single and twin seater), the Auster J1 and there De Havilland Chipmunk.

Here are a few screens of the recent additions

The Exterior detail of the Hawker Hunter is exceptional, with chocks and engine covers when parked.


The Virtual Cockpit of this aircraft is fully functional as well.


The same goes for the Chipmunk, brilliant exterior and detailed interior






And last but not least, the auster.

Anything from Project Opensky (or Free Sky Project), Project Airbus, Tim Conrad, Thomas Ruth, Dino Cattaneo and Anthony.

But my favourite freeware aircraft would be the 777.

Mine would be Ant's Tiger Moth and Deane's Cresco. Whilst not currently installed the above pictured aircraft are all very nice but the Chippy needs a FSX redo (it was one of my favourtite freeware aircraft in FS9)

Mine is def. Dino Cattaneo's T45 Goshawk... Looks fantastic, and great fun to fly

Connor, your post is very well written, with excellent spelling, except for one word..

I am going over there
I am going to fly their fantastic freeware plane.

Perfect except for the same one mistake

ANYWAY.... I don't fly a lot of freeware now days, but favourites would have to be the Tinmouse 737 (nearly FSX compatible I believe), and the KBT? P3 Orion, plus the Rick Piper HS748/ Andover. Actually, as mentioned above, anything Rick Piper is excellent. Project Airbus would have to be my favourite freeware airliners, since I don't fly payware airbuses. For warbirds there is plenty of great things out there, Warwick Carter's Mustang comes to mind immediately

My choice would have ti be OZx's rebuild and revamp of the default Goose.

AlisterC wrote:

QUOTE (AlisterC @ Jan 19 2011, 10:39 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Connor, your post is very well written, with excellent spelling, except for one word..

I am going over there
I am going to fly their fantastic freeware plane.

Perfect except for the same one mistake

I don't know what your talking about!

Much the same as most of the above posts.....
Rick piper, Deane B, KBT,Dave garwood, HJG, .......was a time when all i had was freeware, there are a lot of good russian freeware's about as well...all good.

Splitpin wrote:

QUOTE (Splitpin @ Jan 20 2011, 06:47 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

there are a lot of good russian freeware's about as well...all good.

No reliability issue's then?

The FSX version of Dave Garwood's DH89 Dragone Rapide (I prefer "Dominie"). I think it's even better than the payware IcarusGold one. It also has a nice NAC texture.

Can be found on flightsim.com:

Aircraft: dh89fsx.zip
NAC texture : dh89nac.zip

connor wrote:

QUOTE (connor @ Jan 20 2011, 07:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No reliability issue's then?

No, some of the instructions are a little hard to follow.....but overall, some great stuff........

gojozoom wrote:

QUOTE (gojozoom @ Jan 20 2011, 08:34 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The FSX version of Dave Garwood's DH89 Dragone Rapide (I prefer "Dominie"). I think it's even better than the payware IcarusGold one. It also has a nice NAC texture.

Well, you know what they say, "Great minds think alike." I was just going to ask about a NAC texture!

Splitpin wrote:

QUOTE (Splitpin @ Jan 20 2011, 08:48 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No, some of the instructions are a little hard to follow.....

It help's if you can read russian, but not many people in NZ can do that!

connor wrote:

QUOTE (connor @ Jan 19 2011, 08:14 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, you know what they say, "Great minds think alike." I was just going to ask about a NAC texture!

This thread's been developing while I've been preparing my favourites list Great minds do indeed think alike...



ZK-AHS, NAC (1947-56) now on display at MOTAT in Auckland. The repaint is by Paul Deans.

David Garwood's De Havilland 89a Dragon Rapide is my absolute favourite freeware aircraft. Like all of his planes, the quality is outstanding and this one has quite a pedigree, dating back to FS2002. The FS2004 version won an AVSIM award. Available for both FS2004 and FSX native, the FSX version features some additional enhancements such as removable passengers. It's fantastic fun to fly, very authentic I'm told and has an exceptionally good soundset by audio maestro Mike Hambly. There's a floatplane variant (separate for FS2004, included for FSX) for those who like a paddle. There are also a huge number of repaints out there (I have 40 for FS2004 and almost 50 for FSX!) including a bit of local colour...



ZK-ACO, MacRobertson Air Race (1934). Repaint by Peter Watkins.



Virtual cockpit (it features a very similar 2D panel as well).



Need a rest from flying it? Take the weight off your feet...



All aboard!

Wonderful stuff


Ade

Ade, nice screens.....that is a little honey of an aircraft. You have almost 100 repaints!! A committed DH man

Havn't tried many but so far Ants Tiger moth is my favourite

markll wrote:

QUOTE (markll @ Jan 19 2011, 10:32 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Mine is def. Dino Cattaneo's T45 Goshawk... Looks fantastic, and great fun to fly

+1 With the soundpack added (available on Avsim) it is utterly immersive- My brother instructed on the Hawk for a couple of years in Aussie and commented on how good the sound pack was (including the delay in engine spool etc while the fuel pump caught up)

Among my favorites are:

the outstanding Section F8 Sabre:



the Saab J-21 by Piglet:



Piglet's Skyraider with Jan Visser's excellent textures:



The Auster Autocrat:



the freeware B-25 by Roy Chaffin:

Splitpin wrote:

QUOTE (Splitpin @ Jan 20 2011, 12:25 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ade, nice screens.....that is a little honey of an aircraft. You have almost 100 repaints!! A committed DH man

Thanks Splitpin. Yes, it's true. I do have something of a "thing" for de Havilland!

In the case of the DH 89a I thought "I wonder what repaints there are?" and just never stopped! I've only had FSX up and running for a few months, so I'm quite new to taking screenshots. They're all at NZAA. If you look closely you'll notice an increasingly impatient queue of Air New Zealand heavy iron waiting for me to finish

Some more from my favourite freeware list:


DH 100 Vampire by Robert Richardson, FSX native. Repaint by Alex James. Quite a new release this but it's superb with a brilliant soundset expecially as the engine starts up . For FS2004 I use another really good one, the FSFrance release by Pierre Marchadier, reworked by Richard Brinkeback. Lots of repaints available for that version.



Virtual cockpit.



DH 104 Dove by Derek Palmer. This one's for FS2004 but flies very well in FSX. Repaint by NZFF's Ian Warren.



Only a 2D panel for this one, but it's photoreal so the difference is hardly noticable.

On one of my past visits to NZ, I was very lucky to be able to have a close look at a privately owned Dove in a hangar at Ardmore. A group of us had hoped the owner would take us up for a scenic flight along the west coast and Waitakeres but sadly it wasn't to be due to fuel costs and insurance. Still lovely to see though.



The DH 106 Comet is available in a few flavours. Jens B. Kristensen has recently updated his Comet 1 and 2 for both FS2004 and FSX. David Maltby's Comet 3, 3B, 4, 4B and 4C are for FS2004 but work very well in FSX with a few configuration tweaks which are supplied. There are Aeromusica soundsets for the various engine types which work with both releases. The picture is of the Maltby Comet 3.



Virtual cockpit (Maltby version).

And finally....




This is the only surviving complete example of the Comet 1, on display at my local RAF Museum here in England.

Happy landings,


Ade

Adrian, you got me on a download frenzy....i do have most of those, but on disc's somewhere, so I'll start again. I'd forgotten how well done that Maltby comet is....would love to one in the flesh.
Great post , thank you


@Jankees....great screens, and awesome selection....that SAAB will be added to my hanger very soon.......

FS2004:
1. Project Tupolev Tu-154M
http://www.fs-proteam.com/products.html?op...pw_patt=catalog

2. Antti Pankkone's AS365N Dauphin (with mods by FSPainter)
http://fspainter.helicoptere-avis.com/


FSX (I mostly stick to payware here, but...):
1. Deane's Cresco 750 series

2. Tim Conrad's Antonov An-32