Carenado’s C208B Caravan: Another Home Run!
You might have seen the news already, but Carenado released their latest effort this week, a simulation of Cessna’s workhorse C208B Grand Caravan. There’s already been a lot written about it on the various forums (like here, or here, or here) so I won’t go on too much about it. Instead, here’s my attempt at the world’s shortest aircraft review:
- Gorgeous model – easily their best yet
- Textures that are eye-popping sharp and beautifully rendered
- A flight model that is basically quite flyable, but still needs some fine-tuning. Better than their last few initial releases
- Several new goodies that people have been asking for, like configurable seats, cockpit glass, a weather radar, and a removable belly pod
- They say they’re doing a cargomaster version next! (FedEx! FedEx! FedEx!)
I’m enjoying the hell out of flying it. In fact, I just uploaded my first repaint to the Freeware section here — a Kenmore Air Grand Caravan, which is perfect for sightseeing in the Pacific Northwest.
Carenado's Grand Caravan in my Kenmore Air colors
That’s all for now, I just wanted to give the fence-sitters a heads-up. This one is worth the $35. And yes, Bob, I know that’s a lot of money for some people. Sheesh.
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for this Bill! Great repaint!
I am quite interrested in this plane. After I get the Bonanza, I am getting this one. If the 208 had three real world 208 Pilots test it and certify the flight model, how can they have missed on the initial release in terms of flight model. And these people out there modding the air file? How do they even know how a 208 handles. This baffles me. Ah well. I will wait for the official service pack to arrive and enjoy the Bonanza in the mean time.
Thanks for the repaint! Great as usual.
Charles.
Charles, if you like Caravans, you’d definitely enjoy this plane. As for their claim of having real-world pilots test, all I can say is testing is one thing, and building is another. I know from previous beta processes that sometimes a developer has to choose to ignore their testers for financial reasons or expediency. Or, maybe the testers weren’t given enough guidance as to what to test. The thing is, we just don’t know. What I do know is that at least one of the testers I’ve been in touch with flies Caravans professionally, and he didn’t agree with some of the mods being made by users. Then again, at least two of the people instrumental in making the user mods are professional pilots as well, with high time in turbine-powered aircraft. The bottom line is, just because people are experts doesn’t mean they won’t disagree.
Unlike previous Carenado releases, the Caravan flies well enough out of the box to be quite enjoyable, unlike the Bonanza for example. You wouldn’t go wrong getting version 1.0. Also, they’ve announced an upcoming Cargomaster version if that floats your boat.
@ Charles,
Sometimes, us testers (yes, me being one of them), explain things the way they need to be, and it gets ignored or due to a rushed market demand, doesn’t happen. That’s why I’ve been active in helping others create what makes them the happiest. I can tell you based on the work that has been done by Fede and the like, it flies about as real as a sim C208 can!
KE
Very good to know it is well done on it’s initial release. It is definately next on my buy list for planes. I consider myself a 0 time pilot (fly with friends right seat in real life and saving for my PPL) and as such, I like well made and detailed models that are as close as we can afford in FSX. On the fun side of things, I fly in the freeware FSEconomy online world as starving virtual pilot-for-hire trying to earn a living (renting planes) but saving to buy a virtual plane of my own and I need a larger plane to make more virtual money. Cash flow is too slow flying charters in rental 172s, 182s and 206s.
This 208 is the answer! *ya you have to own the model in FSX to rent or own it in FSEconomy*.
Charles.
I find the Kodiak Quest just as appetizing. It looks the same and it’s a whole lot cheaper. As far as flying ability is concerned, where did it say it should imitate the real aircraft on FSX?
I been on many aircraft launches and recovery on board a carrier and nothing can duplicate that. So why should the rest of the flying experience be any different.
How come you didn’t chime in, “What’s Going to Kill FSX”, on SOH, Bill.?
I’ve got the Kodiak too, and it is indeed a nice bird. There’s something I really like about Carenado’s particular “look”, though. Plus, there are a whole lot more Caravans out there in the real world than Kodiaks, so I can have fun painting them in various liveries as well. As for why we bother trying to make these things fly real… why even bother making them look real, then? I seem to recall a certain someone who has a cow when a WWII bird doesn’t have the right level of shine. Sound familiar?
As for the SOH thread, the phrase “never wrestle a pig” comes to mind.
Why make it fly real? Personally for me, I only do this because it is a Simulation. To that end it is an affordable and fun learning tool. I like to fly scenarios and need the plane to behave as close to the numbers as it can. Weather it’s learning the proceedure for clearing a 50 foot obsticle at the end of a 2900 foot runway at 4000 feet density altitude with a 10kt headwind in a 185 or simply the challenge of keeping a 182Q in the pattern for all it’s various configurations of flight in touch and goes, I want the plane to be as close to the POH as it can. It’s why a person buys RealityXP’s Garmin GNS 430 and installs it in place of the default junk one in the Carenado Bonanza. So you can learn to use a GNS 430. Flying with my friend in his Centurion 210 and using his 430 with some level of competancy is a very satisfying experience for me.
Otherwise I will not bother with this stuff. It would be quite irrelavant. Just my opinion. I fly online with others that feel the same way. We enjoy testing new payware planes against the POH. It’s fun. Then there are others where this is all just lost on and that is ok too. If the 208 flew like an F18, they would not care. Different strokes I guess.
C.
Being brought up in the deep south, home of the Baptist Belt I’m not suprised that your not familair with “wrestlng a pig”… Give me a six pack and a pint of Southen Comfort, they all look like movie stars at closing time
Like any Southerner knows, Bob, pigs is for one thing only: eatin’.
Hi Bill,
I see you’re painting the Carenado Caravan. I see too, that you don’t include speculars. Does this mean the model doesn’t use them? Another thing – is that a Carenado thing to still use bmp format instead of dds? Finally – are there any mirror-mapped parts of the plane that make it a nuisance factor for assymetric liveries? Just curious – I used to love Carenados in FS9, but they never really got the hang of painting in FSX from the first ones I bought.
Hi Chris,
I wish Carenado had included speculars in their Caravan textures, but alas they didn’t. I even had a metal-flake paint in mind that would have looked good with them. They do still use BMPs in DXT5 format, but they’ve happily stopped mirroring the textures, so that helps a lot.
Oh rats! Oh well – 30 odd dollars saved.
BTW – I saw your Texture painting tutorial based on the 172. I learnt something new from that – thanks!
Of course, if you ask a hundred painters how they did something, you’ll get a hundred plus answers.
Super Cargomaster version has just been released.
http://www.carenado.com/ecommerce/buscador.php3?id_producto=87
Hi, Any idea how i can add realityxp to this bird’s VC?
I don’t have any RXP stuff, so I haven’t tried it. Ask over at the Carenado forums, and somebody will surely reply: http://forum.avsim.net/forum/364-grand-caravan-for-fsx/
Hi Bill,
I was wondering if you would consider doing a Scenic Airlines repaint for the Carenado 208.
http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/3/4/5/0001543.jpg
I’m in the middle of a scenery project that’s taking all my spare time right now, Joe. I’ll add this paint to the list of possibles, but I’m not sure when I’ll pull out the old paintbrush again.