Review of Carenado Cessna U206G Stationair for FSX

Thanks for visiting FlightSimX. Did you know you can subscribe to our RSS feed, which will deliver the latest flight simulator news direct to your newsreader, or sign up to our daily email summary?

This is a review of Carenado’s Cessna U206G Stationair for FSX by Paul Webster.

Carenado is a collection of four likeminded friends based in Santiago, Chile, who have been developing payware models for MS Flight Simulator since 2000. Concentrating on the popular types of single engined General Aviation aircraft that they had access to, they developed a reputation for quality and attention to detail from the start.

In early August 2008 they made the decision to concentrate solely on FSX and to rebuild their entire fleet around FSX and DX10 from the ground up. For those of us who primarily use FSX this was great news. Whilst Caranado’s FS9 fleet could be patched and enjoyed within FSX, they obviously didn’t make use of the enhancements available with the latest sim. For FS9 users, news that there would be no new Carenado models was a disappointment, but their existing FS9 fleet remains available and supported.

Having purchased Carenado’s Cessna 182RG early last year and been thoroughly impressed by the execution of the modelling, I was eager to try out the U206G.

The Aircraft

With it’s 300 horsepower engine, large 6 seater cabin, rugged design and construction, Cessna’s U206 Stationair is described by it’s manufacturers as “the sport-utility vehicle (SUV) of the air”, the U prefix of the model number standing for Utility. Echoing this further, the aircraft is able to be equipped with floats, amphibious floats and skis and has a large ‘clamshell’ rear door enabling easy loading of cargo. First seen in 1964, Cessna halted production of the U206G Stationair and all other piston engined aircraft (due to new US product liability legislation) in 1986 with 5208 units having been sold. However, production started up again in 1998 with the U206H which is still being manufactured today.

The Model

As stated above, we’re looking at Carenado’s latest FSX version of the U206G, which has been rebuilt to include external and internal (VC) dynamic shadows, specular mapping and light bloom. The downloaded product includes 12 variations of 3 different models, including a couple of amphibious float equipped versions for some real bush flying. Documentation is nicely presented in full colour in the regular PDF format and includes;

Full procedural checklist from cold & dark start through to parking up and systems shutdown.
Emergency procedures.
Cockpit / panel / instrument layout and instructions.
Performance data & charts for standard configuration.
Performance data & charts for cargo & float equipped variants.

Installation

Carenado’s fleet are available as downloads from their website. The purchasing process is pain free and the product is downloaded as a single executable file. The installer assumes that you have FSX installed in the default location rather than checking your registry for the actual location, so if, like me, your working copy of FSX is installed in an alternative location, you’ll have to point the installer to the relevant location before you click the Install button.

The installation routine places a single variant of the U206G in your FSX aircraft selection screen. Clicking on ‘show all variations’ brings up the remaining 11 models, including those equipped with the amphibious floats. A program group for the model is created on your start menu, but this just contains the uninstall utility, no shortcuts to the documentation, which is to be found within the aircrafts folders buried away in the FSX subfolders.

Once installation is complete you need to register the models 10 new panel components within FSX. This process starts as soon as you select the model within the Free Flight section of FSX. For each new component, you are asked firstly whether you want to install (run) it and then if you want to load the component every time you use FSX or on a one-off basis. This is a bit of a faff, but is a problem with FSX and not with Carenado.

First Impressions

Lipstick on a pig is a current phrase ‘de jour’ and sprung to mind after doing my initial ‘walkround’ the aircraft and subsequent cabin inspection. When Carenado said “the company decided to develop again its complete fleet from zero to be full FSX and DX10 compatible”, I took this to mean that they had started from scratch on all models. However, it would appear to me that Carenado have used much of their existing FS9 model as the base for this FSX version, whilst making use of the new graphical enhancements available to ‘update’ it.

Based on overly high expectations, the result then is obviously a little disappointing. Certainly the model is not pig ugly, but it lacks the presence and oomph of a well put together FSX model. Externally, whilst the reflections on the glass and improved shadows add to the realism, the paintwork appears blurry and pixellated. The lettering looses definition as soon as you zoom out and the door handles and some external panels are not very well executed.

Internally, the dials and gauges look mostly good, but some of the fixtures and fittings are poorly modelled. I can’t even guess what some of them are supposed to be. An ashtray or a clock? A lamp or a warning sticker? The writing on the fuseboard is barely legible and whilst aging has been modelled on the majority of the components, the fact that the main panel looks brand new just undermines the effect. The lurid red interior used in all the variants is really not to my taste. It would have been nice to have had an alternative fitted in some models. However, though it’s not perfect, the fact remains that this model is still visually much more appealing than any of the default aircraft within FSX.

Features

Carenado have gone to a lot of trouble to provide an array of 2D panels for the virtual pilot to use if you’re that way inclined. I much prefer to use the Virtual Cockpit to fly, especially with relatively simple aircraft such as this. You can eliminate the pilots yoke from your view to access the light switches, which is always a useful feature.

An interesting inclusion is the ability to click on the top of any of the instrument gauges and have a slightly larger 2D popup version appear on-screen so you can monitor the appropriate instrument(s) whilst looking around, though this doesn’t follow you if you change to an external view. Avionics are contemporary with the aircraft and include a Navomatic 300-A autopilot unit.

Animations include pilots door, cargo door, and pilots/co-pilots windows which, bizarrely, don’t appear to open in external views, only in the VC. The pilot (and variant depending) co-pilot are both well animated, taking queues from your joystick input. This is a bit weird on the ground, especially when they bounce up and down on their seats when you pull up and down on the stick, but it works well in the air.

The soundset sounds authentic, but unfortunately there seems to be little to no use of any 3D sound effects. If these are implemented, it’s difficult to hear them even through headphones. You seem to get one internal soundest and one external pretty much regardless of position relative to the engine.

Let’s Get Airborne

On the move there’s little to fault this model with predictable responsive handling on the ground and in the air. Once I stopped looking for faults and at that red interior, the cockpit of Carenado’s C206 proved a pleasant place to be. The instrumentation is well laid out and easily accessible. All systems are fully functional and work as expected. I can quite easily see myself putting in some serious hours in on this plane, especially in conjunction with JustFlight’s Cargo Pilot, where it will come into it’s own in the early stages.

Conclusion

If I’ve been slightly negative about Carenado’s C206, it’s because I started this review with the pre-conceived idea that this product, as per the RealAir Spitfire in my last review, was a totally new model for FSX.

As a product for FSX and when compared to some of the excellent FSX models out there, this one’s not perfect. However, because of the work Carenado have done in updating the model, it is a good leap above all those FS9 payware products that have just been patched for FSX with no further work done on them.

At £15 it represents very good value for money - even with it’s faults this model is still much superior to any of the default FSX aircraft in terms of visuals and attention to detail. Also, you get the variants equipped with floats so you have an alternative to the Beaver if you’re inclination is to do some water work.