First look at the iniBuilds SimSolutions Diamond DA-20 C1 in Microsoft Flight Simulator 

Hi Jonathan. Thank you very much for your honesty in this review. I appreciate all feedback, good or bad. It is with my full intentions to continue updating this aircraft to fix as many issues as I possibly can, while improving and adding more features. This is a first in the MSFS world for me, and I have learned so so much. I do have a roadmap of things that will be, and already are fixed. An update should be out within the next few days addressing lots of, if not all of the requests from our customers. These include the flap drag, that has been entirely redone, fuel cap, texture fixes, animation fixes, pilots will be added in the coming days, etc. Hats off to you enjoy your week :)

Lol that livery you're in is actually my flight school's livery. I start training in MFC Trainings DA20s in under two weeks so I'm super stoked to take this thing up in the sim and familiarize myself with it.

I fly a DA-20 C1 and yes it loves to fly with an 11:1 glide ratio. So energy management is key in the pattern with this aircraft. If you're high on final you learn to get very good at fwd slips to keep the airspeed from getting away from you. I usually like to come over the fence at 60kts.

I remember the sounds for the FSX version being very similar. Great and useful video, as ever!

The DA-20 is a popular trainer so there's definitely a place for a high fidelity version for MSFS. It just has to be better than the default Asobo one if it's going to be worth purchasing it. It really makes no sense to buy it if it's not better than what we aready have.

Hey..that aerobatic moment with the DC3 was beautiful.. thanks

I’ll wait a bit, but I’m confident Brady will get it right over time.

Vy with first stage is 68kts Vy with cruise flap is 75kts. Climb with airspeed as a reference and not the VSI

I remember flying this one IRL after getting my PPL back in late 90' / early 2000'. It was real fun to fly and maneuver, very nervous and fun to spin too. And yes, it's a glider... This thing has difficulty loosing speed in any descent and we had to be very careful in our approach and altitude for landing. I remember being followed in the airfield pattern by a twin engine and he asked me if I could expedite my landing. Well, I tried, but ended up floating 10 feet over the full length of the (short) runway and had to go around. Anyway, thanks for the honest review!

Thanks for the review.

I'm an instructor at MFC and regularly fly VVN kinda crazy that's it's in MSFS. Also to add, the DA20 is an excellent spin trainer as it can sustain a fully developed spin for as long as you want. Spin characteristics do seem pretty accurate to the real thing. Yes it is normal to push the nose forward for recovery. Only thing really that I would complain about this aircraft in the sim is that it looks very cheaply made. Wish they paid more attention to textures and sounds.

The Rotex 912's are screamers (noise} takes getting use to. Always sounds like they are ready to break apart.

i have this aircraft but i dont know how to remove the pitot and engines covers, also the wheels chocks

I have a Diamond Superdimona turbocharged in my gliding club and the engine sound I would judge correct. It sound like a Rotax engine. Hard to understand because they have choosen an aircraft that have an Asobo version instead of the very popular Superdimona that being a TMG would be something different.

Not loving the looks of the planes details, or lack thereof, but looks like a fun little plane to just explore with. Im an aircraft snob though…lol. I dont mind paying for aircraft that have complete functionality, require some work to master, and look as real as possible. All the planes I look at get compared to Fenix a320, Kodiak 100 etc. This plane does look like its worth getting for the cost, but I would prefer more detail and charge an extra $5 or $10

Does this depict the same model as the one that comes with the sim?

Oh jeez, where to start... following statements are made with the assumption, that pilot and pax are both in the airplane, as is the standard configuration for most MSFS planes: * The sounds are not at all what this sounds like. Asobos generic DV20 is closer to real life than this. * Why is there no key in the magnetos? * Turning circle seems adequate, the biggest improvement over Asobos version. * You can actually hold it on brakes when increasing power, thats fine * rotation speed should be rather at 55kn. Although good low speed flight characteristics it tends to not climb below 55. * The DV20s I have seen had a little different cockpit layout, but there might be many variants as Asobos generic plane is also completely different in other ways. * The climb rate seems to be on the higher end, but not completely unrealistic assuming weather, altitude, load of your test configuration. * The oil temperature was never coming into the green arc, even after minutes of full power.... * I noticed it gained speed very quickly upon leveling off after climb. Even on full power it might take 20s or longer for the real aircraft to get up to cruise speed, even on full power. * The stall characteristics are wrong for the power on stall. The real airplane is very gentle and its almost impossible to bring it to a spin/wing tipping situation. It will always just nose down and recover itself. The power off stall is more adquately modelled. * As you noticed: On descent it can glide pretty well (no flaps, flaps 1), but as soon as you go full flaps and below 15in/hg manifold you can expect 600-700fpm descent rate if you pitch for 65kn. Way to slippery in the sim. * Because of the lackluster approach behaviour, you came in hot for the landing. However, I have never seen it float like this, even with ground effect favoring conditions. All in all, I believe it is not very good. It pains me to say, but in my book the generic DV20 is closer to the real life than this. Hopefully the developers can improve on this and maybe replace the placeholder image ;-)

Hi Jonathan, why does the trim light and the oil indicator does not work yet ? The developer does not work on it ?????? This is quite a shame ....I have ask for the upgrade months ago now !

Jonathan, May I ask ? I have just upgraded to a pretty high end PC from X Box (I was fed up of the limitations and lack of customisable options for flight sim). Anyway, where is your go to for purchasing aircraft, airports, scenery etc for PC ? Just curious as I’m new to the PC side of this ! And on a side note, do you ever manage to use self loading cargo and GSX together ? Lol

I flew this plane two weeks ago in reality and we had very pronounced thermals and I was about to puke from all the rocking around so we had to do a an intermittent landing. Then the flight instructor told me they have pilots outright declining to use that plane and choose a Cessna 152 instead because they too get nausea in that plane.

13:23 - That's what HE said.

How do you get an inibuilds plane into the actual simulator itself? Or is the plane in the marketplace.

Just looking at the engine startup, in the real one, with a cold engine, you have to turn the electric fuel pump on (switch to the left of gen/bat), fuel boost on (switch to the left of speedometer), throttle to full, then back to idle, then 1/4 inch, and THEN crank the starter. Otherwise it's not going to start. The X-plane version of the SimSolutions DA20 does this better.

Can I get this aircraft on the Xbox Series X, it’s currently a training aircraft for me as I’m a student pilot and would love to use it in MSFS? Is it available for Xbox?

Don't we already have this in the Sim as a Default? You wanna see BAD? AvAngel previewed the Cessna 400 TTx from..........Sim Federation. 😒 Awesome plane in real life, but a horrendous rendition in the Sim.

don't be boterd the waffling is fine and everything included in this viceo and even the aeorplane doesn't look too bad.

I would probably get it if it had autopilot...

With a combination of a not very accomplished sim aircraft dev and a plane that’s probably not going to be very popular anyway because of other higher quality choices of similar but more poplar aircraft I doubt they’ll sell many of these.

Again, it could have been any other 2-seater, but it had to be one that already exists in the sim... Am I the only one again who thinks maybe the devs don't have their ear to the users?