Ultimate Buyers Guide - BEST AIRCRAFT Addons 2024 | Real Pilot's Analysis | MSFS 

Hello! Very humbled by your choice of my Alouette, I can't say thank you enough for trusting me in this adventure, I can't wait to bring more old whirly birds to life in the sim! I got more exciting projects coming up and I hope you will all like them. Btw I plan to update the Alouette very soon (yes, again) to bring more features and fixes! Cheers!

That FSX music background really brings back memories 😢

Great video review! Your insights on flight simulators are fantastic. However, I'd like to highlight four important categories that seem to have been overlooked: 1) Seaplanes or aircraft with floats, 2) Retro or pioneer aircraft, 3) STOL or Bush planes, and 4) Gliders These categories add a unique dimension to the simulation experience. Keep up the good work, and perhaps consider exploring these aspects in future reviews. Thanks for your excellent content!

RE: Cherokee Arrow - My first time at the controls of any airplane was an Arrow (not a turbo). My dad worked with a guy named Clovis Bolay who owned a Cherokee Arrow. On a quick business trip from OKC to Tulsa, he had me sit right seat and he got me familiar with it. On the way back,once established he told me to follow the heading bug and of course corrected me on wings level, made adjustments, etc. But I got to steer. I think I was 8 or 9. When my mom moved my sisters and I to Denver; Summer rolled around and I was going to spend it with my dad. Clovis offered to come up and fly me back. It was Clovis, his friend and safety pilot, my dad and I and of course a 10 year old's Summer luggage. I was in back with my dad having the time of my life and I was blissfully unaware of things like the long takeoff roll or the impact of things said like, "Jim, when I tell you, hit the gear." I was probably 15 or 16 when my dad and I were talking over that flight and he explained to me that the density altitude and weight was at the edge of the Arrow's abilities. Apparently Clovis passed his abort line and had to fly or not. He bounced the plane, had Jim bring in the gear and flew in ground effect until he had the airspeed to get us off the mountain. My dad, an Air Force vet, knew enough to be worried. I was just happy as a clam, loving the adventure and sitting in blissful ignorance. This has nothing to do with anything, but for one reason or another, the featuring of the Arrow just overwhelmed me with nostalgia and brought all that back. Thanks for indulging my old man rambling on this fondest of memories.

A huge thank you for Learjet 35A approach to Meigs 36! Brings so many memories! Different graphics, but I still see those pixels, boxes and awful sounds through super-realistics modern visuals... Sadly, seeing no-one else commenting that makes me feel super-old. :)

Saving till I can watch (and re watch) without interruptions... New format is great! Thanks again for creating top shelf quality presentation! Had a chance to watch finally. Best video I’ve seen lately, enjoyed it immensely. I’m still pretty far behind in flying aircraft in some categories, but really enjoyed hearing about all of them. Thanks immensely for your hard work and careful thought,it really shows!

Thanks so much for all the hard work and time taken to create such an indepth review. It really is much appreciated by me and I'm sure the community as a whole. Keep them coming!

One of the great things about the Hawk T1 is how well in runs (especially in VR). The Heatblur F-14 Tomcat, as awesome as it it, is too heavy on framerates. So much so that I have to fly it over deserts to make it enjoyable. The Hawk T1 is also really detailed but I can fly that anywhere.

Really enjoyed the new format. The best part was guessing each category as you got to it!

Thanks for the recognition. Very much appreciated!

Best MSFS addon list video of all time 🎉😮!

Another superb vid! Many thanks for your efforts. Cheers

No STOL/bush category?! The Double Ender and Wilga would have crushed that. I agree with almost everything except the HondaJet, I just can't rank it that high when (as far as I know and from the last time I was near someone flying one) it's the last plane that still suffers from the multiplayer sound bug where you can hear other players' engines as though you're in their cockpit Shoutout to the Vulcan

Amazing work! Super well done!!

Thank you for this fair review of these offerings. It is amazing how far flight sim has come since 2009.

a magnificent video! some truly incredible aircraft in the list!

Great list and almost 100% agree. The Shorts was the only one I couldn't place here. Currently the TBM850 is my go to plane. Someyimes it's hard to pick one and stick to it with all the exelent choices. Really looking forward to the 757 and 767 coming hopefully this year

Superb, in-depth video as per, mate!

Thank you for creating my shopping list! 🙂

Thank you for the excellent list and I have great respect for your opinion! My problem with airplanes generally has been the same since many generations of MSFS ago - there are too many! I always tell myself, I am just going to buy this one and that one and then really really learn them and pay tribute to the effort the developers has put into them. And then I end up buying "everything" as soon as they are released and not learning a single one thorughly. The PMDG737 is the only one I've really spent a lot of hours in....

Great informative video, thanks.

I might be a haughty DCS'er that even has the Yak-52, but I'm going to spend some time in the A2A Comanche. They won me over with the details like the engine simulation - things like that can go a long way to making MSFS a "game" going from place to place over the course of several weeks. Thanks for the effort you put into all your videos!

Great one! Love this ranking videos!! Please do one about Payware Airports (classified by Region), that would be nice

I concur pretty much with your selections. I saw your BF109G video and immediately bought it. What a challenge. It's a tough bird to fly (but it really was, so one can't complain about that). I use it for short hops and general fun flying. It will bite though esp. in a crosswind or with the merest hint of "I got this" cockiness from the pilot. For longer haul, I like the PMDG DC6. The product itself has issues and some updates have sorted a few out along the way but I love the crabby, idiosyncratic old girl. I tend to fly cargo in Air Atlantique livery from Coventry (UK) - as per the real freight operator in the 1970s. Or pax in Ansett colours here from/to Brisbane (AUS). The thing is a bit of a ground gripper at heavy weights and with high density altitude - I think it only climbs due to the curvature of the earth sometimes. I am a retired bush pilot here in Queensland and could never believe they actually paid me (not that much though) to do it. Mostly in PA31-350s and various King Airs over the years. Keep up the great work.

Really appreciate this presentation......So much effort has has been put into it...Thank you...Roger...Pembrokeshire

Clear, concise, and as comprehensive as can be without making it a two hour long video. Great video edit work. Well done. I've been subscribed to your channel for a while, and never fail to enjoy your content. I own 13 of the top 27 aircraft, including at least 1 from every category except airliners. I don't own any payware aircraft in that category yet (except the Fokker F28, which brings my system to its knees,) but am really looking forward to purchasing Bluebird's upcoming 757. I'm hopeful that it will be fairly well optimized for FS2024, which I'm hopeful will improve the performance of the more complex aircraft across the board. My latest purchase was the Learjet 35A. I haven't had a go with it yet. I wouldn't mind seeing a category for STOL aircraft like the Wilga, the Pilatus Porter PC-6, the Supercub, or any number of the excellent payware bush planes on the market.

Still doing a fantastic job in the art of flight sims,really enjoy your content. Looking forward to the future with ITB coverage 👍

Great video thank you. I would love to see a civilian vintage category as well as the war birds!

I really like the new format. I must admit patting myself on the back whilst watching the video having bought JF's Turbo Arrow and Hawk T1/A a while back, the PMDG 737-800 around a year ago, and the BKSQ TBM 850 and FlightFX Vision Jet more recently.

A brilliant video. Thanks.

Nice list. I agree that A2A is the only developer so far to bring an airplane into the sim that actually feels alive though. No matter how deep other developers simulate systems ist feels scripted most of the time. With A2A it really feels like the physics are at work. And I’m in love with that Comanche. What a masterpiece

Agree with pretty much everything the warbird category is a toss up but prefer the flying iron p38 and spitfire personally. I don’t take this category seriously in msfs. Flying this category in DCS is infinitely better. Thx for the video the a2a blsq 850 and 350 are my favourite aircraft in the sim atm

I agree for the comanche. The external flight model offer the best experience. The physics model in MSFS is not very good honestly, even on paywares addons.

Great video! A celebration for all those developers!

Happy to say I own most of them already, bar the Fenix and Fsreborn 500, could almost predict all of these! When it comes to the rotorcraft, I view the Flyinside 206 and B-47 as my most enjoyable to fly right now, simply due to the more realistic and immersive flight model and the failures, but happy the Alouette 3 got a mention as it would probably be 3rd on my list (but also a close call with the Lama)! If you don't mind the Msfs flight model and lack of failures, the Cowansim helis are also a good shout - they're going through an update phase right now, giving htem some more polish and different avionics packages.

Thanks for all your work on this list - appreciated - Don't really disagree with many of the choices - I have no fighters , nor helicopters in my hanger , but I was surprised you didn't include the Fokker F28 , rather than the 146!

The GotFriends Edgely Optica & Vertigo are my favorite sightseeing aircraft in the sim.

Great summary! Pretty much in line with the Charts I’ve been running on the MSFS Forums with a few exceptions. Sad to say I have most of those in my hangar lol And yeah, Comanche for the win!! ❤

Brilliant review 😎

I would have added the LSA/School aircrafts category and the bushplane one too. Even the vintage aircrafts category and/or seaplanes. I agree with you for most of the aircrafts choosen not forgetting the Beech Baron addon amongst the twins. The DC6 in my opinion should be in the vintage aircrafts category. LSA/School . 3) Blackwing - 2) Sting S4 1) - Cessna 152 WBsim Mod (free) Bushplanes: 3) Rans S6S Coyote 2) Double ender 1) Kitfox5 "Freedom Fox" Vintage aircrafts: 3) Beech 18 +Mod - 2) DC6 - 1) Tiger Moth

Super video - a million Thanks

Great review(s)! Agree with your choices (maybe would've shuffled one or two). Only surprise was Taog's Alouette helicopter. I haven't tried it, but now I suppose I shall :)

Excellent video as usual thanks. My only real surprise in there was not even a mention of the F28 - It was released in 23 and I think it matches or surpasses the 146 in terms of immersion/fidelity. It's amazing how the landscape has changed in 3 years to even be able to have these discussions :-)

my man!

No doubt we'll be seeing the black square dukes on this list next year. I think the turbine dukes will take the #1 spot on the multi turbo prop category, but will the piston variant top the the C310R? Looking forward to your review once it releases!

Thank you 🙏

28:00 KCGX Pretty nostalgic LJ35A and this scenery. I remember 1998...

For me, you remain the most trusted person for MSFS reviews. Hope you get to the F-111 soon.

Loved watching this.

The FSR 500 is a GREAT airplane, love it

Nice video ITB! I love the list, you opinion is my most valued tbh. Some constructive criticism, I think you are applying to much gain on your microphone.

i have to add to that, that the Maddog X although quite expensive is also an amazing aircraft. Same goes for the F28 by just flight

Another great 'Best of'. 🙂I thought for sure the Comanche was going to be Top 3, maybe even 2nd. I just thought maybe the Fenix A320 (which I haven't flown) would remain the favourite. But a First place for the Comanche against all categories is a terrific result. Regarding Warbirds - I knew you were really enjoying the Me-109G, and you did mention in that review that it was your current favourite Warbird. I did wonder if it would be enough to go higher than the arguably more well-rounded Corsair. I had assumed the Flyingiron Spitfire Mk.IX (my usual go too) might take 3rd place. What a surprise to see the Wildcat (haven't tried it) not only included, but ahead of the Corsair. Regarding Military Jets - The Hawk has been near the Top of the list of Add-ons for a long time. You've purchased many versions of the Vulcan so were obviously a big fan. And the new Tomcat brings features other add-ons don't. I thought it was likely the Tomcat would make the list, but wondered if it would be impressive enough to challenge the Hawk. The results were very interesting. 👍

Great video. When is the Lancaster coming?

Great video and helps me a lot to chose maybe 1 or 2 purchases. I wonder though what you exactly mean by "flight modelling." What is important for me through videos like this is if the plane feels and behave much like it would for real since I have no pilot experience what so ever from real life.

Great Video. Comanche does sound very tempting.

You made me look at Bell 47G because of the External Flight Model

I just bought a new GPU, I suspect your list will lead to my credit card getting more abuse, your recommendations are always worth listening to.

They are Pricey, but you cannot go wrong with a Just flight aircraft and its hard to explain, until you own one. I have the P-28R Arrow bundle, T1 Hawk, BA146 Proffessional and love them all and I'm stuck between the Avro Vulcan or the indiafox/ Heatblur F14A for my next purchase. I also have the A2A Comanche and two PDGM 737's aircraft and like you, these are also my number 1's. I'm not a fan of the Shorts and it's pricy, but I do love messing the ATR . BUT I'd put Just Flight aircraft high up on my list. Shame you didn't include the O-22 Osprey and I like the Pac P750 xStol and FS500 over the Kodiack due to their better flight models and all of which I also own.

Wow what a fantastic video - and really difficult to disagree with any of your choices. For any newcomer to the sim, just reviewing this list of high-definition planes must surely demonstrate what a great group of Devs we have now. Can't wait to see what other planes emerge in the next year or two also!

Absolutely on the money. Pleased the black square products topped some lists. There’s a handful of products that have that hard to define realistic vibe, black square does that. Im a big fan of the JF f28, but that’s a tough category. Thanks for the excellent and accurate vid!

Great video, I wished someone would do that on airports 😂

Great picks. I personally would shuffle a few. I miss Tecnam 2012.. - And a few that does not any categories. Ultralight Sting S4. - Bush home built Double Ender. Amphibious Marchetti Riviera.

Very good video - not sure if it was intentional but there was no exterior footage of the flightfx vision jet?

I like this format, I hope you keep it. Also glad that most of these planes are available on Xbox and I have several of them.

Nice video me personally for ehat I fly on xbox I was surprised not to see the f35 in the top 3 and possibly the cj eurofighter their great fun to fly and handle great in my opinion but I'm not an expert like yourself :)

Excellent video, would be cool if you could add in 2 more categories for the next one, gliders and STOL bush planes.

Great Video!

Ah the video last year that brought me back. I've been looking forward to seeing this years winners. My one surprise is the flyinside B206 missing out. Very basic textures but the flight model makes up for a lot of sins. To be fair, I haven't tried the others on your list.

Great picks! I'm surprised the Caribou didn't make it though. Any chance of doing a freeware version of this video? Maybe instead of all three gold silver bronze just a winner for the category and a runner up?

I woukd like to see something like Project Tupolev, and the fa ous Grosskreis a igation. Was fun to fly And I loved the Hercules C130 the cs2002 sou d was epic

Great list, cheers. I'd say weapon deployment isn't really necessary. Save that all for DCS, just seeing them mounted is enough. Well done all devs.

Thanks for the video! Some constructive criticism: voice audio & time stamps / chapters

I really appreciated your video, these are quite nice aircrafts, I agree with you. But I'm impressed with these absolutely beautiful landscapes in the video. Could you tell me where some of these airports and locations are? I'd love to make some flights in these locations.

Just three years ago I bought any new plane for MSFS that looked halfway decent. Now I really try to limit myself to a few exceptionally good ones and try to learn them properly. But it is still a lot of fun to switch between planes and categories. Do I want to fly a helicopter, bush plane, turbo prop or airliner today?

Flying the Afro Vulcan at night is awesome. Not my favorite plane but it is My favorite module on msfs

Not surprised to see IndiaFoxTecho made it on the list. They have, hands down, the best military jets for the sim. I (somewhat shamefully) have probably 100 hours just in Mb-339 at this point.

Can I dare to say with the latest updates, the Fenix performance surpass that of the PMDG 737's? At least on my PC.

Your vr looks great what's your pc specs great vids

Great overview. A point. Would agree with 99% of your voting, leaving airliners apart (not my game to play)

Glad you dinged the FSR500 a bit for the flight model. All the gimmicks (feeding passengers, etc) do not make up for the really bad flight model, IMO. It’s a twitchy mess and needs work. I think flight models should get the most attention, then the gimmicks can be worked on.

very good video as always 😊 hopefully we can get some more decent t props in defo my favourite planes hopefully we can by next year get the majestic dash 8 and really looking forward to the flightfx avanti 180/evo. really hoping a2a get cracking with the stratocruiser connie and p51. oh and if any devs are in here please can someone give us a decent fairchild metro 3 and l-188 electra 😂 a a2a turboprop electra would be the dream.

It was an education and a pleasure to watch, but i must confess, not one of my favourite planes was mentioned :D

No love for the FBW A320? Being free is quite a perk for such a solid, aspiring study level add on aircraft.

Oh, man. I've been looking forward to this. Can't wait to enjoy this later. Just know that if the maddog isn't top 3 in the airliner category, I will unsubscribe. (Important addendum: This is an empty threat, I will not unsubscribe.)

Wonder where the COWS DA-42 would have come in the list.

Comanche does win my best-in-sim award, but I hardly ever fly it, oddly enough - it's *interesting* and you learn a fair bit about aircraft management from it, but I don't find it very fun! it's got rather lighter since release too which I don't really appreciate. Everyone needs the Transall! and I have nothing but good things to say about Azurpoly themselves. The Transall is one of those rolling passion projects & it shows, given enough time and it'll be as good as it can get, it's still getting big updates. Native helicopters have a big problem in that the rotor weighting is bugged - if you bump the rotor weights/moments up well above what it actually is then the handling suddenly feels much more like a helicopter, but unfortunately that comes with problems of overtorquing the engines. I think you probably need to fly the H160. I don't, unfortunately, like the Alouette, I don't find it flows very well - I think I will experiment with it a little because somewhere in there is a nice helicopter trying to get out. IMO FI's Hellcat is the best warbird out of the box, although I have hardly tried the 109. The Corsair has some odd handling, the Wildcat has some *very* odd handling and it's rather basic in feel ( which is odd given who's behind the flight model ) and I don't think I'd really recommend it. I've removed every JF aircraft except the 146 - recent flight models have been unpleasant, the 146 has not had an update & still feels pretty ok ( it's a bit lighter than it was at launch, but it still flows around nicely ). The Hawk is bad enough that everyone I know who used to fly it a lot have just stopped too :S It annoys the hell out of me because I have a lot of hours in it. I refuse to recommend a PMDG product, especially the DC-6, because of the dismal lack of support - it has bugs that were reported & acknowledged two years ago now and still haven't been fixed. Doesn't stop it being top of it's class, but I'm not dealing with the company again. Edit: reinstalled the JF PA-28s to test something and to be fair they're not quite as bad as I remembered, but still not near the current best. Nor as good as they were a couple of years ago either, unfortunately.

Hi from a simmer in India. Thanks for a great video :) What a gift FS20 is (and upcoming FS24).

Brilliantly put together. I think I may have been the first one to suggest this format 😏😬.... Of the planes I own, agreed with most of your choices. Comanche is 100% the best add-on of 2023.

I just plunked down for the Heatblur F14. After looking at the modelling quality and depth of aerodynamic simulation it was hard for me to say this isn't worth the money. (Really I just need something new to look at after hundreds of hours touring the world in the Rhino, but the number of toys to tinker with in the F14 will definitely keep me entertained.)

Spot on comparison. From the experience of the addons I own 404 and Kodiak are the best. I only have the Vision Jet so I can´t compare to Honda Jet. PMDG is great mainly because of the frame rate, as mentioned. Fenix A320 would be better if the FPS could be improved. I use MSFS with my laptop so good sim has to run in it.

We still need an FX package, like Old Prop Solutions in P3d! The effects rendered by that program made P3d come alive. Maybe they will release it for 2024?

I wish Microsoft would release a combat flight sim using this engine, It would be absolutely amazing

What monitor do you recommend and use at the moment?

PMDG should start modelling falling wheels and exploding panels for the boeings

Everyone's a gangsta until the TBM 850 rolls up!

Massive thanks for this ITB. The only decision I don’t agree with is the Vulcan. Gold for me all day long. As iconic as the F-14 is, if I want proper fight jock thrills I’d use DCS, not MSFS. This list also proves that I’ve spent an absolute royal fortune on this sim last few years as helicopters aside (I own the H160) I seem to have bought most of them :)

The background music is very distracting. I kept thinking "Why doesn't MSFS finish loading?!" throughout the whole video. :D Good list, though! No bush planes, though?

30:30 The view out of the visionjet here looks super cool! Where is this?

The Mig21 is absolutely amazing. The buttons and switches are a little loud and it’s hard to fly but it’s known for being a pig in the air anyways. GKS did a great job!