If like me you're interested in flying General Aviation aircraft but you're looking for a single piston engine with high performances, then this Cessna Centurion and its 310 Horse Power Turbocharged TSIO-520 engine is for you!
First of all, the Carenado Cessna Centurion needs to be purchased, quite obvious isn't it? What is less obvious is which version since there are two available from Carenado: XP10 compatible XP11 or XP11 version? Well, both can be purchased actually because this REP is available (separately) for both. However, the XP10 compatible XP11 version is an old version of the Centurion plane and unless you already own it, go for the XP11 version because it takes advantages of the numerous features of X-Plane 11 with enhanced PBR textures, flight model, improved sounds...etc.
Continuous improvements of the REP for the Carenado Centurion XP11 version (and for all planes for which the REP is proposed) are available under the form of regular updates..
What's REP?
This acronym stands for Reality Expansion Pack and speaks by itself. I will only name few features here but SimCoders website has an extensive description of all the improvements they propose through the REP available for various planes including the default Cessna 172 Skyhawk and Beech Baron 58 that come natively with X-Plane.
REP introduces interactive pre- and post-flight walkaround; maintenance hangar (winterization kit, oil viscosity choice, spark plugs type...etc), engine management, wear of the engine, structure of the plane and on board instruments (needle of the gauges will start to tremble after a certain amount of time)...
The flight model is accurately reproduced thanks to the real life pilot reporting and validating the flight dynamics. The developers themselves are confirmed private pilots that test each aircraft to compile real data from the plane they're flying on, in order to build those REPs. I've never flown this bird in real life, but based on my own flying experience and videos of the Centurion I found on Youtube, the response of the plane to elevator, yaw and aileron inputs look really convincing!
For the Centurion, the ground handling is what has impressed me the most: one can feel the spring loaded nose wheel steering. In real plane unlike the default planes in X-Plane, ground steering is not that easy: a General Aviation aircraft is generally quite lazy on turns, requires the use of toe brakes to initiate a turn and REP perfectly reproduces this behavior. REP and particularly for the Cessna Centurion is to my opinion the most accurate simulation of how real taxi occurs in an actual plane.
In flight, well...without too much of a surprise, this is the same treatment: set a weight, fuel quantity, take-off and climb to your cruise altitude. Then open the Pilot Operating Handbook and check the engine setup: fuel flow, manifold pressure, RPM and you'll get the stated True Air Speed from the manual.
Quick tip:
Gain few Knots by closing your cowl flaps but keep an eye on the oil temperature and Cylinder Heat Temperature gauges because if you do not take care of your engine, be prepare to pull your emergency checklist out because REP like the real thing does not allow approximation. For instance, you have to pay attention to the way you lean your engine to not be in the "red box" (check this interesting article containing information that even real life private pilot somtimes ignores: https://www.simcoders.com/2016/05/24/lean-mixture/).
Experience the fuel flooding and locking simulations or hypoxia if you forget to turn the oxygen system ON when climbing above 12,000 ft; because you forgot to refill the oxygen bottles prior to your flight or simply because you forgot that you were flying with your wife and child and that several folks on board consume more oxygen than a single pilot and thus autonomy is limited.
Have you not noticed that the pilot started to have difficulties to breath (yes you can hear this too!).
At last but not least, there are not so many planes that perfectly simulate crosswind landing behavior and side slip landing techniques. I own REP for both the default Cessna 172 Skyhawk and obviously for the Carenado Cessna Centurion, and landing during crosswind conditions is a delight moment!
Check all the features on the SimCoders's website:
https://www.simcoders.com/reality-expansion-pack/carenado-cessna-210
I also did a tribute video to the REP Cessna Centurion and its crosswind/side slip capabilities. Just follow the link :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im2NqEdr4ZI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbxpXF4Jrb0
TIPAH
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