X-Plane 12 | RealSimGear DA40NG | First Look Review

RealSimGear DA40NG has been released for X-Plane 12. In this stream, I will be reviewing the aircraft and giving you my unbiased view and recommendations.
ADDONS & REFERENCED LINKS
RealSimGear DA40NG for X-Plane 12: bit.ly/3qwbmlb
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✈ PC Specs
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Produced by Q8Pilot (C) 2023
#xplane12 #da40 #xplane

[@florentfrancois5088]

I was surprised by how little attention this aircraft is getting. It was a really silent release as well, I'm really glad you covered it! Seems like a masterpiece, what got me the most are those teaching elements for the systems, you can see it was first and foremost developed as a training tool and then polished. You did a great showcase of it, and from all you showed, it seems like one of the best GA add-on with the torque sim cirrus family and AFL as a complete package.

[@Q8Pilot]

It is truly one of the best GA for X-Plane and worth every cent. You will absolutely love it if you decide to get it, that I can assure you.

[@salemi771]

Beautiful aircraft. When u start adding up the aircraft, the flight dynamics and autho ortho- xplane is back. A true aviation experience

[@Q8Pilot]

This is aircraft is just excellent. Well worth the asking price.

[@LarjoskiFlyingAway]

I’m lucky to fly the DA40 NG in real life and I can confirm it’s a beautiful plane to fly and those sim sounds are spot on.

[@taurus57]

Thank you very much for the review Q8! Bought the plane and really enjoying it !!

[@aftasarden2]

Nice video! I hope this can get to MSFS, or at least any other GA aircraft at this same level. Btw, not sure if anyone commented already, but the temperature rise after shutting down a hot engine is perfectly correct. I'm impressed that they got to this level of detail. This temperature rise is called heat soak. During normal engine operation, the coolant flows quickly around the cylinders walls to remove heat. It flows quickly enough so it absorbs a limited amount of heat. Once you shut down the engine in a hot state, the coolant stops flowing, and the coolant that is stopped around the cylinder walls (which is also typically very close to the coolant temperature sensor) continues to absorb all that heat from those cylinder walls, and that's where the temperature rise comes from. This happens to basically any water cooled reciprocating engine, including the one inside your gasoline/diesel car engine. Reminding that combustion temperatures in "regular" engines can get above 800 Celsius, so the metal from the cylinder walls also get's very hot. It would have been nice if you checked if the temperature drops quickly after you start the engine again. That would be the expected behavior as well. Also, would be interesting to know if this could have any consequence to the engine/airplane too. In your video, you came a long way with a lower power setting with the descent and taxiing after landing, so combustion chamber temperatures surely are already much lower. Because of that the temperature rise due to the heat soak was very limited. But if you do what is called a hot shutdown, which in its most extreme case involves turning the engine off while being at full power and stabilized temps. (reached their highest point), that could cause a coolant expansion tank (not even sure if these exists in airplanes) to leak coolant due to excessive temperature expansion. It should not happen though in a well projected engine installation (as I would expect from this airplane). In this case the coolant temp. could rise above even 120C. There are other consequences that could happen, but their extent can vary a lot depending on various aspects of an engine.

[@sturvinmurvin9408]

The systems developer just graduated from Purdue a few weeks back as an Aerospace Engineer. ;) Excellent explanation!

[@paderks1209]

I'm really glad to see a developer put so much love into this aircraft. The physical and system modelling look to be 1:1 with the real aircraft. I would love to see realsimgear develop a g1000 NXI for this aircraft in the future.

[@aftasarden2]

@@sturvinmurvin9408 Thanks! It is very evident that the person who developed the airplane system (and everyone else that worked on this airplane) knows very well what was doing. I bet that on the background all heat generation and "removal" (don't know how to translate the correct term to English) is really being calculated based either on estimations or even known data to get to this kind of results and simulation. Again, very nice work on this airplane, congratulations to everyone involved.

[@Q8Pilot]

Thank you so much for your detailed explanation and for sharing this with the community. Immensely appreciated.

[@CMBelite-FR]

You have the Comanche 250 for msfs, ultimate study level GA

[@VirtualAviationAviator]

I wasn't going to purchase this aircraft. Now I will, if for no other reason than to show appreciation for the level of modeling. We need devs to push X-Plane's aircraft into dimensions that are difficult to replicate in other sims.

[@sturvinmurvin9408]

Thank you! I appreciate the very kind words. 🙏

[@jeddydan8734]

@@sturvinmurvin9408 hello, when are you all going to make a da40 star for x plane 12?

[@098bogdan]

Hello and thank you so much for the video! You can get the volume up and down with a mouse over the plug of your headphone actually.

[@Q8Pilot]

Thanks for the tip and for watching the video!

[@stefans.7750]

Wow, what a beauty. That’s one of the planes that made me buy a new SSD and Setup XP12 parallel to MSFS, which is far away from the in depth planes that are offered by X-Plane. One can really see how enthused you are by this little one! One question, please… how would you compare performance to other single prop GA‘s? Regards, Stefan

[@EVELYNEMIL]

The aircraft and X plane 12 match phenomenal!.

[@lknfly1166]

Excellent review Captain! I want this bird! ;-)

[@Q8Pilot]

I can assure you that you will not be disappointed with this bird. It is just amazing.

[@paulsheather7657]

I did a short flight yesterday and overheated the engine oil and ended up having and engine failure. So i would say it's a study level aircraft.

[@Q8Pilot]

It is indeed study level and it is great!

[@paulsheather7657]

@@Q8Pilot And as you say worth every cent.

[@cfrito]

How do you steer the DA40NG so smoothly? I'm all over the taxiway when I try steering with the toe braking.

[@33Jasphere]

wow awesome vidieo so good to see you still doing awesome content on flight simulstors i used to watch you a few years ago brought X-plane 11 and failed horribly but i have watch a few of your recent releases and your still as good today as you was back in the old days thinking of buying X-plane 12 but all i got is a keybaord and mouse and buddy says you cant play this simulator with a keyboard and mouse so maybe someday ill invest in a yoke and rudders hard todo being on a fixed income but i really appreciate your vidioes and will watch more thanks so much Peace Jas

[@F.A.S.D]

hello Q8 sir hope all is well, may I ask if this aircraft has distance attenuation (or GPWS? correct me if im wrong sir..) like the aerobask DA42 NG?

[@AllenPortman]

One of my favorite flying in XP 12 is Diamond D-50!

[@Avazhi]

Love your videos, Q8. Unfortunately couldn't watch as it was 4am my time and I've got exams but definitely gonna have to scrounge up the money for this one. The last plane to rival this in terms of quality and detail is probably the CL650. AFL's C172NG and KingAir come close but this looks like it's actually better, at least from this video.

[@Q8Pilot]

Thank you for your kind words. Yes this aircraft is certainly special and I highly recommend it.

[@Bloboii]

is there any fs DA40s that have the prop and mixture levers?

[@ghc9]

Hi @q8pilot can you share a bit more info on what's there in terms of the custom G1000? Engine page? Checklists? Thanks

[@chrifeld]

Is it correct that the front gear seems to be out of the middle? 6:01

[@sturvinmurvin9408]

Yes that is a feature of the actual airframe. I originally modeled it in the very center and once I realized my error I had to quit for the day lol. Cheers.

[@GamerTubeHD]

Amazing aircraft. Did you usw any other add on's, Like xenviro, activeskyxp, ortho4xp / Auto ortho or Others in this Video?

[@Q8Pilot]

Thanks for watching! No everything else is stock XP12.

[@AllThingsAviation]

anybody else getting ctd trying to fly this plane? sadly i get ctd after 3 minutes when it finishes loading. every other payware and default aircraft are working fine.

[@belevezero2279]

Kinda wish they included documentation for this addon, especially at this price point.

[@tilmanrichter6600]

I was wondering how you'd compare this plane against the AFL 172? Is it better, worse? What are your thoughts?

[@Q8Pilot]

The AFL 172 is the winner of the two.

[@tilmanrichter6600]

@@Q8Pilot too bad, was hoping for the other version of the answer. What would you say is better with the AFL?

[@AlpineWarren]

Ground noise seems over the top doesn't it?

[@JoshKoch]

I forgot in the stream does this include a POH?

[@Q8Pilot]

I could not find one with the installation. Let me check to see if there is an online manual.

[@danielmartinsson899]

@@Q8Pilot I've been looking for this as well but I have not been able to find one related to this simulated plane.

[@danielmartinsson899]

I asked Realsimgear about this. Currently they provide no such thing and they recommended me to use the one for the real plane. While I see the idea behind this, this being a digital trainer after all, it would still be good to have something that explain the various menus etc.

[@77flyer]

Q8 how u pan around like that? Looks really cool

[@Q8Pilot]

I use X-Camera.

[@sarmadkinany4867]

Hello, so far I only play MSFS2020 on console (Xbox Series X). I would like to use the simulation on X-Plane 12 (because many people say that XP12 is more realistic as a simulator) and I was wondering if the author of this video or someone else in the comments could tell me how much would a decent PC cost that delivers the same graphics in this video or similar level? For price range references, I live in Germany. Thanks a lot in advance! :)

[@Q8Pilot]

What are your current Specs please?

[@sarmadkinany4867]

@@Q8Pilot so far I only use PC for work, and only the Xbox Series X for flight simulation (MSFS2020). My question more clearly would be: what price range should I expect to get a PC with the specs that is being used in this video?

[@Aleksandar6ix]

Ah man....if it was the DA40-180 I would have jumped on it. More complexity in operating the engine is a good thing for the sim, and is the one I flew.

[@Virtual-CPT]

It looks really good, just a shame that they use the default X1000.

[@syafiqlaw5634]

No engine page ?

[@paulcartier8864]

How can this be study level without the engine page? also the PFD alignment process is missing. I am sure there will be updates, the flight model is awesome.

[@a.nelprober4971]

Long time no see Kuwait. I've been using a youtube client with no sign in. What do you think of Simfly? Lots of people saying its a scam

[@Q8Pilot]

SimFly approached me to do a video but I myself didn't feel right about the business model.

[@Avazhi]

I'd never heard of it until I read this comment. Looks interesting at first (like a modern FSEconomy) and then you realise they're doing a 'Pre-sale' and trying to get you to invest in NFTs and then one realises that yes indeed this feels like a scam lol.

[@joseenrique9407]

With this level of detail it is a crime not to include a fault and maintenance module as in the sr20.

[@BigSticker760]

oh sweet

[@Q8Pilot]

She is something special for sure!

[@joaocavalcanti7721]

Great video

[@Q8Pilot]

Thanks for watching Joao!

[@joaocavalcanti7721]

@@Q8Pilot You are very welcome

[@jimgraham1404]

Hello

[@donaldholman9070]

I t does not handle well on the ground.

[@Q8Pilot]

The handling on the ground requires some tweaking of your toe brakes.

[@tacticaltransgress]

@@Q8Pilot do you have a toe brake profile that works for this plane? Also with real weather on, mine weathervanes into the wind even with parking brakes on. Any suggestions?

[@danielmartinsson899]

You need to change the response curve for the toe brakes. They are way to sensitive by default. There is a dot on the line in the curve editor. Move that one down quite a bit. Do this for both sides.,

[@praphaneamrungroj575]

I fly a real DA40 NG regularly. The rudder paddles do not have control over the nose wheel. The rudder paddles only control the rudder as such. So when the plane starts taxing at low speed, you need to use differential brake to control the nose. But when you taxi faster like on the take off roll then the rudder at the tail will take control of the nose on the ground. So this is unlike DA42 in which the rudder paddle actually control the nose wheel. @@Q8Pilot