Carenado’s Mooney M20J For FSX
Reviewed by Ludo Lambrechts
Carenado, what does the name mean for you, you the virtual flight simmer? For me it means seeing outstanding quality models, professional textures, realistic flight dynamics, and a repute of delivering superior products. Most virtual flight simmers with some experience will have that exact same vision of Carenado, even real pilots rave on the realism Carenado products give. The talented Carenado developers have earned this respect with their past superior products. All of Carenado's products have been aircraft, small general aviation aircraft (GA). That is Carenado’s area of expertise and that's what they do best, so why not continue that work?
Earlier this year (2008), Carenado released another award-winning title to their long list of achievements. The Mooney M20J for FS2004/FSX was released. This latest aircraft received rave reviews on its upcoming release.....and expectations were high. The common question among the public was can Carenado do it again. Flight simmers were not to be disappointed when they first saw the FS2004 release of the Mooney M20J, but were amazed of the sheer quality the FSX model brought, it featured the crisp model, sharp textures, gorgeous eye candies, and all other trusted Carenado features we expect from Carenado plus a lot more.
The Mooney M20J model immediately made an impact on all customers/screenshot viewers. It is your classical Carenado aircraft . . . The model is extremely accurately modeled and will give you that sense of real flying. Besides the smooth look of the model are the crisp textures that are dressed around the model and have all of the extra features that FSX allows. The eye candies outside such as the landing gear are very accurate; there is not one downside about the appearance of this aircraft. The only disappointment is the lack of liveries included, while there are four liveries in all, it does feel quite limiting. But I'm very certain that talented repainters out there will give the Carenado Mooney the extra liveries it craves.
The interior is the identical story as every other Carenado aircraft that has been released. As usual the virtual cockpit (VC) is very highly detailed, every little thing that you can imagine has been included and thought of. Realistic light effects on gauges, window's reflections and night light effects on the panel. The gauges are very smooth and realistic looking, the textures are crisp and the panel feels like the "real thing". The detail all around the interior of the Mooney M20J makes for one of the most amazing and realistic flights of your life, so sit back and enjoy the flight.
The exterior of this 3D model has an excellent association between details and polygons, aircraft curves are extremely smooth improving the quality of the visual model without harming or reducing FPS. Fully moving parts include ailerons, elevators, rudders, flaps and trim tab, animated cowl flaps, RAM air operative, rolling wheels, opening doors, animated sun visor, navigation lights, beacons, landing lights, full dynamic effects. Highest marks go to Carenado for maximizing frame rates on this eye candy packed aircraft. Along with the smooth flight and realistic goes an amazing set of flight dynamics. The Mooney M20J responds just like it does in the real world and is a real treat for any flight simmer that demands the best.
My Conclusion (Flight Time 40 Hours)
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AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
Overall the Mooney M20J was a guarantee to be a hit with the public. I could have told you that weeks before it was even released. Carenado again does an outstanding job on taking this aircraft to the next level of excellence. This aircraft does stand out from other Carenado products, no doubt about it. There are noticeable differences in quality between this model compared to the other fine Carenado releases from the past, it would be impossible to even dare to compare if you see what FSX allows the team of developers to do. This was not possible or available before in FS2004. Even though I thought that Carenado would have a hard time to
improve their product, FSX gave so many more possibilities and power to the developer so they had the chance to deliver a superior quality product. But don't get me wrong, no matter which aircraft you buy from Carenado either for FS2004 or FSX you will always get the best quality out there for the money you spend. For the amazing work and time that has been spent on this product I award Carenado a 9.5 out of 10.
Computer Specs
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* Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 @ 2.66 GHZ 8MB Cache 1066 FBS
* 8 GB of Kingston Hyper X DDR2 800 MHZ RAM
* 2 X XFX 8800GTX @ 1.5GB of Video RAM
* 1250 Watt PSU
* 1 X 150 GB Raptor HDD (C: Drive)
* 2 X 500GB WD HDD (one for regular games, one for FSX)
Reviewed by Ludo Lambrechts for Carenado
Mooney 201 M20J FSX, My Review
[GK-customfield]FSX[customfield-GK] 
. And as you mention in your review everything Carenado is pure quality. 
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