Dynamic Elegance
No airplane personifies the epithet “Dynamic Elegance” more aptly than does the Piper Comanche 250.
The unique conjoining of many superlative aeronautic and aesthetic qualities marks this very special aeroplane. It has been said that if an aeroplane looks right, it will fly right. In this it is supposed that the eye’s natural ability to sense the pleasing proportion and intrinsic efficiency of a design is a reliable predictor of similarly excellent aeronautic performance. The Comanche 250 proves that this adage may be relied upon and bears validity. The Piper Comanche takes its well-deserved place on an illustrious list of aeroplanes which are both so very pleasing to the eyes and which are equally capable of superior performance.
There are many including this writer the most beautiful of all General Aviation (GA) aircraft, if not the most beautiful. From any angle the Comanche treats the eyes. This is what provides its elegance. Its superlative performance is a matter of record and this provides its dynamism. These two great and rare qualities, beauty and performance would be enough in and of themselves to place the Comanche at the pinnacle of GA aircraft, but the Comanche possesses an additional quality, one which, after all, may be its most endearing. Of all of the high performance GA aircraft the Comanche is arguably the least demanding of the relatively low- time pilot. That this is so is not an accident or a fortuitous circumstance – William Piper specifically intended that it should be so. The Comanche’s forgiving flight characteristics and its refusal to turn and bite an unwary pilot without plenty of warning, its relatively gentle stall, easy handling at low airspeeds and its overall delightful handling at all airspeeds are confidence boosters for its fortunate pilots.
The Comanche is also particularly exceptional in that it does not achieve its excellent aerodynamic performance at the expense of interior room and comfort; it is among the roomiest and most comfortable of “high performance” aeroplanes. Neither does the Comanche sacrifice useful load nor its generous weight and balance envelope at the altar of high airspeed. It is a highly capable heavy load hauler and its capacious useful load as well as its ability to safely carry baggage and substantial rear seat passengers without straining its aft load limits is far better than its closest competitors of equal horsepower – including and specifically the V-tail Beechcraft Bonanza. Perhaps most importantly, the Comanche does not achieve its performance by the intrinsic design features which compromise stable flying characteristics. Its light airframe weight and its generous, high aspect-ratio, laminar flow wing provides the Comanche with high efficiency as well as a low wing loading.
Accordingly, Comanche pilots and owners are particularly loyal and satisfied, and for good reason; the Comanche delivers extraordinarily dynamic performance while embodying the highest degree of aeronautic elegance.
So, how is it that all of these superlative qualities came together in this aeroplane? Well, therein lays the Comanche’s tale, one redolent of aeronautic expertise, prescience, confidence and also of a fierce competitive spirit. As it happens, it all began a little more than ten years before the first Comanche ever flew.
Once upon a time…
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This software is for entertainment purposes only.
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- Aircraft DNA technology re-creates actual engine and airframe vibrations.
- A true propeller simulation.
- Experience one of the world’s finest high performance general aviation airplanes ever created
- Hand towing.
- Immersivepre-flight inspection system designed by pilots while operating the actual Comanche 250.
- Electric starter with accurate cranking power.
- Dynamic ground physics including both hard pavement and soft grass modeling.
- Primer-only starts are now possible. Accu-Sim monitors the amount of fuel injected and it’s effectiveness to start and run the engine.
- Persistent airplane where systems, corrosion, and temperatures are simulated even when the computer is off.
- Immersive in-cockpit, physics-driven sound environment from A2A engineered recordings.
- Complete maintenance hangar internal systems and detailed engine tests including compression checks.
- Piston combustion engine modeling. Air comes in, it mixes with fuel and ignites, parts move, heat up, and all work in harmony to produce the wonderful sound of a Lycoming 540 engine. Now the gauges look beneath the skin of your aircraft and show you what Accu-Sim is all about.
- Actual avionics used in the real A2A Comanche 250 including Narco radios and STEC-30 autopilot.
- Three in-sim avionics configurations including no GPS, GPS 295, or the GNS 400. Built-in, automatic support for 3rd party avionics.
- As with every A2A aircraft, it is gorgeously constructed, inside and out, down to the last rivet.
- Designed and built to be flown “By The Book.”
- Visual Real-Time Load Manager, with the ability to load fuel, people, and baggage in real-time.
- Four naturally animated passengers that can sit in any seat including the pilot’s.
- 3D Lights ‘M’ (built directly into the model).
- Pure3D Instrumentation now with natural 3D appearance with exceptional performance.
- Atotal audible cockpit and ound engineered by A2A sound professionals.
- In cockpit pilot’s map for handy in-flight navigation.
- Authentic fuel delivery includes priming and proper mixture behavior. Mixture can be tuned by the book using the EGT or by ear. It’s your choice.
- All models include A2A specialized materials with authentic metals, plastics, and rubber.
- Airflow, density and its temperature not only affect the way your aircraft flies, but how the internal systems operate.
- Real-world conditions affect system conditions, including engine temperatures.
- Spark plugs can clog and eventually foul if the engine is allowed to idle too low for too long. Throttling up an engine with oil-soaked spark plugs can help clear them out.
- Overheating can cause scoring of cylinder head walls which could ultimately lead to failure if warnings are ignored and overly abused
- Engine, airframe, cockpit panel and individual gauges tremble from the combustion engine.
- Authentic drag from the airframe and flaps
- System failures, including flaps that can independently jam or break based on the actual forces put upon them. If you deploy your flaps at too high a speed, you could find yourself in a very dangerous situation.
- Authentic battery. The battery capacity is based on temperature. The major draw comes from engine starting.
- Oil pressure system is affected by oil viscosity (oil thickness). Oil viscosity is affected by oil temperature. Now when you start the engine, you need to be careful to give the engine time to warm
- Eight commercial aviation sponsors have supported the project including Phillips 66 Aviation, Champion Aerospace, and Knots2u speed modifications.
The Manuals are provided as part of the product installation and can be found under your windows start menu > All Programs > A2A Simulations.
You can alternatively download before here
10 reviews for Accu-sim Comanche 250 (FSX)
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Ray Caspri (verified owner) –
There are only two creators of aircraft where I don’t have to edit .air files, .cfg files and sounds; A2A is one of them. Wow this is sweet. Great experience as is. Well done A2A, well done!
Van Hershberger (verified owner) –
I have little to add to these comments but will say I haven’t been around the flight sim world much in years. The thought of adding what I think is superior quality machines to the old FSX in my computer was scary to me. When I saw the sale I couldn’t resist the Pipers. Have to say I was over taken by the ease at witch I purchased these, loaded them and had them flying without a hitch in such a short period of time. Well I’m back at the candy store, it’s New Years Eve to get the Bonanza and the Skylane. Thank You so much ! So sorry to hear about the Aero Star but happy Scott and his son are all right : )
Dale Zehring (verified owner) –
This plane is awesome as far as high performance, similar to the Bonanza. I bought this one after the Cherokee. Changing props on this one gives a difference in cruise/fuel usage during flight. Whether you like to fly high altitudes, or low, this one performs straight away.
Damon Akin (verified owner) –
Since I have recently rejoined the Flight Sim community ( I used to fly the original Microsoft FS), I was looking for a good payware aircraft to fly. I did my research and looked at many reviews and products that are out there. Many people said that A2A was on a level of their own and boy were they right! This aircraft is such a delight. It’s detail and flight characteristics are fantastic and I have already enjoyed many hours flying it. I would highly recommend this aircraft to anyone wanting a quality and fun GA plane!
djjose –
Love this bird. A2A did an outstanding job at replicating a complex single. It even does a great job at modeling carb icing. This is absolutely remarkable. Congrats to the dev team.
tim –
What makes the A2A Comanche so special is the fact that A2A owns the real-world counterpart. They created the Accu-Sim Comanche based on their experience as owner and operator. That’s why the Comanche is probably one of their best products. The PA-24 is simulated down to the smallest detail. You even notice vibrations at certain power settings. Like with all their other products they have perfectly captured the character of the aircraft and created a wonderful addon.
markadeane (verified owner) –
The natural progression from the Cherokee, and self-evidently a labour of love from A2A. From all the little idiosyncrasies you can find in this aircraft, you can tell they own the real thing. Also nice to have a retractable gear GA aircraft in the stable!
jackgwall –
A2A Piper Comanche 250 – I’ve had this payware aircraft in my virtual hanger for over a year now. It’s now one of only two GA aircraft I fly in FSX.
The purchasing process was strightforward, predictable and easy. The overall experience from product download, installation to loading it up and going flying was simply excellent. Absolutely hassle free.
I’d evolved in my flight simming to a stage where I wanted less variety and more fidelity.
That’s more than a quantity vs quality aspiration too …. I wanted to meet my emotional preference (the aircraft of my dreams perhaps) but with as much as sense of a replicated real world experience as possible. A tall order but I’d an inclinging it was feasible.
I looked for a GA aircraft addon which not only met this personal preference (low wing, single engine, old skool) but for something I felt I could really get into. (as in loose myself in within the simulation).
I had tried out perhaps all the payware options available one way or another. I would say I was not disappointed by any of these though, with hindsight, I can now say that my, then feeling, about these other options was one of not being excited. They were good products but not more.
Finally, I tried out the A2A Cessna (chosen largly for comparision reasons initially) and quite immediately, I knew I’d found something special. Everyone should have a Cessna 172 right …. I now had multiple versions but only flew the A2A one.
There was other few GA aircraft in the A2A product offering and one stood out pulling at my heart strings. So some time later, after quite a bit of research into the aircraft, I returned to the A2A products page. This time I had reinforced expectations however based on the A2A Cessna.
The A2A Comanche met the main criteria I had quite easily, namely my emotional one. I was a fan of the shape, the look and style of the Comanche.
However, it was still not until I tried out the Comanche in my sim and built up a few hours that I realised, not only where my other hopes and wishes being met, they were being exceeded to and in fact, this addon was actually leading my expectations to an extent. The question I would ask myself more and more was, just how good is this add on.
If there is one take way from this review, it’s that whatever you read and see from A2A’s official announcement and promotion material, it’s only when you fly the sim yourself that you’ll truly sense just how accomplished this product actually is.
I searched the interwebs of a copy of a POH and found one which covered the serial number of A2A’s Comanche. (as it is a real aircraft, you can look it up on the web)
I began to take out the A2A PA250 to fly test flight and compare the book numbers with the A2A flight model. Full disclosure, I am not a pilot though I am an engineer and beleive myself capable to reliably performing such evaluations. In any case, doing this endeared me to this addon aircraft to an extend that the lines were blurring … This i know if a piece of software but after investing life into running these test flight, it felt much more than just a clever piece of code.
My own conclusings were very positive follwing this activity and again, silly though it may sound, I was developing a real relationship with this addon like no other.
It’s less about the programmed flight model performing by the book. A2A is not alone with this distinction at all. In fact, that very much the lesser point here. It’s chiefly about how it felt performing these tests, recording the results and drawing a conclusion. With a less fidelity addon, this did not happen similarly in my experience.
Wrapping this up, the combined overall experiecne of this A2A Addon is what keeps FSX alive on my PC. The model quality, the attention to detail in all aspects and it’s actualy running performance on my i5 3750K, 16Grm, 1080 GPU PC is simply top drawer.
So what could be improved?
I’m really struggling to come up with anything. Even the price point, for what is delivered is not something I can fault. If support is needed, it’s available on the A2A forums and this addon is already ported over to P3D.
If you like the airframe, there is no other competitor out there that matches this addon in any criteria including bang for buck.
And one other note which is worthy, I get a real sense that A2A, though a business that needs to make money to survive, is a company owned and operated by complete aviation and flight sim enthusiasts and they are all genuine people doing something no one else chooses to do.
Jack Wall –
A2A Piper Comanche 250 – I’ve had this payware aircraft in my virtual hanger for over a year now. It’s now one of only two GA aircraft I fly in FSX.
The purchasing process was strightforward, predictable and easy. The overall experience from product download, installation to loading it up and going flying was simply excellent. Absolutely hassle free.
I’d evolved in my flight simming to a stage where I wanted less variety and more fidelity.
That’s more than a quantity vs quality aspiration too …. I wanted to meet my emotional preference (the aircraft of my dreams perhaps) but with as much as sense of a replicated real world experience as possible. A tall order but I’d an inclinging it was feasible.
I looked for a GA aircraft addon which not only met this personal preference (low wing, single engine, old skool) but for something I felt I could really get into. (as in loose myself in within the simulation).
I had tried out perhaps all the payware options available one way or another. I would say I was not disappointed by any of these though, with hindsight, I can now say that my, then feeling, about these other options was one of not being excited. They were good products but not more.
Finally, I tried out the A2A Cessna (chosen largly for comparision reasons initially) and quite immediately, I knew I’d found something special. Everyone should have a Cessna 172 right …. I now had multiple versions but only flew the A2A one.
There was other few GA aircraft in the A2A product offering and one stood out pulling at my heart strings. So some time later, after quite a bit of research into the aircraft, I returned to the A2A products page. This time I had reinforced expectations however based on the A2A Cessna.
The A2A Comanche met the main criteria I had quite easily, namely my emotional one. I was a fan of the shape, the look and style of the Comanche.
However, it was still not until I tried out the Comanche in my sim and built up a few hours that I realised, not only where my other hopes and wishes being met, they were being exceeded to and in fact, this addon was actually leading my expectations to an extent. The question I would ask myself more and more was, just how good is this add on.
If there is one take way from this review, it’s that whatever you read and see from A2A’s official announcement and promotion material, it’s only when you fly the sim yourself that you’ll truly sense just how accomplished this product actually is.
I searched the interwebs of a copy of a POH and found one which covered the serial number of A2A’s Comanche. (as it is a real aircraft, you can look it up on the web)
I began to take out the A2A PA250 to fly test flight and compare the book numbers with the A2A flight model. Full disclosure, I am not a pilot though I am an engineer and beleive myself capable to reliably performing such evaluations. In any case, doing this endeared me to this addon aircraft to an extend that the lines were blurring … This i know if a piece of software but after investing life into running these test flight, it felt much more than just a clever piece of code.
My own conclusings were very positive follwing this activity and again, silly though it may sound, I was developing a real relationship with this addon like no other.
It’s less about the programmed flight model performing by the book. A2A is not alone with this distinction at all. In fact, that very much the lesser point here. It’s chiefly about how it felt performing these tests, recording the results and drawing a conclusion. With a less fidelity addon, this did not happen similarly in my experience.
Wrapping this up, the combined overall experiecne of this A2A Addon is what keeps FSX alive on my PC. The model quality, the attention to detail in all aspects and it’s actualy running performance on my i5 3750K, 16Grm, 1080 GPU PC is simply top drawer.
So what could be improved?
I’m really struggling to come up with anything. Even the price point, for what is delivered is not something I can fault. If support is needed, it’s available on the A2A forums and this addon is already ported over to P3D.
If you like the airframe, there is no other competitor out there that matches this addon in any criteria including bang for buck.
And one other note which is worthy, I get a real sense that A2A, though a business that needs to make money to survive, is a company owned and operated by complete aviation and flight sim enthusiasts and they are all genuine people doing something no one else chooses to do.
mnuckolls1 (verified owner) –
Awesome job with the Comanche… I have a 260B & I use this sim for all kinds of scenarios!!
Keep up the great work team. ????