Amazing X Plane 11 Addons
How to Install them in 5 Minutes!
Download & Install Guide!
Aircraft Freeware / Payware
New to X Plane and want to add some more aircraft or airports to make your sim even more amazing? Then this X Plane 11 Add ons guide will help you get there.
I will show you where to get the best add ons then show you how to download and install them. I get a lot of questions through Letsflyvfr YouTube channel from new people frustrated with trying to do what is an easy task. Yes, Its easy when you know how!
Where can I get Addons for
X Plane 11.
There are a number of great X Plane 11 download locations but the premium one is really X Plane.org. This website has everything from aircraft, scenery and airports as well as scenery libraries and so much more to get your X Plane 11 add ons.
You will find both Freeware addons for X Plane 11 as well as a great selection of Payware aircraft and scenery options.
X Plane 11 Aircraft Addons.
X Plane 11 Add on aircraft are amazing but they are quite varied in quality so be aware. There are some that come with fully clickable 3D cockpits and even work great in Virtual Reality VR.
Then there are a lot that come well presented externally but the cockpits are well lets say lacking. They are not 3D Cockpits so they don’t work in VR and a lot of the time they are not that great to fly. Lets be appreciative though because I cant make aircraft at this point and If you cant then if we if want good free aircraft addons then we have to be selective.
Get your Freeware X Plane 11
Add ons Here!
Great Freeware Aircraft Addons.
We are very lucky that some of the major aircraft producers sometimes make their older payware aircraft freeware. One of my favorites is the Robin by Aerobask. They also make the Akuro Lisa which is a water bird also a freeware aircraft that was a payware one originally.
Let me introduce you to some great ex payware aircraft. Let me also introduce you to some great aircraft that are produced and available on X Palne.org. The ORG as its often referred to has an enormous amount of downloads available.
They have huge freeware as well as freeware aircraft and more available. Someday I hope to have the access and the server to do this as well but it is a lot to ask so lets check them out for our downloads.
Lets Download some
Freeware Aircraft.
Lets go through downloading a new aircraft for the sim. X Plane 11 has the best flight characteristics of all the flight simulators with Austin Meyers, the creator of X Plane ‘s passion with Blade Theory which measures every centimeter of your aircraft to determine how it flies, reacts to control inputs as well as weather and wind.
Lets select a good quality aircraft from the most popular. This is one I don’t have so I will go through he install process with you step by step.
Simply clicking on the box will take you to the downloads page.
We can be confident this aircraft is going to be good quality by the amount of downloads its had so far (2,037) and a good 5 star rating.
I think the Barron 4k Upgrade will also make its way into my sim.
There is a lot of info on the download page for the Howard DGA-15P. We can see general notes about the aircraft the green description area. The file information in the black box area. I would always check the size of the file. Generally if its not approaching 100 meg its likely to be less detailed.
The Aircraft Specs in the blue box are also useful for reference. Often below this if the aircraft has been around a while there will be updates and any bugs found in comments. There may be updates here as well. You can often get good feedback from other users to how good the model and cockpit may be. Check it out.
Download Your Freeware and Extract It!
Once you click on the DOWNLOAD button this download box will appear on your task bar. You need to wait till its completed.
Once downloaded you can right click on the DOWNLOAD box and select open folder. You will be taken to your downloads section on your PC or Mac. Here the file will need to be unzipped as it is a compressed file.
A compressed file is safe but also smaller to download. You need a program like Winzip or ZZip which are normally free programs to uncompressed the aircraft folder.
Here you can see I have RIGHT clicked on the file I want to unzip. I have an option to UNZIP HERE which is the option I want. This will unzip the folder here in the downloads folder for me so I can cut or copy it into my X Plane 11 Aircraft folder.
Where to Install my X Plane 11 Addon Freeware.
The Extracted File you can see is now in my downloads area. Simply right click on the file and cut to move it or copy to copy it into the X plane 11 Aircraft folder.
This normally only takes a few seconds even with the biggest files. Its a good time to check the folder once complete to ensure its contents look ok!
What should Addon aircraft folder look like?
Once extracted in your downloads file click on it to open in. If you see the above your good to go! If you see just another file then click on it to open it and you may then see the above.
THis is where installers have issues. You only want the folder with the contents in it. If you have one folder inside a second them X Plane cannot see it. NOTE FOR BEGINNERS!
Where do I place my X Plane 11
Add on Aircraft?
The first step is to navigate to your X Plane 11 Directory. If you have more than one then you will need to copy the new aircraft in each one.
In my case I have my X Plane 11 Installation on my 1TB SSD. The path is A:\X-Plane 11. The next step is to navigate to my Aircraft\Extra aircraft folder and paste my aircraft file in there:
You can see the file structure of the X Plane 11 Folder here. Simply click on the X Plane 11 Aircraft folder to open it and you will be presented with two more folders. There will be Laminar Research and Extra Aircraft Folders.
Double Click the EXTRA AIRCRAFT folder and open it up! You can now right click and past your new aircraft into the folder. Congratulations your all installed! Now we need to open up X Plane 11 and go flying in our new aircraft.
Lets fly our new Add on aircraft.
The New aircraft appears on the X Plane 11 menu as per above. Clicking on the aircraft you can go tot he customization menu where you can change liveries where the yellow box is. There are 4 different liveries.
The Red box enables you to start with the engine running or you can uncheck the box and start it yourself. The white box gives you access to change the fuel, payload as well as failures. No one owns a perfect aircraft that never fails so do yourself a favor and make your realism as realistic as possible.
Payware Options
X Plane 11 Add-Ons.
The install of X Plane 11 Add on Pay ware is really the same as the freeware we discussed above. Pay ware also comes in a variety of prices and quality settings.
You should look if the aircraft has good reviews, maybe reviewed by real pilots of the type. The price is said to be a good indicator and if its under $20 then maybe consider before spending your cash. There are a lot of YouTube channels that review aircraft so check out the reviews if your not so confident.
Conclusion
I have jumped in the aircraft to find it is pretty good. It taxies well, flies fine on the short flight I took in the aircraft. The aircraft has a 3D cockpit and it looks ok but not to the quality of some more professional aircraft.
The future for Freeware Add ons is solid and this is a fun airplane to get up into the sky in. The VR cockpit looked very big and the rear cabin was a little basic but for the price the creator has done a pretty good job.
I hope this tutorial has been helpful and If you need any help come to LetsFlyVFR YouTube Channel as well as Lets Fly VFR.com to find all the toys and Information You need. Have a question the YouTube Channel is probably the fastest way to reach me if I can help.
Gunnie
LetsFlyVFR
17/2/2021
Author.
Brendon McAliece is a multi lingual-expat who brings over three decades of flight simulator/PC building experience as well as over two decades of real world jet fighter experience as a weapons/egress technician. He holds a sport pilot certificate giving him real world flying experience. Hi travels have taken him from Europe to the Middle East, Asia and his home of Australia. He has a passion for travel, languages, Flight Simulation as well as Guitaring and Coffee. You can read more in his blogs below.
Learn more @
DreamingGuitar.com – DreamingCoffee.com – LetsFlyVFR.com
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