I’ve heard lots of great things about the FSReborn Piper M500 from readers of the blog so when I heard that the MSFS 2024 exclusive M600 from the same developer was coming as Expert Series 02 from Microsoft, I was pretty psyched! A really exciting turboprop aircraft to add to the collection was my thought. After its release in June and waiting things out over the summer, I decided that it was time to do the full review. I’m surprised to say that I’m kind of disappointed with the M600 as it exists now. Let’s dig into the review!

A bit of history

Designed in the late 1970s, the Piper PA-46 has become a family of similarly configured airplanes featuring both piston and turboprop engines. Originally intended as a competitor to the Cessna P210 Centurion, in modern times the M series of Piper PA-46s are more competitive with the likes of Daher’s TBM series.

FAA certification for the aircraft came into effect in 1983 and the aircraft family has been continuously produced since then with over 1,000 built. The aircraft is one of just three piston powered types that also offer a cabin pressurization system. Early versions, like the PA-46 Malibu, were powered by a Continental TSIO-520BE or TSIO-540-AE2A piston engines, while later models initially named the Malibu Meridian were fitted with the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turboprop for higher performance.

Modern iterations have dropped the naming scheme and have simply become the Piper M-Class with the M350 still using the Lycoming engine while the M500, M600 and new M700 Fury making use of the PT6 turboprop. The one on offer for today’s review is based on the M600 which was first certified in 2016. Starting in 2020, the aircraft works with Garmin’s emergency autoland system which Piper calls HALO. The simulated aircraft also boasts this feature.

Visuals and sounds

At first glance, the M600 looks pretty good inside and out. Initial presentation is actually quite good. It’s in the details where that impression begins to unravel as the presentation of this aircraft is somewhat uneven.

Exterior visuals for the aircraft are certainly adequate and the aircraft does sport the usual technologies: 4K textures, PBR materials, interactive maintenance panels, smooth animations for control surfaces, etc. Some parts of the aircraft, particularly the tail, the static whips, and the wingtips are nicely detailed too. But then there are some obvious issues as well.

The M600 is a smooth aircraft, sure, but there are some issues with the materials rendering which gives the aircraft an overly glossy appearance. For the record, I like Asobo’s glossy representations that you see in types like the DA62. This ventures past that and in some paint schemes has a “plasticky” appearance. There are some other texture issues too including an obvious seam on the underbody of the aircraft and a less obvious one that I can see on the wing roots.

There are unfortunately some issues with the 3D model as well. The engine intake, for example, is particularly egregious with obvious sharp polygonal edges and rough transitions. The same can be said for the engine exhaust outlet as well as the under fuselage antennas which seem to be using very low polygon counts. In the age of modern graphics processing, these could easily be higher with no hit to performance so I feel like a little more could have been done to give these a smoother appearance.

The interior also presents well at first but once you start looking around you start to see the issues here too. The worst is probably the normal mapping which looks repetitive and rather low resolution in many different lighting angles. Community members have noted the same problem and even pointed to the FSReborn M500, the predecessor product, has having higher detail than the new model. The developer reports that the textures are all 4K so there may be some sort of rendering problem going on here but its clear that there is an issue. As of this review, it has yet to be resolved.

Other aspects are good and if you’re looking at the screenshots and not noticing things right away, you wouldn’t be alone. Am I being fussy? Yes! I probably am but this is an Expert Series aircraft and I’m kind of expecting a top tier experience. More on that later.

The overall modeling work inside the cockpit and cabin is generally strong, animations are fluid, lighting is very good and the window shades work nicely. I do like the clean aesthetic of the cockpit, written labels are sharp and I find that everything is simple and easy to find as a result.

The aircraft has three internal cabin aesthetics. It doesn’t change the mission of the aircraft but it does change the appearance which is fun. The cabin itself is pretty good with interactive tray table and window shades.

Overall visual appeal is probably not quite as bad as I make it out to be but the details do count, especially these days, and its in the details where it fails to live up to expectations.

I have very little to complain about with the sounds. While the overall sound set is unremarkable, the samples are quite good and the implementation solid. Buttons, controls, engines, flaps, cabin fans, and various in cockpit annunciations are very good. The ground handling noises are a bit heavy sounding on even the lightest of touches but otherwise I can find no serious faults here. Nicely done on the sounds!

Systems and features

Solid features and systems work has been done with the M600 and here is the strong suit for this release. The Garmin G3000 from Working Title is a familiar and welcome sight and there are some customization within the G3000 that include a custom M600 first start screen and custom checklists. There are provisions for V speeds and performance calculations based on payload and fuel in the “touch based” control panels.

The previous M500 from the same developer did not have an auto throttle so I know some were looking forward to the autothrottle on the M600 which we do have! It seems to be quite competent at holding speed in cruise and I had no issues with that.

The aircraft does have an electrical system model which includes system failures when you pull the associated breakers. Pull the breaker for flap control for example and you’ll see the system fail and the flaps fail to deploy when you try and toggle them. That was nice to see as a feature!

There’s also a cabin pressure simulation going on. Making sure you’ve got the pressurization system working is essential. I did struggle, without resolution, to solve a cabin pressure issue at FL300 (right at the top of the service ceiling) where it couldn’t maintain sufficient pressurization. That may be condition based and working as intended with even the emergency pressure system unable to keep up. Dropping to FL280 solved it.

There are some realism settings which engine failures, hot starts, electrical failures, flap failures, and hydraulic pump failures all toggleable. I had those check marks on for several flights and did not run into any issues in the air but I did have a couple of failures on the ground. I’m not sure what the failure rate might be but it may well be that they are rare even when toggled.

It doesn’t have a full EFB but the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 EFB does include a custom M600 section which can be used to toggle features. That includes chocks and propeller covers. The later seems to be bugged and I’ve never been able to find the click spot for them in walk-around mode so its just as well that the EFB has the toggle.

The autoland/HALO system is an interesting addition. Gameplay wise, it has little utility though I could see mashing the button if you needed to walk away from a flight and still have the airplane land safely for some reason. As an engineering and programming experiment I can certainly applaud the difficulty in making the system work. In my experience, the system worked normally and landed the plane in the approximate time that it claimed it would. Some users have reported it not being able to slow down enough to get into a landing situation.

There were problems at launch with features like the MFD left panel zoom feature just not working. I ran into that on my first cross country with the aircraft early after launch. That has since been fixed thankfully!

Flying the M600

The Piper M600 is a capable turboprop. Its not quite as high performing as the TBM that it often is compared with but, in the real world, its considered the value proposition over the more expensive TBM. With a max cruise speed of 274 knots and 30,000 foot service ceiling, you can get solid distance and altitude performance from this aircraft in the sim world. Medium distance cross country journeys of up to 1,400 nautical miles are doable.

I do find that p-factor and engine torque are felt well, particularly on takeoff roll, and you do have to put in ample rudder to make sure you’re keeping it tracking straight down the runway.

Stalls are extremely gentle and controlled. I wasn’t able to get the aircraft to actually depart from controlled flight despite hard rudder and elevator work trying to kick the aircraft into a spin. The real world aircraft has underspeed and envelope protection so that may be simulated here – I’m not clear from the featureset if it is the case.

Propeller drag might also be an issue. Multiple community members have reported and I have confirmed that dropping the throttle doesn’t seem to create the kind of drag that I see on other PT6 aircraft. Careful decent management is needed to overcome this issue and I’ve sometimes used crabbed approaches to get the speed down when throttle alone wasn’t able to solve it. It doesn’t seem to happen to me all the time either which makes me wonder if its a bug in the turboprop model or some other glitch that causes inconsistencies.

Overall handling is quite easy on the whole despite any niggles that I have. Its easy to takeoff and land provided that you’re in trim and you’re flying it somewhere close to normally. It’s an ideal long distance cruiser!

Other bugs and issues

There are some other miscellaneous issues that I also want to bring up.

The aircraft does have some interactivity on the walkaround but it has fewer than we’ve seen with other aircraft. The engine and prop cover, all part of one item, has a click spot that seems to be difficult to access or fully inaccessible. It took me multiple attempts to find the click spot for it (right from the front at a very specific angle) and in the meantime I used the EFB toggle to remove it.

Another unusual bug that occurs on some versions of the aircraft interior sees the seat configuration screen display all of the seats in the same location. You can’t make individual adjustments as a result they are overlapping. Weird.

Some users are reporting inconsistent lighting issues between different versions of the cabin. I’ve not spotted a fix for that in the change logs that I’ve read but I may have missed it because things seem to be working ok in my experience. I have noted, however, that landing lights and nav lights seem more subdued than virtually every other aircraft I’ve flown in the last several months. While some have accidentally gone too bright and then fixed it, this feels a little too far the other way.

Final thoughts

I went into this really hoping to review a top notch Expert Series project as I’d heard a lot about how good the M500 was. Instead, I’ve come away feeling like this is a middling effort that isn’t quite where it needs to be yet. I even delayed my review for a few months because I felt like some extra development time might help push things along into a good place. To be fair, the developer has issued several updates and has fixed problems but niggling issues around texture and materials quality, model quality, and even a few UI bugs really don’t give me the fully polished experience I was looking to see.

The M600 does have lots of positives. Don’t get me wrong! The systems and engine simulation are quite good and the failures and electrical modeling help redeem the airplane a fair bit. Any time you can pull a breaker and watch something fail in what seems to be a realistic manner makes me happy. It’s also an overall good airplane to fly which means you can do your cross country journeys in MSFS and have a pretty good time of it!

This one surprised me because I was expecting to like it a lot more than I did. It did grow on me but initial experiences did sour my opinion. I really truly enjoyed the work that FSReborn did on their Phenom 300E but this one doesn’t quite feel up to that level.

I’m also asking myself if my expectations for Expert Series aircraft are too high, or if there are Microsoft imposed deadlines or interference that affects the aircraft under that moniker. Maybe its just slightly cursed? Both ATR and this aircraft have struggled to meet the higher expectations set for them and I’m not sure if that bodes well for the Praetor 600 due before the end of the year.

The M600 is not a bad aircraft and not a bad flight simulator experience. To be completely clear, it rises far above some of the shovelware that we’ve seen on the Marketplace, but it also misses mark on a few quality issues in each category and that adds up. It quite honestly feels rushed and all of these issues would probably be solved with a little more refinement. At $24.99 USD and under the Expert Series, I think I was hoping to see more polish.

The Microsoft / FSReborn Piper M600 is available exclusively in the Marketplace.

Screenshots