The freeware P-180’s performance is somewhere between a fast propeller plane and a slow jet.  Which means it’s best behaved right about in the middle of those two regimes.

At speeds around 200 – 220 knots, it is an easy to trim plane that changes altitudes very aggressively and has a pretty reasonable turning radius for an executive passenger hauler.  The internal electronics make it an easy plane to fly via auto-pilot, and easy to read screens, including a multi-function display (MFD).

Around 150 knots, this plane starts to get “twitchy”.  Every gust of wind, draft, snowflake on the windshield … it bounces.  With flaps in the “take-off” setting, you can come down to 100 knots.  However, the stability does not get any better.

To make things more complicated, this plane has a canard or “foreplane wing”.  Usually, a canard has elevators on it, making the plane easier to climb, dive, or roll.  The P-180 has flaps instead.  That means that you have a lot more lift with this plane than you expect.  It pretty much wants to float, even at 100 knots.

At speeds higher than 240 knots, this plane turns into a ballistic missile.  It does two things well;  flight straight and climb.  At 300 knots / 555kph, when your over speed alarm starts squealing, you’re covering ground with startling speed.  Turning 180 degrees is something you need plenty of time to do, so everything needs to be planned well in advance.