PAE’s Bonanza A36 brings REP 5.0 depth to X-Plane 12, from engine behavior to persistent wear.

If you’ve been craving a piston single in X-Plane 12 that behaves less like a polite theme-park ride and more like a real machine with preferences, consequences, and a memory, the PAE Beechcraft Bonanza A36 is aimed straight at your hangar. Built as a partnership between PAE Addons and SimCoders.com, it ships “powered by” Reality Expansion Pack and targets that sweet spot where performance, procedures, and personality all matter.

At the center of the pitch is a big milestone: this is the first aircraft released with REP 5.0. The selling point isn’t just extra features, it’s the underlying philosophy. REP uses a fully custom piston engine model that replaces the default simulator engine rather than tweaking it. The simulation runs per cylinder, with its own state driving temperatures, combustion behavior, vibration, wear, and the numbers you see on the instruments. The result is that engine indications are meant to be “reported,” not theatrically “performed,” and your decisions in climb, cruise, mixture management, and cooling actually write themselves into the airplane’s ongoing condition.

The Bonanza being modeled is the real A36 in depth, anchored by a Continental IO-550-B normally aspirated 300 HP engine. There’s also an optional turbonormalized configuration with a dedicated turbo model and full thermal simulation, including TIT, which shows up on compatible engine monitoring. That means you’re not just pushing levers, you’re managing a system with limits, heat, and long-term consequences.

Systems-wise, the checklist gets satisfyingly busy. You get a fully simulated emergency landing gear extension, a fully modeled air conditioning system (with the compressor reducing available engine power and the blower adding electrical load), and functional circuit breakers tied to their real systems. Anti-ice isn’t a token switch either: there’s a fully simulated TKS setup that uses the anti-ice capabilities in the simulator’s SDK, saves state between sessions, and simulates fluid quantity and weight with a dedicated control panel modeled after the real aircraft.

Avionics are treated as part of the airplane rather than bolt-on décor. The package includes custom instruments like the EDM930 and EDM800 with rich-of-peak and lean-of-peak support, plus autopilot options including STEC-55x and GFC500. You’ll also find a Garmin GTX345 and support for displays like Garmin G500 and Garmin G5, along with compatibility for third-party navigator stacks such as RealityXP units and TDS GTN packages. Even cockpit lighting is driven by REP logic rather than default lighting, with the possibility of failures and wear over time. The theme keeps repeating: fly it like you own it, because the sim intends to remember.

Fuel flexibility shows up too, with optional Osborne tip tanks and the correct STC behavior: increased max takeoff weight, real fuel transfer logic and timing, and the possibility of venting fuel overboard if you handle it incorrectly. It’s a small detail that’s also a big tell, this is designed to reward disciplined habits and punish sloppy ones in believable ways.

REP’s broader immersion toolkit is here as well: a custom flight model, a custom sound engine, persistent wear and maintenance, interactive walkarounds and external inspections, and persistent electrical state including battery discharge between sessions. There’s also an economy layer with integration options for X-CPL-Pilot and FSEconomy if you like your cross-countries to come with receipts and consequences.

On the practical side, this is an X-Plane 12 aircraft (not XP11), built for Windows, Mac, or Linux, with an 8 GB+ VRAM recommendation and a 1.5 GB download size. The store listing shows a price of $45 and indicates the product may be out of stock at times (with a waiting list option). Current version is listed as 1.0 dated January 22, 2026, and there’s also a note that owners of the PAE Bonanza G36 receive an automatic 30% discount at checkout.

If your idea of fun is watching engine temps like a hawk, setting mixture with intent, treating electrical load as a real budget, and letting a simulated aircraft develop history rather than resetting to “factory fresh” every flight, this A36 looks built to be lived in. It’s not just a Bonanza you fly, it’s a Bonanza you manage.