Black Square is just about to launch two new aircraft in its Steam Gauge Overhaul Series – the Bonanza, coming this Thursday, and the Baron. While simmers are getting ready to welcome these two promising reworks of the stock Asobo airplanes, owners of the previously-released Analog King Air and Grand Caravan will be happy to know that both of those have received major updates that bring a host of cool new features to their cockpits.
One of the most significant new features is full compatibility with Working Title’s GNS 530/430. This new navigation system, officially introduced in MSFS with the Aircraft and Avionics Update 1, has many advanced features that will be appreciated by serious simmers, but it proved difficult to integrate fully with the Black Square aircraft due to their hot-swappable avionics. However, after several months of incremental patches, this aircraft now fully supports the new GPS. This was a collaborative effort between TDS, PMS50, and Working Title developers, and the result is a much more streamlined and sophisticated navigation system for the Analog King Air. It’s important, though, that you make sure to have all your avionics packages running their latest versions to prevent any issues.
Both the King Air and the Grand Caravan get compatibility with the WT GNS 530/430, but there are other common upgrades for the planes. For example, Black Square has now implemented realistic navigation signal degradation. VOR and ADF receivers will now exhibit mathematically accurate signal attenuation and noise based on the aircraft’s height above the terrain and distance from the transmitter. This is a particularly neat feature for those who prefer to navigate in the older ways!
Other common upgrades to the King Air and Caravan include a new interface for the failure system, some improved sounds, and enhanced propeller and window textures.
Naturally, there are also specific upgrades to each specific airplane. The King Air, for example, gets an optional autopilot mode control panel, which can be accessed from the main panel just above the attitude indicator. This panel duplicates most of the autopilot controls and is designed to make it easier to quickly adjust autopilot settings without having to navigate to the pedestal control panel.
Besides the new features, Black Square has also enhanced and fixed numerous other aspects of the airplanes. These are comprehensive updates that continue to raise the level of Black Square’s aircraft overhauls, which are now some of the most impressive GA airplanes in MSFS. Check here the full release notes for the King Air and the Grand Caravan.
If you’d rather fly something different with similar levels of depth and detail, look no further than Black Square’s impending Analog Bonanza, which is scheduled to be released this Thursday, March 10th. It looks mighty impressive and will come with “the most advanced turbocharger simulation in Microsoft Flight Simulator to date“, according to the developer. The Baron will follow in a few weeks.
