Very very good products. Naturally at this time the F1 is more systems deep. The glass on the F1 hurts my performance a bit more than the PL21, but I'm on an "old" 2500k @4ghz.

Their air speeds are similar for cruise, the B350 might make a better FSE plane , hard to say though as the mods on the BE20 are superb.

At this time the F1 can do LPV approaches (GPS approach with waas / vertical guidance), and both aircraft have updatable databases via Navigraph.

Again they're both very good, good luck

I would love to see you give an in depth review like this of the Flight1 version.

 

I'll see what I can come up with.

I'll see what I can come up with.

+1 greatly appreciated

+1 greatly appreciated

 

I'll see what I can come up with.

+2 Your review was outstanding and well balanced.

 

I own the Milviz B350i and I am a real world King Air pilot. I purchased the Milviz product due to it being Pro Line 21 equipped and I have a particular interest in that avionics setup.

 

Thanks for your first hand experience on Type. In the panel images I have seen of the Milviz B350, the texturing/knobs/switches look a bit 'cartoony' and not photo realistic, is this the case? or are the images misleading and not a true depiction.

 

Steve S

Edited September 18, 201510 yr by JustanotherPilot
Removed excessive quote. Again!

I currently only own the F1 B200 and i really like it very much!

It is, as already pointed out here several times, really worth its money!

Highly recommended!

 

Once the MilViz B350 will be released, i will certainly consider to purchase this one as well. So far i am very happy with my current MilViz products, hence i am quite confident that the MilViz B350 will also be a realistic and immersive add-on, once it is fully ready.

 

As for now though i'd go for the F1 B200.

 

I'll see what I can come up with.

 

+1 from my side as well!

 

 

 

Thanks for your first hand experience on Type. In the panel images I have seen of the Milviz B350, the texturing/knobs/switches look a bit 'cartoony' and not photo realistic, is this the case? or are the images misleading and not a true depiction.

 

Steve S

 

I'd say it is a good job of artistic rendering and photo-real. I find sometimes developers get so photo-real that it distorts the cockpit and makes things hard to read / see. Thus a little artistic touch-up is needed to make a good readable cockpit on varying size monitors. I prefer a little sharpness even if it makes it a little less realistic. This is a very fine line and ask 10 different people and come up with 10 different answers.

 

In this area I think Milviz got it right. They don't have multiple view points, yet so for now there is some panning and zooming to see everything.

 

They don't have multiple view points, yet so for now there is some panning and zooming to see everything.

Not yet at least. Multiple camera views in the VC will come.

 

 

 

 

 

I'd say it is a good job of artistic rendering and photo-real. I find sometimes developers get so photo-real that it distorts the cockpit and makes things hard to read / see. Thus a little artistic touch-up is needed to make a good readable cockpit on varying size monitors. I prefer a little sharpness even if it makes it a little less realistic. This is a very fine line and ask 10 different people and come up with 10 different answers.

 

In this area I think Milviz got it right. They don't have multiple view points, yet so for now there is some panning and zooming to see everything.

 

 

 

Thanks for the reply...I suppose it's academic, I have not intention of buying it until when/if all of the problems are sorted out. I was never really  overjoyed at their 737-200

 

 

The Flight 1 B200.

 

First off, I have never flown a Garmin 1000 equipped King Air so my expertise in the avionics is limited. I do own the Garmin Integrated Flight Deck Trainer version 13.02 for training on a Garmin equipped King Air 200, but I have yet to get actual experience using this avionics package.

 

The Flight 1 King Air 200, according to the manual accompanying the product, is a 1984 King Air B200 which would put its serial number between BB1150 to BB1194 (a gap in my AFMs.) The airplane was sent to Raisbeck Engineering and modified with what looks like the EPIC Gold standard keeping the original Hartzell/Beech four bladed propellers. The Raisbeck improvements include the enhanced performance leading edges, Ram Air Recovery system and Dual aft body strakes. They also applied the winglet modification.

 

The airplane was further modified with the Blackhawk system XP52, PT6A-52 engines. According to one review of the engine, "Pratt took the gas generator part of the PT6A-60A engine that powers the bigger King Air 350 with 1,050 shp rating and mated it to the gearbox section of the Dash 42 engine." This results in an engine that although is flat rated to 850 shp it is thermodynamically rated to 1,050 shp. Bottom line, more power at higher altitudes. These -52s really enjoy FL280.

 

During the walk-around you are greeted with a beautifully rendered and high quality textured (4096 x 4096) airplane. Items, such as warning decals, shows the attention to detail. I was able to find the brake deice system on the main gear, not just the bleed air lines but the piccolo tubes also wrapped around the brakes. By nose gear I could almost read the ground towing limits and wondered if the developer even took the time to include the crush block. Zoomed into the airplane this close it was difficult to maneuver around but the details were eye pooping. There seemed to be a slight lacking in the depth of the paint as compared to Carenado, but overall excellent.

 

Climbing the airstair door I was greeted with a plush cabin that did not look like it came from 1984. Clearly this cabin has been reupholstered and upgraded. A chemical potty sits in the foyer and in the baggage area are the "kiddy" seats. I have heard of these seats but never seen them actually installed in any of the aircraft I have flown. Just before the cockpit is the catering station with the ever important coffee pot and a place to stick my airplane flight manual (AFM.)

 

The cockpit is also a welcome sight being redone from the typical tan into a more modern dark charcoal. Despite the three large format LCD displays and airline like mode control panel or GMC 710 Automatic Flight Control System (AFCS), this is a King Air's office. Lights are up top, all of the correct switches are on the pilot's and copilot's subpanels and pressurization is down on the lower pedestal. The Garmin GCU 477 also occupies a spot on the lower pedestal in a location that you might normally find a GNS-XLS or other retrofitted Flight Management System. I think this is what really brings the G1000 into the corporate airplane world is the simple addition of a keyboard. No more dialing for donuts to enter a flightplan. It is so much easier using the keypad. While I am unable to test the Android GCU 477 the ability to have it displayed all of the time on a separate device is a cool idea.  Of course flying with iPads means my device is already dedicated to running Fltplan.

 

Flipping up the master switch and turning on the battery I was a little surprised to see both PFDs and the MFD power up. The Garmin Trainer is not detailed in this respect but I would think only the MFD should power up with the Avionics Maser - off. (Again not a G1000 SME.) Starting the engines was a normal affair using the battery to crank the #2, bringing on the generator to charge up the battery then doing a generator assisted start on the #1. Engine start was typical for MSFS with the engines surging well above low idle before settling in. I expected 66% N1 at low idle for this Raisbeck modded airplane and was surprised to see 52%. I guess since this is an EPIC Gold the ground idle solenoid is still attached to the OEM props.

 

Loading in a flightplan is a easy as loading a flightplan into MSFS or hand-jamming it directly into the G1000. The main difference I noticed is the Flight1 G1000 does not allow you to insert altitude information to establish a vertical profile. This also means the  VNV (Vertical Navigation) button on the GMC 710 (AFCS) does not work. The other annoying issue is when hand-jamming a flightplan you should be able to just start typing the identifier into the GCU 477, however Flight1 requires that you first enter the Waypoint Information screen before the GCU 477 keypad will operate.

 

Running through the various checklists I found most of the systems tested correctly with the most noticeable issue with the autofeather check. I could not get the system to check properly on the #1 engine and on the #2 engine it moved the #2 propeller lever into feather. Clearly the gauge designer did not know the autofeather system feathers to propeller using a dump solenoid on the base of the overspeed governor and does not physically move the propeller. But, it was an amusing attempt at trying to simulate the autofeather system.

 

I do not have take-off charts for a Raisbeck EPIC Gold with XP52 engines. I have the EPIC Platinum with -42 engines charts. So I can only comment that take-off performance seems about right and did not take any longer then my charts for a slightly different airplane. Once up pull back on the yoke and set the AFCS to FLC and 160 KIAS the airplane climbs like a homesick angel. I had to pull out my iPod and cue up Stepphenwolf's Magic Carpet Ride as memories of lightweight climbs in a B300 quickly filled my mind. 30 minutes to FL280 was easily accomplished using slightly faster then normal climb schedule just to keep the nose under 10 degrees pitch.

 

Climbing through the weather I had to deploy the ice vanes and was disappointed to find the engines maxed out at 1927 ft-lbs. This seemed to be some hard limit with the vanes deployed and despite there being plenty of torque, ITT and N1 available the engines just wouldn't give me anymore power. Considering one of the benefits of the EPIC modification is the RAM air recovery I expected more then Flight1 gave.

 

Pushing the nose over at FL280 I was quickly able to accelerate right up to MMO which gave a TAS of 312 knots. Right on the money for Blackhawk and Raisbeck marketing. Pulling the propellers back to 1700 I noticed a dead spot in the middle of the propeller level movement where the props wanted to stay at 1750 RPM as oppose to smoothly moving back to 1700. Slightly annoying, but not a deal breaker. Fuel flow settled in at 350 pph per side and as I burned fuel off the airplane I had to pull power to prevent overspeeding. At altitude this airplane flew on rails and was very predictable. The FDE is nearly perfect except the engines responds a little too slow from my experience. I changed a parameter in the aircraft.cfg file and was able to make the engine perform more to what I expected of a King Air.

 

Descent was on par with any King Air, drop the nose and pull power to prevent overspeed then ride the barber pole on down. Like I noted before this turboprop is like any in MSFS and devoid of propeller drag. Chop the power and the airplane does not slow down like it should.

 

Approach and landing were predictable again minus propeller drag. Because of that I generally pushed out flaps and gear a little earlier then I normally would in the real airplane. The Flight1 airplane likes to float even with the power at idle so high speed approaches to a short field landing are not possible. You want to cross the gate at VAPP with the power levers near idle. (Do this in the real 4 blade King Air and you will nose plant the airplane due to how much drag comes off the propellers as they flatten out.)

 

Overall this is a very good product. The Garmin 1000 could be done a little more complete and they could have simulated the VNV function. Yep the autofeather is a hilarious misunderstanding of how the system should work. I really wish programmers would ask us pilots about these things as opposed to making it up. With the current $10 off coupon until the end of September this is a must buy for any King Air affectionado. There is a reason the King Air 200 has been in continuous production for almost 50 years now and this is a good addition to anyone's hangar.

 

I did not say anything about the maintenance mode. The jury is out on this one as I don't have enough time on my virtual bird to determine if it is a useful tool or a distraction.

 

Thank you for reading...

 

 

Ken,

 

Thanks a lot for both of your write ups. It really helps this armchair KA lover have fun with my little sim.

Thanks Ken your recommendation is appreciated and with F1 money back its going to be an easy purchase although I believe the $10 coupon is only for previous owners switching to P3D

Yes, $10 coupon for previous owners. Enjoying the F1 KA 200 and when Milviz releases their steam gauge version of the KA 350 I will purchase it, will be nice to have a G1000 KA 200 with mods and a steam gauge KA 350....not sure about the Proline 21, that will be a wait and see!

 

Cheers

Martin

Nice writeup Ken...

 

Also I recently was inspired to pull both out of the hangar for some screenshots (because of this post).   There is only one VC shot per developer though...  Both paints are third party too.

 

Flight1 BE20:

http://www.avsim.com/topic/474691-its-practically-winter/

 

Milviz B350:

http://www.avsim.com/topic/475126-wheeles-up/

 

Also I recently was inspired to pull both out of the hangar for some screenshots (because of this post).   There is only one VC shot per developer though...  Both paints are third party too.

 

 

Very nice set(s) of shots, Ryan. Shows the high quality of both products in a positive contrast.