I would love to hear that the Asobo C208B is great as I like that it’s native to the sim, and has a glass cockpit. I know the BlackSquare is going to crush the Asobo in systems fidelity. But what I’d really like to know is how these three fly… with some weight on board.

My experience with the Asobo Caravan is that it’s almost too easy… too forgiving. Is that the general opinion or that’s accurate… because the real plane is easy and forgiving?

Early reports seem to suggest the Kodiak is still quirky. I gave up on the 2020 version and I don’t really want to reward them for another quirky flight model. 

I haven’t read the whole BkackSquare thread, but it seems more concerned with system implementation details than flight model, which is maybe a good sign.

How does the Asobo Caravan compare to the BlackSquare in flight with cargo… landing on short dirt strips in particular?

 

 

Edited March 31Mar 31 by Virtual-Chris

I have flown the Asobo Caravan and own both the BS Caravan and the SWS Kodaik. The Asobo one afaik is an EX so it has waaaay more power than the BS Caravan which is basically the original 208B with just 675hp. So the Asobo is def easy to fly even at high weight because of its brutal power (>800hp) over the normal BS Caravan. On the other hand I find the Caravan itself quite an easy and forgiving plane to fly. In contrast the Kodiak is a 750hp STOL beast with quite less mtow than the Caravan. Comparing the BS Caravan and the SWS Kodiak is a bit like apples and peaches imho. And yes I find the Kodiak much more handful to fly than the Caravan. On the other hand I go fully loaded into PNG fields where I never even think about taking the Caravan into (at least far away from fully loaded). For me both have quite some different scenario to use in. For example I'm in an online tour atm flying over the hump. Just out of curiosity I have done quite some of the legs both in Kodiak and Caravan. And I can assure you the flights in the Caravan were a real Pita as she doesn't like the heights at load 😄 The Kodiak is def feeling a lot better up there. And the flight model of the 2024 Kodiak is a lot smoother on ground and in the air than the 2020 model. Both had issues on initial release btw with the Caravan ITT limited by error so she was actually not performing very well especially at higher altitude. That was fixed in the new 1.1 update out already. The Kodiak will get an update prob next week to fix some minor issues encoutnered so far. Both are very good products but both also have their shortcomings atm. So time will tell which will have its nose in front me think. SWS delivers a full native package where the BS Caravan is native but not 2024 modular design and following the old 2020 project structure and therefore will lead to the known problems in the variant livery selection with 3rd party liveries. To add pax to the Caravan you have actually to install a mod from .to otherwise you fly empty. Cargo is shown but very limited box style. Cargo pod stays empty. The Kodiak supports full native pax with changing cargo type in the different variants. Nice feature and real a pita in positive way as known from the real world Caravan is the out of balance tanks of the BS Caravan. So expect some tank switching on the fly. Nav suite wise the Caravan comes classic with the usual suspects of addons supported, the Kodiak with an extended 1000xi with a lot of customisation. Another point to fly them both 😉

So in the end me think both are a very good renditions and deserve to be in the fleet and I don't see any of the two failing even in its current state.

Cheers T.

Edited March 31Mar 31 by Torsen

1 hour ago, Torsen said:

I have flown the Asobo Caravan and own both the BS Caravan and the SWS Kodaik. The Asobo one afaik is an EX so it has waaaay more power than the BS Caravan which is basically the original 208B with just 675hp. So the Asobo is def easy to fly even at high weight because of its brutal power (>800hp) over the normal BS Caravan. On the other hand I find the Caravan itself quite an easy and forgiving plane to fly. In contrast the Kodiak is a 750hp STOL beast with quite less mtow than the Caravan. Comparing the BS Caravan and the SWS Kodiak is a bit like apples and peaches imho. And yes I find the Kodiak much more handful to fly than the Caravan. On the other hand I go fully loaded into PNG fields where I never even think about taking the Caravan into (at least far away from fully loaded). For me both have quite some different scenario to use in. For example I'm in an online tour atm flying over the hump. Just out of curiosity I have done quite some of the legs both in Kodiak and Caravan. And I can assure you the flights in the Caravan were a real Pita as she doesn't like the heights at load 😄 The Kodiak is def feeling a lot better up there. And the flight model of the 2024 Kodiak is a lot smoother on ground and in the air than the 2020 model. Both had issues on initial release btw with the Caravan ITT limited by error so she was actually not performing very well especially at higher altitude. That was fixed in the new 1.1 update out already. The Kodiak will get an update prob next week to fix some minor issues encoutnered so far. Both are very good products but both also have their shortcomings atm. So time will tell which will have its nose in front me think. SWS delivers a full native package where the BS Caravan is native but not 2024 modular design and following the old 2020 project structure and therefore will lead to the known problems in the variant livery selection with 3rd party liveries. To add pax to the Caravan you have actually to install a mod from .to otherwise you fly empty. Cargo is shown but very limited box style. Cargo pod stays empty. The Kodiak supports full native pax with changing cargo type in the different variants. Nice feature and real a pita in positive way as known from the real world Caravan is the out of balance tanks of the BS Caravan. So expect some tank switching on the fly. Nav suite wise the Caravan comes classic with the usual suspects of addons supported, the Kodiak with an extended 1000xi with a lot of customisation. Another point to fly them both 😉

So in the end me think both are a very good renditions and deserve to be in the fleet and I don't see any of the two failing even in its current state.

Cheers T.

Thanks for the detailed write up.

One of the issues I had with the 2020 Kodiak was trying to stick landings on the end of short dirt strips. Landing that plane with weight was dodgy at best as slightly too little torque and you would drop like a rock and be short. You had to keep the torque up at like 800+ and pitch for speed but that was equally dodgy and often ended up landing too hard and fast and bouncing and crashing. Watching Ryan in the real plane would often see him coming in at much lower torque indicating the flight model was flawed at the most critical part of the flight. 

I could reliably land he Caravan smoothly on any short dirt strips without issue in contrast. 

Did you fly the 2020 version of the Kodiak? Did you share my experience at all? Has the 2024 variant improved in low torque landings?
 

From what someone else reported in the Kodiak thread, it sounds like the flaps are modelled with excessive drag contributing to the problem at low torque and the new plane has the same issue as the old - requiring expressive torque to stay airborne on final.

 

Edited March 31Mar 31 by Virtual-Chris

36 minutes ago, Virtual-Chris said:

 

From what someone else reported in the Kodiak thread, it sounds like the flaps are modelled with excessive drag contributing to the problem at low torque and the new plane has the same issue as the old - requiring expressive torque to stay airborne on final.

 

I actually noticed that as well!

The excessive drag from the flaps should be adressed in an update soon.

 

has there been any update to the flap drag yet?

39 minutes ago, hangar said:

has there been any update to the flap drag yet?

Last time I tried landing with full gross weight around 75 kts I lost elevator authority. I cranked full power and tried to pitch nose down, but instead Kodiak went straight up, fell on its tail and crashed. So there is still issue after 2 patches.

40 minutes ago, sd_flyer said:

Last time I tried landing with full gross weight around 75 kts I lost elevator authority. I cranked full power and tried to pitch nose down, but instead Kodiak went straight up, fell on its tail and crashed. So there is still issue after 2 patches.

k, I'll wait then since the flying aspect of an addon aircraft is always what's most important to me.

Nothing more that peeves me than a newly purchased aircraft that doesn't fly well (slide-slip) in a direct 15-20 kt crosswind, just as an example. I won't mention the name, but I have a payware aircraft that, when you apply opposite rudder in a strong crosswind (reasonable though), it will track so hard in that direction that the ailerons dipping into the wind won't keep you from drifting off centerline in direction of the rudder input. Exceedingly annoying when practicing windy landings.

Edited May 4May 4 by hangar

4 hours ago, hangar said:

Nothing more that peeves me than a newly purchased aircraft that doesn't fly well

I think you might like the BKSQ Caravan.. I much prefer it over the 2020 Kodiak which I also fly in 2024.  As others have mentioned, the Kodiak is unpredictable at low speeds, and likes to do a Kangaroo hop (or two) if not landed just so. The Caravan is very well behaved and with its auto-beta range feature will slow down the plane quickly on bush strips.. one of my favorite planes.. 🙂

1 hour ago, Bert Pieke said:

I think you might like the BKSQ Caravan.. I much prefer it over the 2020 Kodiak which I also fly in 2024.  As others have mentioned, the Kodiak is unpredictable at low speeds, and likes to do a Kangaroo hop (or two) if not landed just so. The Caravan is very well behaved and with its auto-beta range feature will slow down the plane quickly on bush strips.. one of my favorite planes.. 🙂

Thanks for the tip, Bert 😉

Black Square have released v1.2 of their Caravan

v1.2 - Engine Damage & More Sound Improvements 2026/05/05

New Features:

• Added numerous sounds pertaining to engine damage during startup, shutdown, at all power settings, and several turbine specific engine failures, like compressor stall/surging.
• Added dynamic under-wing registration to default liveries with better feature support for livery painters.
• Sounds for all exterior interactions, like opening and closing doors, are now audible during walkarounds.
• Added seamless support for the native water rudder keybinding while still supporting the tablet interface triggered water rudder cable failure.
• Engine damage will now influence ITT beyond 40% damage.
• Previously, only crew members consumed oxygen, so as to extend the effective range of the aircraft at altitudes where only crew oxygen was required by regulations.  Now, passengers will only consume oxygen when the indicated altitude is above 14,750 feet.

 

Bug Fixes:

• Rewrote code relating to the ventilation blowers, as unexpected electrical behavior resulted from old code from the Analog Caravan.
• Fixed visual synchronization problem with the tablet failure interface when failures were triggered from HTML events, in preparation for collaboration with online services.
• Further refinement of propeller and engine sound leveling inside and outside the aircraft.
• Turbine propeller blade angle animation was mistakenly driven from simplified code from previous Black Square aircraft, which has now been replaced with improved behavior in all other Black Square aircraft (except the TBM 850, which will also receive this update).
• The fuel selectors off warning system will no longer activate when the firewall fuel cutoff handle is pulled.  The fuel selector off warning horn will also be deactivated when the START CONT circuit breaker is pulled, as the two circuit breakers were previously configured in parallel, not series.
• Increased empty weight of the Cargomaster to 4,040lbs to reflect inclusion of the Cargopod.  Useful load and full fuel payload numbers have been adjusted accordingly.
• Yoke-mounted electric trim switches will now only function when the autopilot is powered in addition to the electric trim actuator circuit.

I love both my Caravan and my Kodiak but when it comes to updates BS are streets ahead. It takes SWS forever.   

If you dropped me into that Kodiak blindfolded and let me fly an approach I could tell you straight away who made the flight model. It’s exactly the same as their PC12 , you have to dance up and down on the rudders to keep it balanced with power changes.

I get both the PC12 and Kodiak have big torquey engines but having spoken to a colleague who flies a PC12 on his days off he said it was nice to fly and didn’t need any fancy footwork on the rudders. So I remain a little unconvinced with that aspect, but the rest of the flight model is nice to handle.

Just now, jon b said:

It’s exactly the same as their PC12 , you have to dance up and down on the rudders to keep it balanced with power changes.

I don't. It's a pleasure to hand fly and quite different to the PC12 on my system. 

Are you watching the slip indicator? It feels like it’s balanced but if I watch the slip indicator it’s all over the shop with any power changes on approach.

perhaps not coming in sideways like the pc12 though!

Edited May 5May 5 by jon b