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Yes, absolutely. I'll just say this - starting at the runway will cause you to miss one of the most amazing things about this plane. The startup sounds are simply incredible. They're layered, detailed and responsive to throttle, mixture and temps. Every time I start this plane it leaves a big ol' grin on my face. As I mentioned before, I recommend either a high quality 5.1 sound system, or good quality headphones with Dolby Atmos for Headphones and the "Home Theater" setting enabled in sim. It is incredibly immersive! Scott

With respect, I think you misunderstand my friend Ryan's frustration. What threw him off-kilter (and honestly did me too) was the idea that someone would reject this entire, most excellent, aircraft package completely because of that single issue. An issue which has no real workaround other than to take the "nuclear" route that A2A does, which just isn't practical (or even necessarily desirable) for most developers, or to possibly break other things. I don't disagree with wanting that detail to be correct, and I don't think Ryan does either. Nick is obviously an extraordinarily talented individual and perhaps he can eventually come up with a workaround - and good on him if he does - but as others have noted, ultimately the ball is really in Asobo's court (or Working Title, or whoever is working on the engine model) to make improvements. The correction of the mixture issue has been a good start, but I hope the sim team continue to make what the base sim allows even better. Nuff said. Scott

Yep, this one had me confused until I played with it for a while. Kind of a bummer, as the auto-on when selecting a mode feature is pretty slick, and mildly annoying that it doesn't work with hardware activation. But not a huge deal either and easy to work around. To stay in the spirit of real-world operation, I just do that first activation with the mouse and then revert to hardware after. The auto approach feature is also pretty slick and generally does what most want it to do. Does make me feel like I'm forgetting to do something though. 😅 There is a light on the GPS Annunciator Control Unit which lights to let you know that APR has been armed, which helps to alleviate some of the anxiety. All in all, I really like this unit. In part, because of its uniqueness, but also in part because it has some very interesting features. One other note I'd add which was discussed in the initial 114 topic - if you use the "Control ALT SEL with Hardware Events" option in the tablet, the standard MSFS barometer setting applies. Since the AP's barometer setting only resolves to the tenths, and not the hundredths, this means the final digit will be truncated with this option set. This can lead to some fairly significant AP ALT discrepancies. If, for example, you have a barometer setting of 29.99, the AP will see it as 29.90 with the option enabled. This is the main reason I decided to program all of the thumb wheels using the documented lvars instead so that I can set manually and round rather than truncate. So, for example, for 29.99, I'll manually set 30.00 in the AP. Unfortunately, it's an all or nothing configuration. If you turn it on, you can't use the more accurate lvars for hardware on any of the AP thumb wheels. Hope that's not too confusing. Scott

Wish I could steer you towards something, but... nope. I'm using this one: https://flightsim.to/addon/62381/ksun-friedman-memorial-airport Listed as 2020 only but I haven't noticed anything egregious in '24. Not to complain about freeware but it's just OK. Miss the old Orbx from P3D. Scott

Which is great! I hope he can come up with a solid mechanism to do so. The guy is simply amazing in my book. And following up on something I'd written earlier - I did break down and put my TDS 750/650 pairing in the plane just to do a test. Did a fairly extended flight from 7S3 (Bill Womack's beautiful rendition of Stark's Twin Oaks) to KSUN on a GPS flight plan making extensive use of the autopilot. I did not see a single disengagement of the AP in NAV mode the entire flight. Whatever is going on is restricted to NAV mode tracking a VOR radial. And again, to be clear I know what to do (and not do) using NAV mode tracking a radial. It's not a big deal, but a curiosity and as noted earlier, this may well be something the RW unit is prone to. I also have to note that for this particular plane, I had much more fun using the vintage avionics. I love and appreciate modern avionics, but... nostalgia and all that. For multiple reasons, I think this will become my go-to plane when I want to revert to the spirit of my early flying days. Scott

I'm so old that exactly ZERO airplanes anywhere had GPS, let alone my flight school's. Scott

Different strokes I guess. Would I like this to be completely correct? Sure. Does it ruin the plane for me? Absolutely not, as there's so much here that he gets right that others get wrong, and as @JYW points out, you can follow the proper procedure - almost. You just can't wait for the engine to fire before you start to advance mixture. The engine model doesn't allow it, and Nick discusses the drawbacks of some proposed workarounds in the Just Flight forum. A2A are the only ones I know of who model this precisely - something they're able to do because they completely bypass the MSFS engine modeling, substituting their own. Scott

Looking at the 114 checklists available online, it would appear he's got this one wrong. Of course, there may be a different engine variant that behaves differently, but every 114 checklist I've found has the sequence - Prime, throttle cracked, mixture idle cutoff, crank and advance mixture when engine fires. Perhaps MSFS's piston model doesn't support this method well? Dunno. Scott

"waaaaay better"? Sorry, but we must not be flying the same planes. The turbocharger implementation is different from the Dukes in the first place as the Duke is turbocharged while the 114 is turbo normalized. So there's that. That said, they both behave pretty much as they should. The only difference that I see, other than that, is the behavior above critical altitude where the new Working Title mixture fixes that he used start to come into play. I rarely fly the Duke above its critical altitude, mostly due to the limitations in its pressurization system and diminishing returns. I image I'll NEVER fly the 114 above its CA, as the value proposition isn't good. As slowly as the 114 climbs, even today's flight at 15,000' was only due to terrain. The marginal gains in speed make going higher of questionable value. So while the changes are welcome and its nice to know the behavior is now correct - sure it's better, but it's hardly, well, waaaaay better as you're talking corner cases for both planes. Black Square's turbocharger implementation was already pretty word not allowed good. What I expect IS way better is the normally aspirated 114 where the mixture issue would be apparent under all conditions. Haven't flown the standard version yet to verify. Scott

And in a related topic, this morning I got the rotary knob on my Bravo AP section working using SPAD.neXt to properly increment and decrement those thumb wheels for altitude and vertical speed. Pleased at getting that done as the thumb wheels are a bit fiddly in the VC! Sorry default MSFS users, as there's no way around using lvars for this one. Edit: And once again, needed to read Bill's post first as there is, indeed, a workaround. Awesome! Edit #2: However - just tried the default mappings method and will stick with my custom work as it's smoother and easier to use. Also, using the workaround, the barometer settings truncates the second decimal place rather than rounding which is more accurate. FYI. Scott

Double check those bindings if using the turbo-normalized version, as the custom mixture implementation Black Square uses for proper mixture operations in TC airplanes can cause issues. From the manual: Please make sure that your hardware bindings are using the Key Events, such as “K:MIXTURE1_DECR_SMALL”, or “K:MIXTURE1_SET” to set the mixture, and NOT setting either “A:GENERAL ENG MIXTURE LEVER POSITION:1”, or “B:FUEL_Mixture_1_Set”. Alternatively, setting “L:BKSQ_MixtureLeverPosition_1” from 0-100 will also work to set the mixture axis. Just an FYI, (and for others' info as well) as the default Bravo bindings may well have this done properly. Edit: And while I was doing this post, I see Bill provided similar info. Scott

Don't know how to implement in FSUIPC as I no longer use it, but in SPAD I use the Black Square Lvar:BKSQ_MixtureLeverPosition_1 . My understanding is that normal mappings don't work due to BS's custom mixture logic. Not sure what folks using MSFS mappings do. Scott

I intentionally (no, really! 😁) did some hard braking after landing yesterday and yep - nose wheel shimmy, bigtime. There are so many little nuances to this one. Just terrific! Scott

Impressions after my first flight (KMPI - KMYF). As I had thought I would, I went ahead with the old school avionics for my first flight, though I chose not to tackle the funky (in a good way!) RNAV right out of the chute. I'll get to that in later flights. So... I'm sure some will feel otherwise, but I LOVE the very unique avionics. It's just nice not to see the same ol' stuff. The AP is, as documented, very simple but does have its quirks, in particular the altitude and vertical speed settings thumbwheels and their associated barometer setting. The barometer only goes one place past the decimal point so you need to round up or down as appropriate to keep your altitude from being too far off. The NAV mode likes to occasionally disconnect for no particular reason that I can find when tracking a radial - and yes, I do know how to properly use an AP to track a VOR radial. Did it IRL for years in the pre-GPS days. Don't think it's either user error or a system bug, but rather a characteristic of this AP. Will be interested to see what it does with a GPS - eventually when I stop having my old school fun. That RNAV still calls after all. I rather like the digital CDI, but not sure about the stand-alone ILS unit. I didn't fly an approach on this beautiful VMC day, but did enable it for my landing on 28R which does have an ILS. Maybe I'll like it better when I actually shoot an approach. Oh, and that funky analog DME is a hoot as well. And the sounds. These have to be some of the best sounds ever done for a piston single. The layered cold startup sounds in particular are simply wonderful. Do yourself a favor and fly this one with a quality pair of 5.1 headphones. It rocks! And finally - gee Scott, are you gonna get to the "how does it fly" part? Well yes, and very nicely thanks! As I was aware - it's no rocket ship. Flying out of a somewhat high-hot airport, even flying the turbo normalized variant, was as expected. I trued out at about 158 knots at 10,000' on this warm day, which is respectable. Getting out the O2 cannulas and going higher will net better speeds, of course but I wasn't in a hurry today. Landed with about 7 knots of xwind component and the landing was fine as well. Can't really comment on landings too much after a grand total of one, however. The Bonanza has come up several times here as being too similar, and let me just say that this is NOT that, and I mean that as a compliment. This is its own thing in all the best ways. Simple DG and attitude indicator, old school and very unique avionics (though you can, of course slot in your favorite magenta-line creator) all contribute to a very different feeling aircraft, as does the flight modeling. My guess is that not everyone is gonna love this, but many will, especially RW piston GA folks of a certain age. Count me among those. I like it - a lot! Scott

Used my BS Bonanza profile (SPAD.neXt) as a starting point, so config is going quickly. A few minor differences for some switches, most of which I've already sorted. Just about to start on the AP, as I agree... That might be the biggest challenge. Scott

Purchased and installing now. Woohoo! Will be a bit before I fly as I always like to get my controls set up first, and with Black Square planes that usually means some time in the manual deciphering Lvars. That's OK - it's part of the fun of a new aircraft! Scott

Umm... No. I don't know ANYBODY who thinks that or is unaware of the various PG issues. Most understand there are tradeoffs and either like more than dislike or vice versa. Just because someone falls on the other side of the fence from you doesn't mean they're word not allowed of the tradeoffs. These massive areas of PG are a relatively new thing. The area in Utah being discussed basically stretches for hundreds of miles, and its causing new issues, not typically seen in the more modest areas previously in place. Yes, I know places like the Grand Canyon area have been around since the beginning in 2024, but this massive expansion (particularly obvious now in the Western US) are beyond even that. Scott Edit - wow. This is the most bizarre case of dis-allowed words I've yet seen on Avsim. The word I used was not in any way offensive. Basically meaning "unaware".

This! And this! In my case, I also do all of my controller settings outside of MSFS (SPAD.neXt in my case), so I never need to worry about losing them in-sim. I fired things up after everything had stabilized, and all settings are 100% OK here. Scott

This is not that! With the new US "National Parks" update, the scenery around the Arches - Canyonlands area is now a HUGE chunk of PG and that's the crux of the issue. I've flown this area several times now, and at lower altitudes this much PG simply loads far more slowly than normal scenery tiles even with solid servers, high speed broadband, high LOD and good framerates. It also does not color match to the underlying scenery tiles, which makes the slow loading even more obvious. I absolutely hate this. Yes, the detail of the new PG areas is wonderful, but the slow loading and color issues absolutely ruin immersion. For the first time ever, I'm actually considering turning off PG when flying in the area. I'd rather have the less-sharp but consistent scenery with consistent coloring than the super detailed scenery which loads in slowly and has such large quality/color mis-matches. I'm honestly surprised I've not heard more complaints about this. Edit: And no, AutoFPS (which I use) will not help. Framerates are not dropping when this happens. In a GA plane, I can easily run LOD 400 with locked frames never varying, so AutoFPS sees things as being just fine. Scott

Interestingly, Apple TV had authentication issues last night as well. "They" say it was due to problems caused by some "routine maintenance". Coincidence? Well, yeah probably. 😁 Do have to chuckle at some of the reactions here, though. The biggest problems I've had in simming over the decades I've been doing it have all been due to computer issues on my end. Sure it's frustrating when there's a major network outage like this, but the sky ain't falling and the world ain't ending. MSFS wouldn't be what it is if it weren't cloud based - which overall nets me the best sim experience I've ever had. Period. Nope, not making excuses for MS, particularly as this one seems to be dragging on for a bit. Just keeping some perspective. Scott

The turbo, of course! While I fly all over the place these days, my preference is still for the US/Canadian mountain west, just as it was IRL when I was flying. Turbocharging is the way to go if you fly into a lot of high and hot places. As for that punch - keep in mind that like the BS Bonanza (but unlike the BS turbocharged Baron) this is a turbo-normalized installation. Sea level performance will be the same as the non-modified, normally aspirated plane. High and hot is where the fun begins. 😃 The real question for me is which avionics package will I fly first. Will I load up my usual 750/650 combo or go old school with that funky RNAV system? With this plane, I'm definitely leaning old school. Scott

😁 Another interesting video with the even more interesting set of avionics it introduces. There's some stuff here that I've never seen before, and I've spent a fair bit of time in a wide variety of GA aircraft over the last few decades, both as pilot and passenger. New to me are the RNAV 511, the MC60 "Digital Localizer", the ILS 400 "Instrument Landing System" and the System 60-2 autopilot. Someone apparently mentioned the sameness of BS plane avionics choices, and Nick made it his mission to do some different stuff for this aircraft. He succeeded! Looking forward to some "old school" navigation with some of these new/old toys! As an aside, watching this video reminds me of how much uniqueness, for lack of a better word, we've lost in the GA fleet. Everything newer today features the same basic array of standardized screens and GPS units as pretty much every other plane, as do older planes that have been retro-fitted. When I first started flying, there was a much wider array of avionics, and checking out others' panels at fly-ins and airshows was a lot of fun. Nope, not an "old man yells at clouds" comment, as the new stuff is great, and the "good old days" definitely had their downsides. Just an observation FWIW. Scott

Just to be clear - wasn't criticizing you for posting it. It's worth linking to, particularly since we don't have much info yet. Just wasn't my cuppa. Scott

Well to each their own. I know many of you complain about "cinematic" videos of new products, while I rather enjoy some of them. I also enjoy Nick's straightforward and practical description videos, of course. This last one however? Nope, not for me. I find these long, rambling stream-of-consciousness captures of live streams completely unwatchable. There may well be good information buried in there, but I just don't have the patience to watch someone fumble around, chat with his buds and fumble around some more. I bailed while he was trying to figure out where to fly, and what tool to use to figure out where to fly and how to use it, and... ah, you get the idea. I'll quit now. Feeling curmudgeonly today I guess. Scott Edit: TLDR has become common with folks who don't want to read too many words. I think we need a similar acronym for rambling YouTubes as this one was very much TLaRDW.

The Cutlass I rented was used pretty much exclusively by commercial students. You couldn't even ask to rent it for a trip. It was one of the lowest cost options for meeting the needs for that training so it was in constant demand. I would assume the guy who had it on leaseback did well. :-) Scott