OMG - you guys are still here!! ;D
It's been a long time between posts. I built my 737-800 sim twenty years ago, ran a sim business, ran a WorldFlight team with it, sold the sim to a flight school, rebuilt the sim for them, and two weeks ago pulled the old girl apart to be parted-out :'( Sad to see her go, but happy to see her bits going to live-on in other sims.
But anyway, due to sheer insanity, I've been thinking of building a twin-turboprop sim at home, just for personal enjoyment. Thought I'd seek some wisdom here first...
Ultimately, the King Air 350i is what I'd really like to model, and with the G1000 NXi upgrade. My preference is for FS2024 for personal reasons. But in saying that, my options are then limited. The current FS2024 default B350 is a load of crap and not usable. The Blacksquare one is much better, but steam gauges only at this point.
The Turbine Duke looks good too, but no G1000 options.
I'm open to other twins if the B350 becomes not-doable. But turboprop is a must for the sorts of flying I enjoy. So I'm wondering what else is there? Any other aircraft that could fit my bill, or does anyone know of a B350 model being worked on?
Thanks!
I'm a turboprop guy as well and this area has always been the poor sister in MSFS. The old Real Air Duke was a great plane and the Flight1 B200 is OK. There is no reason you cannot use the Blacksquare Turbine Duke (which imo is the best model out there) with a G1000 as, if you are using a built cockpit you don't need the instruments or the regular panel from the model. It will interface with your controls. The Blacksquare B350 is also a nice plane. Finally, though not a twin, the TBM is also an excellent flyer.
This below was my setup flying the Duke.
Steve
Thanks Steve, appreciate the advice.
Nice setup you have there.
I'd like to use the Blacksquare B350, but how would I pop-out the two G1000 windows onto the hardware-screens if the G1000 windows aren't already in the aircraft's panel?
You'd be using third party software for the panel display. Not sure what's available for 2024, but something like Project Magenta.
There is software that came with my G1000 displays that could be used but I agree with Kyle that there are a bunch of third party apps that will work. You can also directly program each button/switch generically or aircraft specific using MSFS directly or via a 3rd part. I have typically used SPADnext for many years.
Finally, you can play with the programming per plane and manually make some changes to the panel and instruments using the instruments from a different plane. It takes a bit of tweaking but it is doable.
Air Manager is another potential way.
Steve
Thanks guys.
I'm thinking to get 2 x FlightSimBuilder G1000 hardware units for PFD and MFD.
I've searched around for third-party G1000 software addons for FS2024, but nothing stands out yet.
I've used AirManager before, and it's great, but their G1000s display the bezels too, which I don't need. And I'm not sure if they have native compatibility with hardware units like the FSBs?
I think the idea of manually adding the G1000 NXi instruments to the Blacksquare B350 panel would be the more straightforward solution. I could just stick them somewhere to pop them out. I haven't done panel mods since FS2004 though, so it could get messy!