Looking for some ideas on which of these two Blacksquare addons to get. To me they seem fairly similar, and both use the same EFB tablet. Anyone able to shed some differenes or pros and cons? What is your favorite?
The Duke has a few extra aircraft features, more capacity, and a bit better performance over the 58P, which is the closest counterpart of the Baron trio. The Baron has a little better visibility over the engines because they’re smaller. The Duke looks more streamlined and snazzy (if that’s still a word).
As far as sim modeling, I noticed the Baron has wing flex; I don’t recall the Duke having that (need to verify). There might be a few other visual enhancements for the Baron, being 2024-native out of the box, need to compare more.
As far as real-world realism, there are a lot more Barons being flown than Dukes these days, so the Baron is a lot more “realistic” to own and fly, if that’s a thing.
The Baron is offered as a bundle with the Bonanza, which is also worthy if you want to do some single-engine flying with a very similar cockpit.
Overall, I prefer the Duke due to the performance gains, but with the Baron being so ubiquitous irl, I’ll keep giving it airtime. Both are a blast to fly.
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thanks, that seemed to nail all the spots
Have a look at the forwards visibility. The Baron’s is very good, don’t know about the Duke.
…..I’m a stickler for forwards visibility!!!
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Concur with @CharlieFox00 on all points. I have recency bias, having flown the Baron (and Bonanza) a lot over the last week, so I’ll need to dust off the Duke soon to do a real comparison.
One practical item I like about the Baron: it has a Vertical Speed mode in the autopilot, whereas the Duke only has a pitch control. VS is a bit easier to use IMO, and is also more straightforward to map any hardware you might have, though the Duke is doable (I use Spad.next and have it set up to use a knob to control pitch).
@XboxMonkey4665 Also concur. I always like to move my POV upwards to see the runway better when landing. The old 2020 Baron/Bonanza BKSQ mods were locked to a certain height, restricting the forward view considerably. The Duke also is somewhat locked (I think?). Assuming that’s true, the Baron wins hands down, with a great view.
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