The Beechcraft Baron was designed in 1960 as a faster and more powerful version of their Model 95 Travel Air. The Baron 55 was born out of the Travel Air design with six-cylinder IO-470's, a swept tail, and other subtle features. Then came the Baron 56, which was a Baron 55 with larger Lycoming TIO-541 engines, producing 310 hp each; this served as the engine test bed for the later Beechcraft Duke. In 1970, Beechcraft introduced a stretched version, with club seating, Continental IO-520's, and double aft doors, called the Baron 58. Then came the Baron 58P, a pressurized variant as an entry-level pressurized twin, to sit below the Beechcraft Duke. Then, also in 1976, came the Baron 58TC which was an unpressurized Baron 58 powered by turbocharged TIO-520's. This model is based off the Baron 58 (non-turbocharged) and is a great representation of a plane so famous, and the standard of light twin quality.
The Carenado Baron 58 is a well-modeled aircraft, with nice textures, sounds, animations, and cockpit functions, to make a nice solid package. The Carenado Baron 58 is a definite improvement on the default Baron 58, and has great flying dynamics, with the feel of a real Baron. A well-rounded and thorough package.
The Baron is one of the nicest flying planes in the world, great dynamics, little adverse yaw, and smooth control harmony. Carenado has seemingly managed to model these characteristics into their Baron 58, making it a quite realistic product. The textures are high quality, the sounds are good, lighting is good, and the light bloom looks great.
The Beechcraft Baron has a distinct interior, six seats, club seating with the 58, passengers can see the front well and it has nice visibility; all these qualities which make a ride in a Baron so fun are indeed expressed with great realism for this package. It has some nice leather seats, rear windows tinted or non-tinted, the exits open with a click of a handle. The cockpit is very nice, and elegant. It has two great Garmin GNS 430's, and Garmin GTX 327, a great 3D set of instruments, easy for flying IFR. A nice touch is an electric fuel flow monitor which lets you see the combined fuel flow quickly an in a digital format. A well polished interior, with sunshades as well!
A Baron is almost immediately recognized by its two big engines, windows and metal lines, and nice round, long nose. Carenado has taken the modeling well and detailed the Baron 58 well, and it speaks Baron. The textures are high quality, but the Baron began production before Carenado's HD Series did, and they were unable to apply this feature to the model; otherwise it is great, and the HD series is definitely not a deal-breaker. The animations are good, and startup looks just like it should. Lights are in their correct places, and all exits open, and are visible from the outside. Inside the nose and rear baggage compartments, you can see items within the aircraft, a nice touch.
If you are familiar with flying the default Baron 58, the transition is easy. It works about the same (as the Baron is one of Microsoft's better default aircraft) and startup procedures, ground operation, and takeoff are almost the same. The flaps, control surfaces, and speeds are more accurate for flying, and the autopilot superior. However, it won't be a weekend or longer task to learn this plane. An engine failure yields more realistic responses than that of a default Baron, and the adverse yaw is truer of the real Baron.
The sound set is nice, but the Baron sounds more like a Baron 58TC, which it is not; a negative thing, but nothing annoying. Brakes squeal, engine start sound perfect, the gear doesn't sound exactly like the real Baron, and I like the default Baron's gear sound much better. The interior engine noise is accurate, and the doors open with sound. Stall warnings, and autopilots being disengaged also have their own sound, as expected.
I like this plane very much, the Baron is always one of my favorites, and is a definite improvement from that of the default. It is a good model, and is worth the money, if you are a frequent Baron / light twin flyer. It has its quirks, as with all products, but it gets the job done better than adequately and is a fun plane to fly, and that's what matters.
Good quality textures, sharp cockpit, interior features, realistic performance, and looks.
This isn't a Baron 58TC; the turbocharging would be handy, especially at high altitude, but still great regardless.
Some sounds aren't the best.
This aircraft was tested in the Seattle area, using the Orbx: FTX Pacific Northwest Blue add-on courtesy of Orbx. Also seen for high-altitude flying is Lake Tahoe, with default land textures.
Peter Carlson
petersnoopy@sbcglobal.net
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