The Gabriel BK160-TR has been one of the more distinctive general aviation add-ons for Microsoft Flight Simulator since its release in March 2025. Developed by the French studio Flying Fries, it recreates the Blackshape Gabriel, a carbon-fibre trainer that reached EASA certification in 2017 and FAA approval in 2024 — making it one of the few genuinely new trainer airframes to enter the market in decades. Its tandem seating and bubble canopy set it apart from the familiar side-by-side GA trainers you already know from the sim, offering over 300 degrees of visibility and a flight experience closer to military trainer philosophy than to a typical Cessna or Piper. With its Lycoming IO-320 engine producing 160 horsepower, a Garmin G3X Touch and G5 glass cockpit, and a cruise speed around 150 knots, the aircraft has built a reputation as a well-modelled, characterful addition to the GA lineup on Flightsim.to.
Flying Fries has now pushed out version 2.0, and the studio is treating it less as a routine patch than as a relaunch of the product. The update, which went live about two weeks ago, adds a second airframe to the package at no extra cost for existing owners, alongside a substantial list of technical refinements.
A Second, Considerably Wilder Gabriel
The centerpiece of 2.0 is the BK420-MO, a fictional, aerobatic-oriented variant that shares its airframe, wings and stall speeds with the standard BK160-TR but little else in terms of temperament. In place of the trainer's IO-320, Flying Fries has fitted it with a fictional eight-cylinder Lycoming producing 420 horsepower, driving a five-blade propeller and paired with a reinforced fuselage. According to the developer, the aircraft is built for inverted flight at up to 250 knots, hammerhead turns and loops, and it comes with its own custom instrumentation to match. One of the more notable additions is multicolor aerobatic smoke that now works in multiplayer, letting you trail smoke alongside other pilots and compare flight paths in real time. Because the two variants share the same base geometry, you can fly the BK420-MO formation-style next to a standard Gabriel, or simply keep things sedate if that is what you are after. The wing, aileron and flap shapes have also been corrected across both variants as part of this release, addressing accuracy issues in the original 3D model.
Sound, EFB and Systems Rework
Audio has been redone from the ground up by Grégoire Monesma, who also produced the original sound set. Rather than adapting one pack across both engines, Flying Fries recorded and built two separate sound packs — one for the IO-320 and one for the fictional V8 — so the trainer and the aerobatic variant should sound distinctly different from each other in the cockpit and from outside.
The electronic flight bag has been rebuilt as well, with a cleaner interface, more precise touch targets, interactive checklists and a live news feed. On the systems side, the G3X and annunciator panel fuel warnings now trigger before the tanks actually run dry rather than at the point of exhaustion, giving you a genuine margin to react. The display brightness knob now also controls G3X brightness, and both variants gain a toggleable extended glareshield cap. LOD count has increased from five to six per variant, aimed at improving multiplayer performance at distance, and the game now auto-detects whether it is running in MSFS 2020 or 2024.
Elsewhere, the two custom pilot characters, Thomas and Jenny, have been modeled again from scratch, windshield de-icing has been added, and engine bottom hoods now automatically re-attach after a broken propeller has been repaired, removing a small but persistent annoyance from the failure system. Tie-downs join the static ground items, and Flying Fries' habitual sense of humor remains intact: the fries stored in the cockpit are now hidden when the compartment door is closed for a small performance gain, and the in-cockpit crisps can once again be eaten once the rear headrest is reattached. Two new liveries, Wasp and Silver, arrive with their own unique interiors, and three existing schemes — Racing Blue, Racing Red and Sumi-e — now have matching bespoke interior textures rather than shared generic ones. The user manual has been updated to reflect all of the above.
Pricing and Where to Get It
Version 2.0 is a free update for anyone who already owns the Gabriel BK160-TR, consistent with how Flying Fries has handled updates for this aircraft since launch. For new buyers, the price on Flightsim.to remains the same, which now covers both the BK160-TR trainer and the BK420-MO aerobatic variant rather than a single aircraft. If you don't yet own the Gabriel, this relaunch is arguably the best time to pick it up, given that the package now spans a serious IFR-capable trainer and a dedicated aerobatic aircraft under one purchase. The add-on is available directly through the ➡️ Flightsim.to Store page.