I am fortunate enough to go to work and play with actual flight controls connected by pulleys and cables to a bizjet worth some $20 million. Yet, this career only came after spending the first 20 years of my young adult life behind a computer, seeing the world, learning jet systems, playing the role of airline pilot, and educating myself on everything I could about what a career might be like in this exhilarating world. 

After so many years using Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) 95, 98, and X, and X-Plane, I felt I had a pretty good hand on geography, airport locations around the entire U.S., and almost all of the major landmarks. Indeed, that was the case. As I started my career flying jets around the country in 2004, I definitely had that “I’ve been here before” feeling.

Starting with a good computer is key. MSFS or X-Plane won’t run well on a poorly optimized or weak machine. The good thing is prices have come way down these days, so it’s easy to find a good, solid PC to run either sim. My advice is, as always, get an intel chip base, i7 or i9, with Nvidia GeForce video. MSFS has always been the least hassle with this combination. Also required is a monitor with G-Sync technology, either on the laptop itself or externally on a home desktop system. I tried a non-G-Sync laptop by accident recently and returned it immediately due to screen tearing and artifacts, as well as stuttering in frame rates. Not all gaming machines are G-Sync, so beware and do research. The difference is night and day when using a G-Sync display.

• READ MORE: Setting Up Your Sim

Also, I am here to state (though it goes against many opinions among gamers) that a powerful laptop specifically built for gaming will run any sim phenomenally. Do not believe the naysayers. Yes, a desktop is the most powerful system to run a sim, but the compact technology in today’s top-end laptops is far superior to what it used to be. And trust me, you’ll not notice much of a difference. I like the laptops as they come ready to use, already built with the right components melded together for peak performance and quality. It’s cool high-tech wizardry.
You will never find a “gaming” computer in a Walmart, Staples, or even Best Buy. I highly recommend online purchases from dedicated retailers like, Xotic PC, Jetline Systems, or in some cities the great Micro Center. I bought mine at a local Boston Micro Center, and I love the hands-on shopping and ability to just bring it in for any issues or maintenance.

My mainstay sim gear to complement the laptop is the Thrustmaster TCA Sidestick Airbus Edition, Xbox Elite 360 controller, and Thrustmaster THQ throttle quadrant. All are easily portable and high quality. Our friends at Sporty’s Pilot Shop offer a bundle of these. The Xbox Elite unit can be purchased at most stores and is exceptionally great for programming the autopilot functions that I use. MSFS seems to accommodate an unlimited number of plug-in USB devices, and this inexpensive unit is one I highly recommend.

Twenty years ago, we had flight yokes, rudder pedals, and more. Yet they were quite heavy and extremely expensive. The market is wide open now with many brands to choose from, satisfying everyone from the casual simmer to the home cockpit builder. Military enthusiasts get what they’re looking for as well, with extremely realistic side sticks replicating exact fighter jet models.

Even though I love my portable on-the-road sim setup, when sitting at home, feeling the throttle quadrant in my right hand with the yoke in my left, feet in place, I can forget that this is all simulated. The realism is really heightened when using a 747 and swapping out the normal two-engine jet for the quad jet pieces that come standard with the Honeycomb base throttle unit. Now, manipulating four individual throttles really comes to life. You feel like you’re in command of something big.

A 747 or Piper Cub, it’s all available when using a Honeycomb THQ. The combinations are limitless and the quality is great. It offers precision handling, and all the parts and pieces can be popped off and on easily to turn it into anything you want. Then you just assign each slider to something in the MSFS controllers configuration screens.

The default throttle parts for Honeycomb are great and work the best overall. Recently, a new company called Prodesksim has started making add-on enhancements for the existing Honeycomb throttle quadrant. ProDeskSim attachments  add visual realism, true-size parts, and functionality. However, one issue I discovered is that the overlays, or underlays, of the throttle and speedbrake strips keep popping out of place as they don’t sit tightly enough to withstand the speedbrake or flap levers moving in and out of place.

Each time I use either the flaps or speedbrake axis, the plastic inserts all pop out from the detents being used. You can use the items without the flap tracks certainly, but you lose immersion and the actual detents most of the units use.

To remedy the loose underlay parts, you have to be very careful or kind of hold them in place with an available finger before using the axis. If you’re a cockpit modeler simulating just one type of jet, you could glue these into place, but it would be permanent. 

I have since learned that ProDeskSim has implemented a fix for all future units to keep this issue from occurring (my demo units came out early in 2023). The innovation here is great. I love how the company can make so many options and attachments based on the default unit. You can turn your Honeycomb unit pretty much into any GA or jet aircraft you want, making the possibilities seem endless.

I’m honestly not fond of reassembling each time as I change aircraft often enough to where this would be a big setback. For a cockpit modeler of one particular jetliner, this isn’t an issue. I found myself using the Boeing twin jetliner units the most as they are fantastic and only take seconds to install.

In case you’ve never used rudder pedals, it’s definitely one of those experiences where you don’t know what you’re missing until you try it. Once you set your feet snugly on them, you’ll wonder how you survived without for so long. I can’t bring them in my suitcase or I probably would.

Getting all the right hardware in place is the first step to enjoying your sims. You certainly don’t have to spend a fortune since the basic Airbus stick-and-throttle unit combined is only $199. The quality is precise and solid. There are online folks who have showcased using real aircraft cockpits and even airliners from nose through first-class cabins to run their sims. I can only dream of that for now.

The post All the Right Tools for Setting Up a Flight Sim appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

I am often inspired by the real locations and weather I experience when I am on a real work trip. With ForeFlight by my side, it’s fun to test the realism of the sims and how they’re interpreting live weather worldwide. Both X-Plane 12 (XP12) and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (MSFS2020) do a pretty good job of keeping up with it and both have shown continual improvements. It seems each month the message forums are showcasing live weather questions, observations, frustrations, and praise. 

I feel the most accurate live weather award currently goes to MSFS2020 as most of the flights I take, with ForeFlight next to me, are startlingly accurate. The altimeter, visibility, and clouds are really spot on. Locations of rain or snow are pretty accurate too with virga and visual depictions often having me saying “wow.” 

I made my way westward recently from the East Coast to encounter winter spots. The first was a stop into Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (KCLE) using a 787 Dreamliner. KCLE is known for lake-effect snow and this day didn’t disappoint. Snow bands were flowing west to east, and my flight session, down the ILS to an eventual autoland, took me right in the heart of it all.

Various moments from the cockpit view included bursts of snow whooshing past, some varying visibility, and not a lot of turbulence. Even as shown on ForeFlight, the snow showers ended east of the field near the city, allowing for an almost completely visual approach. As I got closer, some definite wind shear jibs and jabs made the wings bounce, something the 787 is famous for with its dampening, flexing wings.

Testing live weather was a success in this scenario. Let’s see the next one. 

I proceeded westward a few hours to the Dakotas and upon reaching there had some very windy weather and snowy bursts to contend with as well. I was using the amazing Learjet 35 I recently featured and it was a blast to feel this one out in surface winds gusting to 40 knots. The Learjet has enough fuel for about 1,500 nm tops, and in this case I traveled about 1,000 miles. I set out for a field in the North Dakota-eastern Montana area for fuel and aircraft change.

The somewhat higher elevations and wide-open areas with some gradual terrain will start making shear. The bumps were noticeable but not yet overly crazy. The wind flow over terrain effect within MSFS is remarkably accurate. 

For the next leg of the adventure, I chose the default Cessna Longitude bizjet, with more range and modern avionics to attempt a “visual” in horrendous weather, surrounded by dangerous terrain. Revelstoke, British Columbia, in Canada is spectacular as it gets, so I went to go check it out.

I vectored myself onto the arrival below the terrain. I would be landing on Runway 30 with the poor weather conditions, so I decided to use the modern technology at hand.

Following the 3D view with an eyesight-enhanced vision system on the Latitude, I could see right through the clouds and snow, down the river in virtual visual conditions. Now, I don’t think pilots with this avionics package do this yet, but I could see someday in the not too distant future the ability to just fly a visual approach in something horrendous.

I was led right down the shoot to the breakout point and runway in real visual conditions at a low altitude I would say was near ILS minimums.

In the real Challenger 300 I fly, similar to the Longitude, the reversers are so effective and rev up to such a high percentage, we don’t even touch the brakes until almost walking speed or something under 40 knots.

MSFS has great icing modeled with effects on performance. It doesn’t always come off cleanly, and sometimes even windows don’t get cleared very rapidly.

Continuing the adventure, I got into an A321neo (LatinVFR available on sim marketplace) for the rest of the journey westward. There is no better, more scenic place than Juneau, Alaska, and an unusual weather event was occurring at the time—clear skies! Alaska in winter is usually terrible with huge rain storms likely along the coast or wet snow blizzards. Apparently a cold snap following some heavy snows was occurring the day I tried this, and the built-in live weather matched the conditions almost to a T.

I have to stop somewhere, because the adventuring available in Alaska is endless. Maybe I’ll do this  again later this winter as there is so much to discover and tinker with. Setting up manual weather to something wild and dangerous is also fun, especially in mountainous regions. Using the variety of GA aircraft available in the sims opens up a whole new avenue of bush flying, where icing dangers are more noteworthy. 

As always, I have to link the “must-haves” as you fly: 

FS Realistic Pro for the best add-on ever made.

Sporty’s Pilot Shop for all the flight controls imaginable and an easy home setup.

ProDeskSim for the coolest affordable add-ons to the Honeycomb throttle quadrant that will leave you drooling. 

The post Testing Live Weather and Winter Wonders Along the Way appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

1. Learjet 35A by FlySimWare

I think my favorite thing of 2023 was the sudden release of the FlySimWare Lear 35A. This is a humdinger of a masterpiece even if it’s still at the “early access” stage. I can’t recall another aircraft that has been so great right out of the box, with so little wait time or hoopla. I mean, we have the greats such as PMDG and Fenix, but they don’t get dropped suddenly without any long waits. 

The Lear 35A is a fabulous addition to the bizjet genre and one that will be continually upgraded. I have not flown an actual Learjet in real life, but since this product was designed with the input of real Lear 35 pilots, I can safely assume it’s been done well. From what I can see having flown bizjets for 20 years now, it’s spot on. The handling quality is sweet, balanced, and well tuned. Trimming, momentum, and effects of gear and flaps all seem accurate, as well as the feeling of liftoff and touchdown. The amount of float, touchdown quality, and steering on the runway seem good to me as well as the powerful reversers that will do most of the work after landing. 

The only thing is since it’s early access, some of the sounds are still lacking or missing. I would love more of the environmental system sounds, as well as a more robust thrust reverser roar, which would be quite loud. However, the engine spool-up and high rpm harmonic “humming” you’d hear from up front is spot on. Brilliant in that audio regard. 

This aircraft is so beautiful to look at, and all parts externally are replicated to perfect scale. My trained eyes usually find things not designed to scale or size, but in this case, I can’t find anything. It’s a perfect visual blueprint of the real thing. With a product this great, the problem is we wish for the release of many more bizjets immediately. Gimme more now!

Grab your Learjet 35A from the FlySimWare store.

2. Kuro 787-8 Dreamliner (freeware)

This little gem is a remake of the default 787-10 that brings forth the smallest 787 variant, the 787-8. This somewhat stubby-looking (perfect in my mind) version makes for an amazing private jet conversion with beautiful liveries available (any airline you want is an option too). This freebie comes updated with Asobo’s default 787-10 stretch (only in the premium deluxe Microsoft Flight Simulator installation), where service upgrades to panels and systems are already complete. The flying quality is great, and I have been able to perform perfect autolands with this model, a sign of a great build. It comes with its own sound set as well. It’s truly a great add-on and one of my favorites of the entire year.

It’s continually updated and available at the flightsim.to website (the greatest place to get all your MSFS 2020 free items and mods).

3. A2A Piper Comanche

This A2A gem is probably most GA flyers’ No. 1 product of the year for sure. I am not an expert on the smaller things, and haven’t used this enough  to give my expert opinion, but sometimes you need to rely on others. This is a living, breathing airplane that has to be maintained and treated well. 

This is a new function that a lot of designers are bringing into their products and MSFS supports constant-state aircraft that save flight times, wear and tear, health and maintenance practices as you fly. It remembers this so even after flying other aircraft, when you go back to this one, as long as you have a constant state toggled, you’ll be using this feature. Real Comanche pilots are heralding this is the best airplane ever for the MSFS series. Some folks have given up flying anything else. 

In my limited experience, I did enjoy the fact that I damaged the engine by not following procedures, proper warm-up, and fouled plugs. You can use a built-in tablet to view engine health as it runs live. The sounds are great and will accompany any problems with accuracy. A2A is known for top-quality sim aircraft and add-ons, and this one has certainly kept its reputation on the top of the pile. 

4. Carenado Turbo Stationair 207 

Recently released via the MSFS Marketplace is the Carenado Cessna (stretched) 207 Turbo Stationair— a spectacular looking replication of the real-life workhorse. For a mere $14, you can grab this beauty. I loved the appearance, sounds, and feel of hand flying this fabulous, fast-and-furious, do-it-all airplane. From short mountain strips to long-haul journeys, this works. And it kinda has that feeling that “maybe someday I could buy one of these things.” 

The aircraft comes with many fabulous variants, like passenger, cargo, pants or no pants, etc. A good variety of paint jobs, or liveries, are also included. I wasn’t expecting this either, and it’s a great addition to my sim that I really enjoy flying again and again.

5. Black Square (Anything it does is amazing)

Fairly new to the flightsim genre is Black Square. It has been making fabulous enhancements to default aircraft like the Bonanza, King Air 350i, and Baron 58 for a while now, complete with more realistic systems, panels, displays, analogue options (six-pack) with aircraft health and vulnerability built in. 

Just a few months ago, Black Square released its first entire airplane, the powerful Daher TBM 850, to compete with the default Asobo version. Some of us really enjoy the slightly older mix of steam gauges and modern stuff, and Black Square has certainly fulfilled many of our wishes. Everything it does is fabulous, and these products really stand out. The Just Flight store has them all here and here on the website.

6. Felis 747-200 for X-Plane 11/12

In my recent article, I went crazy over this X-Plane marvel. The classic 747-200 is simulated from head to tail in “study level” fashion. This is, by far, the most realistic airliner I’ve ever used for any sim, period. It may have to do with the built-in flying properties of XP itself, combined with brilliant programming and realism put into this production. You can actually feel the momentum, weight, and physics all at work as you hand fly this beast, unlike any other heavy jets I have tackled prior. It’s so good that I would recommend getting XP11/12 just for this. 

However, because of the unrefined status of XP12 currently (graphical and performance issues are still a problem when compared to MSFS), I’d recommend it on XP11 for the smoothest experience. Sometime by March, XP12 will be receiving a graphical and performance fix as noted by developer Laminar Research. This may be the actual piece XP fans have been waiting for to challenge MSFS performance and refined photorealistic visuals. 

7. FSRealistic or XPRealistic for both sims

Anyone who has followed me knows I am a huge fan of XPRealistic and FSRealistic. Both are an absolute must have during sim sessions. It adds everything that was left out of the native simulator versions—both by X-Plane and MSFS default programs—including wind, gear thumps, gear drag, flap noises, speed brakes, prop wash, touchdown sounds, thrust reverser roar, water landing sounds, screaming frightened passengers, turbulence-shaking rattles, and added motion and vibrational effects. All these things and more are now available and customizable by the user. It’s easy to use and I could not imagine sim flights without it. Not sure why base sims don’t include more of this style of immersion, but they don’t. These great add-ons are available from many outlets such as mine. 

8. FSLTL live traffic injector for MSFS

Since getting a new, more powerful laptop to run MSFS, I am now tinkering with live traffic. I had always avoided using any traffic due to the hit on performance and increased likelihood of stutters with such a draw on the CPU. But now it’s no longer really an issue. So after trying the built-in default traffic and getting screen freezes, I kept default traffic off and went to freeware third-party vendor FSLTL. 

FSLTL grabs live ADS-B data worldwide and puts the real traffic in sim with actual visual models of the traffic and their airlines if it is an airliner you’re supposed to see. The visual realism is great, and the immersion of seeing lumbering airliners in cue out to the active runway is jaw-dropping. Then they takeoff with a roar over your head or a trail of water vapor in tow if the runway is wet… wow! Seeing contrails in motion or distant aircraft lighting is very realistic. 

If you’re a fan of traffic watching, you can find out who you’re seeing either from the web, apps like FlightRadar24, or a built-in screen that you can open which shows exactly what traffic is being created, aircraft type, airline, and where they are going. 

All of this creates a performance hit. At large airports, it will take maybe 10 to 20 percent off the frame rate compared to what it would have with no traffic selected. That is far less than the hit from default live traffic by Asobo, because you can really allow a lot more traffic to display at any one time (adjustable). On a fast machine, you won’t care. 

For more information, check out the website.

9. FS-ATC Chatter for both sims

This little program available from Stick and Rudder Studios is available for both X-Plane and MSFS platforms. It will automatically play realistic ATC chatter from around the world, depending on where you are and what your current flight regime is. So you’ll hear accurate accents and dialects in each phase of flight. If you’re in Canada, you’ll hear its controllers. You’ll get accurate ground, tower, departure/arrival, center chatter, etc. The program features regular updates, and voice files are added often so you’ll never be bored hearing the same thing over and over. This is another little gem of a program that adds so much realism for both XP and MSFS.

I could keep going, but these are the 2023 add-ons that stand out to me as being exceptional products. There are many more items in my library that I use daily that could be honorable mentions. And it’s possible I have forgotten something. I am sure that 2024 is going to be another super year for this industry.   

The post Best Sim Add-Ons of 2023 appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

At this time, it’s available exclusively from its website. 

I had neither expected nor even heard of this release, though the company has been making fine add-ons for quite a while now for previous versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) and Prepar3d. So, I was slightly behind the power curve here, making it probably more exciting for me than others who already knew this was coming for MSFS2020. 

The corporate jet world is very limited in MSFS. The only true corporate jets of any reputable quality available are the stock Citation CJ4 and Longitude. Now, this Lear 35A truly brings a top-notch add-on to the mix. This was such a beauty I had to get this article out while it was still fresh and new. My initial flights have been easy and hassle-free. Due to its “early access” status, no manual comes with the product as of yet.

For me, a Challenger 300 captain, I believed I could figure this bird out without a problem. And for the most part, I have, from cold, dark start-ups to completing flights and learning as I go. It reminds me of the earlier days in my career flying Beechjets. Battery engine starts, fairly simple fuel management, and a pair of powerful reversers for stopping. Gimme a good pair of thrust reversers any day over the newfangled light jets that have none. Having only brakes to stop a jet is a bad idea in my mind, and maybe that’s one reason so many HondaJets, Phenoms, and CJs seem to have a lot of runway overshoots these days.

The flying and handling quality is fantastic, from what I can tell. I am not a Learjet expert by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn’t have the easy-to-find flaws I have run into with many other aircraft add-ons over the years. The momentum, engine behavior, flying response and feedback, and maneuverability all seem in check with what I would expect of a real Learjet.

A lot of my praise comes from the fact that a team of real Learjet 35 pilots helped create this early masterpiece, so I feel I can ride with that in my positive evaluation. I am a big proponent of sounds and sound effects, and so far, this one doesn’t disappoint. I had to watch a few real Lear 35A videos on YouTube to compare, and I especially love the add-on’s internal engine spool-up sounds. Spot on! Reminds me of my Beechjet days when those engines had a beautiful harmonic hum on climbout.

One thing that’s missing is the sound of pressurization and air vents, which can be quite loud and fluctuate with the power settings. I hope that effect is added. Reverse thrust, while powerful, creates no noise. The real jet reverser is quite a loud roar. Luckily, FSRealistic solves the reverser noises. You can get FSRealistic at an online store, such as sim market, here. 

I am teaching myself the fuel system. It’s pretty self-explanatory with a great little iPad-type of device that shows systems, weather, weight and balance, etc. With all five tanks in operation and with the clever use of a few simple switches to keep fuel in the right places, you can go almost 2,000 nm. This is only if you’re very good with fuel flow and cruise Mach, as well as knowledgeable on how temperature aloft affects performance. I only see this long cruise happening above FL 400 with temps below ISA traveling at maybe Mach 0.75. Top speed seems to be Mach 0.80 (460 TAS), but you’ll eat up fuel and reduce range to far less. 

• READ MORE: Optimizing PC Performance for MSFS2020

Hand flying this little rocket proves that it is indeed that— a rocket. After a hefty pull on the yoke at VR (with no manual or speeds to reference, I guess, and trim her off when she’s ready…like 130 knots or so) and you’re off and running, 8,000 fpm is easy. Trim nose down to something more reasonable and pull power back to MCT or something less than takeoff power for noise abatement and engine safety. Reaching 4,000 fpm is easy now, flaps up and speed at 250 knots. Very maneuverable and fun to hand fly. Precise trim and balanced controls make this a dream.

After many fun takeoffs, landings, and touch and goes to get a feel for her, it sure feels like a barrel roll is in order. I know the Lear will do this in real life, and at least in sim, FAA inspectors can’t touch your virtual license. Landing the Learjet is straight forward, fun, and easy. It takes a little time getting used to the speed and angle-of-attack gauge if you’re not experienced in jet flying. Great landing quality, and realism is a delight. It’s not overly twitchy and works great with high-quality controls. For home use, I have been incorporating the Honeycomb Flight Controls starter pack (including yoke, pedals, and throttle quadrant), all via Sporty’s Pilot Shop. 

This is such a wonderful jet to fly. It’s one of the greatest I have ever gotten for any flight sim, period. That covers 40 years of this hobby, and the corporate jet realm is extremely limited. X-Plane has certainly offered more over the years, but we are long overdue for some love on the MSFS front, and this product certainly takes the lead. For about $40 you can grab this winner and join the evolving improvements constantly being brought forth by the dedicated team at Flysimware. I’d say this is a five out of five-star quality, even at this early stage. With a product this good, I really hope the company will make more corporate jets, especially the Challenger 300 I fly for real-life employment. 

The post Exploring the Flysimware Lear 35A for <i>MSFS2020</i> appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Since that beautiful day in August of 2020 when Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (MSFS2020) was born, some of us have had a pretty delightful time of it. Little trouble and mostly a great experience. There are others, however, who have had nothing but headaches and misery. 

Why is that? Let’s look at some issues and their solutions, along with general operating tips and hints, that have helped me through a recent upgrade to a better flight simming machine. 

I must say immediately that “less is more.” Anyone using a computer for work, office, graphic design, etc., probably won’t have as much luck with MSFS2020  as someone with a dedicated gaming or flight simming PC. It’s just that simple. A PC that is not crammed full of the extra programs the average office computer is bloated with will always serve you better.

I recently purchased a high-end laptop to use for all my sim needs. A 4090 GeForce graphics card is the highest you can go. However, the top-rated MSI machine I chose at first didn’t have “GSYNC” technology in its display which meant that running MSFS2020 resulted in choppy graphics and screen tearing issues despite blazing fast frame rates. In the past, I had always chosen GSYNC computers, but for some reason this one slipped right past me. I returned it immediately for a GSYNC Asus ROG 18 gaming laptop and couldn’t be happier with the smoothness and performance. 

All that is to say I highly recommend a GSYNC based computer and video display. I now see frame rates over 100 where my old 3070 laptop maxed out at about 50 in rural areas. I have to give a shoutout to my local Boston Microcenter for being such a great place to purchase technology such as my new beast of a laptop. You’ll probably never find a good sim PC in a typical store. Specific online retailers specializing in high performance PCs and gaming laptops are pretty much the only way to go. Personally, for something this valuable, I like being able to return it in person if something goes wrong.

Let’s face it, MSFS2020 is very demanding and requires a great gaming-style PC with high end hardware. That said, most computers and laptops built since 2020 do a pretty great job of running it right out of the box. The problem is no two computers are the same and everyone on earth will have a different set of experiences to report. Many having non-stop issues with the sim have an old or slow computer. Some may have newer, powerful machines that still run everything poorly due to outdated drivers, bloatware, overly clogged hard drives, or actual hardware issues. 

In my recent upgrade to a better gaming laptop, I had a some @#%$!!! moments myself. I would say if you’re having trouble with poor performance, crashes, freezes, and nonstop aggravation with your sim, then simply reset windows to new and use the option to do a complete restore. This will wipe the drive clean, leaving nothing behind. Doing this will ensure getting as new a PC as possible with no bad files or programs left behind to do bad things. In my experience, the time it takes to do a reset (about an hour is all) is way faster than spending days trying to troubleshoot.

Let’s say you do this or actually get a new computer. There is a lot of “junk” to be done before you install the sim and hopefully the things I’ll talk about here will help someone out there! If I can help at least one fellow pilot or flight simmer solve their issues, it will be worth it. 

Before anything can be done, make sure you have a great internet connection. This program will not install or run well on slow internet, period. This can be a major issue for folks in places where the internet is poor and spotty. It can make using MSFS2020 nearly impossible. This is where X-Plane can be the sim of choice, as you can use it easily offline without any internet. 

Here are some important steps to take (in order) after a new install of Windows or getting a new PC:

Windows Updates 

Go to the search box on the bottom area of the desktop, (the one with the magnifying glass symbol). Type in “update” and then click on “Check for updates”. You’ll be brought to the main update interface. Next, click on update and let it go. Now, you may be prompted to do this several times and some “restarts to take effect” will occur. If it hasn’t been done in a while, this could take time (possibly hours depending on your internet speed). Once it says  “your computer is up to date,” you’re ready to do more. 

Startup, Sleep, and Shutdown Options

Type in “Closing lid” in the search box. Click on “Change what closing the lid does” which will bring you to the options to select variables under the heading “Define power buttons and turn on password protection.” Be sure to stop all sleep, snooze, and lid closing options. Having a computer “hibernate” when attempting to run a sim for hours will cause issues! Also, click the “Change settings that are currently unavailable” link to get access to the “Shutdown settings” section. Once there, uncheck “Turn on fast startup” to disable that feature. Experts say to shut off this option as it can introduce problems and system hangs since using fast start was originally meant to speed things up, but can also cause instability and issues if not everything got loaded properly. I have always shut it off on my computers and honestly my laptop boots just as fast and with less worry.

Editing Advanced Power Settings 

Editing these settings will enable you to change the way the processor and other components run. First, type “Edit Power Plan” into the search box. Then click on “Change advanced power settings.” Don’t allow them to reduce less than 100 percent off the max settings, and if on a laptop, don’t allow anything less than 100 percent unless the machine is not plugged in, like on battery. Spend time to look around at all the options and don’t just accept the default ones as good. You need all the power you can get! Hard Disk,  Desktop background settings, Sleep, PCI Express, Processor power management, Display, and Battery options all need to be tweaked for power and not rest. Computers don’t need naps, only pilots do.

USB Controllers

Type “Device Manager” into the search bar. Click on it and then navigate down to “USB serial bus controllers”. Click on that and find “USB Hub” in the dropdown menu. Right click on USB Hub and select “Properties”. Click on the “Power Management” tab, where you will find another hidden option allowing you to uncheck the “Allow the computer to run off this device to save power” box. As we use many connected hardware devices, having a USB port suddenly napping away, can cause the sim to freeze or lock up sometimes. This option may work if you have any issues where the controls aren’t working fast enough or you get sim lockups. 

Game Mode 

Go back to the search bar, type “Game Mode” and select “Game Mode settings.” Click the toggle to turn OFF Game Mode. Most experts say not to use “game mode,” so (to be honest) without much evidence, I leave it off as well. Hopefully it’s not just a placebo. However, once you search for game mode, you’ll find an option under “Related Settings” called “Graphics.”  Click on that and you’ll see a list of programs. Look for Microsoft Flight Simulator or X-Plane and click on it. Next, click “Options”  and choose the one for  “high performance.”. Click Save. This is a new feature and seems to be one that many experts suggest. 

HAGS

Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling (HAGS) is necessary for 4000 series NVIDIA cards to get the best quality and performance as well as the new DLSS and frame generation technology. This can also be enabled on the “Graphics” page (if needed, you can navigate back to it by typing “Graphics” in the search bar and selecting “Graphics settings”). Once there, click on “Change default graphics settings” and make sure the Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling toggle is set to ON. Below HAGS, also set the toggle for Optimizations for windowed games to ON. If you have a lower card like a 2 or 3000 series, it may be better to leave HAGS off. Experiment to see. 

Windows Defender 

Next, type in and click on “Windows Security.” Go to Virus & threat protection and find Virus & threat protection settings. Click on “Manage settings” and scroll down to “Exclusions.” Select “Add or remove exclusions” then “Add an exclusion.” From the dropdown menu, pick “Folder.” From there, find and select your install directory for the sim you use. Now processing power won’t be used to scan this while you’re busy flying. Less intrusion is necessary! MSFS2020 and all my other games run from the Steam network so I just have the entire steam folder selected to ignore my games and sims I use. Defender is all you’d ever need to keep your PC safe in the first place. It is well made and doesn’t slow down your PC by keeping it active. 

Nvidia Drivers 

I personally prefer Nvidia graphics cards. For a long time, it’s been widely accepted in the sim community that they provide the highest quality and power for a sim. Nowadays, I could be wrong on this as gamers have accepted–and some even prefer–Ryzen. For me, I am sticking with Nvidia. If you have a Nvidia or Ryzen machine, you’ll need to upgrade to the latest or near-to latest drivers. Realistically, something less than a year old will do. Googling your specific card  is probably the best way to bring up your upgrade options. As always, when upgrading on Nvidia, be sure to choose the “Custom Installation” option and check the “Perform a clean installation” box to completely clear out old drivers and do a fresh install. 

Nvidia Control Panel or Other GPU interface 

It’s extremely important to make sure your main graphics card is listed as either the only one or top priority. On my laptop, I have a Nvidia Control Panel whereby I can select my 4090 graphics card as the priority and main card to use during any gaming or simulation, or just always use it bypassing the internal one on the motherboard. You can’t run any sim on an internal graphics processor. Usually this hassle is only on a laptop. With Nvidia, I have found that customizing settings to anything other than default usually doesn’t result in any added benefit to performance or quality. Some may disagree and have had good luck. The only thing I might change is the option to always use maximum performance vs. normal, but then again, even in default normal, the GPU will go to highest performance when required. Snake oil? No clue on this one. After years of fiddling I still have no proof. All I can say is less “tweaking” seems to result in the best performance and quality overall.

Getting Rid of Bloatware 

One of the most beneficial and satisfying things to do for me is to get rid of system hogging, clogging programs like any outside antivirus software. It’s not necessary and will cause system slowdowns, intrusions, and worse. Windows Defender is plenty all by itself. So via the search bar look up “Add or remove programs” and click on it., Go down the list and uninstall things like McAfee antivirus, Norton antivirus, Windows Office (a massive hog), and other junk a flight simmer will never need. Years ago, virus were a big threat. They’re much less these days, and I used to always find computers so bogged down, so slow and unresponsive, because they are plagued by antivirus software that everyone is told to use. Throw it all out. Just be careful not to delete something either Windows requires or you may need later. 

• READ MORE: Tips and Tricks for Flight Sims

Installing MSFS2020

Once you install the sim for the first time you don’t have to do anything with the so called “community folder.” However, if you have either a pre-existing installation or items you had downloaded or purchased, those are going to need to be re-installed. 

That “Community Folder” Thing…

All the addons you purchase or download for free will be placed into the “community” folder. Become familiar with it as during updates it’s important to temporarily either empty it out (i.e. select all, cut [ctrl-x] and paste the contents elsewhere [ctrl-v], or rename it to something like [Community_backup]. This must be done prior to any Asobo Studio pushed updates. You’ll know it’s time as you’ll be prompted to update. Just exit out the sim, and do this procedure, then re-start the sim and let it do it’s update thing. Once done, you can place your community folder contents back where they were prior to the forced update.

The location of your community folder depends on whether your MSFS2020 is from the Microsoft Store or Steam. 

The location for a Microsoft Store installation is:

C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Flight Simulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Packages\Community

The location for a Steam Store installation is:

C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator\Packages\Community

If you’re redoing a new installation from scratch–or just a new one from a new computer–do not just “copy” over your pre-existing community folder. I ran into trouble when I did this by just dragging the community folder over onto my new PC, and trying to install the sim. MSFS2020 failed to update properly on installation and all my addons didn’t work right. The sim was unusable and crashed, as I believe the underlying paths to installed options made the new installation think they were still in the area they were on the previous PC. In any event, a new installation with you re-downloading your add-ons and not including them in the community folder during the installation is the only way to do this error free. You should be flying high now.

I hope this helps at least one person out there get the best out of their sim with the least amount of anguish. For those of you who are real pilots, I can hear it now, “it’s much easier just to fly a real plane.” Well, kinda…But addicted sim geeks like me know we can’t live without both, real and virtual.

The post Optimizing PC Performance for <i>MSFS2020</i> appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Today’s version is really what I had always dreamed of. I have taken so many screenshots over the last few years that I would love to publish a coffee table book just to display them. I don’t think I am alone in that sentiment. I have spent a lot of time viewing screenshots other flight simmers have posted on Facebook fan pages. 

These screenshots, mine and others, showcase the beauty of this sim. Fellow pilots I share a jet cockpit with are often stunned when I show them scenes from the current MSFS. Many had dabbled with it way back when and never returned generally due to being less than impressed. They ask me, “Isn’t that a real picture?” 

Here are a few of my favorites.

In this pic, I had manually set the weather to scattered to broken cumulus with unlimited full slider visibility. The west has great clean air—anything less than 100 miles just doesn’t seem right. The later afternoon sky or “golden hour” really makes the colors pop. This was around early April, when some snow remained in places but clearly some greenery was popping in too. MSFS does an amazing job using color and lighting to create this scene. It still absolutely stuns me. I just can’t tell it’s not a real photo. By having this haze-less sky, the colors and contrast really pop to the maximum. As a note, you’ll only find this by manually setting visibility to max and raising the clouds to a height several thousand feet or higher above the ground, which is quite realistic for the western dry climate and thermally driven lift.

Touring around this region is so much fun, from low level to long distance to taking screenshots. For added realism, be sure to drag the visibility sliders to full and also throw in added turbulence as during the day this would be common. Using live weather does a better job of thermals, chop, and low-level winds and shear, but then it is sometimes slightly more hazy, with less color contrast to take photos.

The live weather interpolates where worldwide snow cover is quite accurate, but when taking over total control, it is necessary to set this as well. The sliders allow temperature and associated snow coverage and thickness and are a lot of fun to fiddle with. Perfect for picture taking. 

Climbing out from Monument Valley, some massive mesas and cliffs rise sharply about half a mile from the runway. What a great place to practice changing the weather and temperature with various aircraft to see what possibly could go wrong. Having a contest to see if you can clear terrain is always fun and informative.

Low and slow, or actually fast and wild, is perhaps the best way to zoom, roll, and bomb through the canyons, valleys, monuments, natural spires, and flat-topped mesas. With the right airplane, you could certainly land on these places for some foot exploration. With the accurate topographical data worldwide, it’s just amazing how many places there are where you can find a runway. As I fly a jet for a job, my view at FL430 often has me wondering how many places out west, below me at the moment, have been conquered by bush pilots.

Using the same technique for visibility tinkering and cloud manipulation at sunset, I was able to capture this beauty. Whether you’re imitating Tom Cruise’s Maverick character from Top Gun in the F18 or low and slow, this part of the U.S. is perfect for trying anything. In the golden years of jet airline flying, I had heard airline pilots were allowed to fly low level through the canyons and valleys in Boeing 707s or Douglas DC-8s before climbing back up high to the normal cruising altitude. 

A few months ago, I featured some of the greatest payware-added airport details you can buy for bush flying. The way the grass, dirt, and camping sites blend together really does make MSFS a bush sim. Even since I wrote that, the continually enhanced weather modeling featuring mountain waves, ridge lift, and thermals has improved the realism–and danger!

For the ultimate challenge, try flying in real time to this part of the world. Nothing can beat the sometimes deadly Lukla Airport (VNLK) in Nepal. The only fast way to get to Mount Everest is this strip. Perched at high altitude and built on a huge slope with only one way in and one way out, this one is difficult at best. I crashed a few times battling wind, downdrafts, and a go-around into the sheer, rock walls that rise thousands of feet on the departure end. After some experimentation, I found the Carenado Pilatus PC-12 (available on www.carenado.com) was great for stopping fast and uphill taxiing. In real life, they bring passengers on Yeti Airlines in twin turboprops. Sadly, it seems a deadly crash occurs here almost every year. 

Paro International Airport (VQPR) is featured on many videos. Landing airliners into this spectacular place near the Himalayas is a good stop prior to switching to a smaller aircraft and heading to Lukla or Tribhuvan International Airport (VNKT) in Kathmandu. A steep final approach, twisting past a temple on the mountainside and dealing with winds, downdrafts, and sink rates, is so much fun. Landings must not float, and a bang-on slam down is the only way to get on the ground here! The same thing holds for most high altitude airports that aren’t overly large. I was using an Airbus A319ACJ found on the sim marketplace within MFS itself, the LVFR or LatinVFR brand of Airbus jetliners.

Terrain mapping is absolutely necessary and realistically done with most aircraft in the sim, I love the accuracy and smoothness of this, as it is pretty much identical to what I use in the bizjet I fly for work. Having spent half my professional pilot life without such tools, similar to TCAS now, I realize how I couldn’t live without such technology. Just another layer of safety at work.

You decide! Bush flying in the Rockies with a high lift device wing is a blast as you can challenge yourself to off-airport landings anywhere. Just beware of the icing threat in winter, in and around any clouds. With monster truck-style tires, everything is a runway, even the most inhospitable places on Earth. Frozen lakes, snow-covered fields, and mountain slopes are all solid and will result in pretty realistic physics if you take them on.

Anytime I use the PMDG 737NG product line, I scratch my head over how real the pics look. The shine, lighting, and reflections on all surfaces are tops. Jetliners with interiors add to the camera views and believability. Some aircraft now have full interiors, such as the entire PMDG (www.pmdg.com) product line and many more. Anyone who doesn’t know PMDG hasn’t been in the hobby very long as they started building top-end Boeing jets way back in the early 2000s for the sim.

With so many aircraft to choose from, it’s hard to decide what to fly or photograph next. You can shut down the engines on the Grumman Goose and listen to the wind and waves slapping the hull. You may hear local birds or wildlife as they are all programmed into the sim, depending on your locale. Wave simulation looks beautiful but doesn’t really operate like a true boating simulation or water model (not yet anyway, but I think that is improving).

Time to stop. I could easily lose control over all the photos I have taken. It’s like when you show off your baby pics: Everyone likes the first few, then they clearly are not paying attention as you drone on and on… 

I hope all the real pilots out there that don’t have PCs or flight sims realize the benefits, realism, fun, and adventure they’re missing. And sometimes the added brain power required to take in the “big picture” effect of your surroundings can keep cobwebs away and help you to feel less rusty if you aren’t flying much in real life.

The post Is It Real or a Flight Sim? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Hazy Skies

Let’s start with my favorite on X-Plane 11 (XP11) that concerns the never-ending “hazy sky” issue that has plagued the sim forever. Now, you can purchase some great weather add-ons that will enhance sky and cloud quality, but I wanted to share a two-second fix that can bring back bluer skies easily.

Even by manually setting the weather and associated visibility sliders to well above the default of 10, XP11 is still too hazy. Just go to the “Developer/Sky Color” tabs and select the bullet for either orbit or hialt to get a rich, blue sky. Done! It will stay that way until you exit and restart. Just note that at sunset you must go back to the bottom bullet point to get back to default. Otherwise the night texturing will get strange, so this tip is a daytime-only feature. 

Landing Stutters

Now in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (MSFS2020), I kept noticing a stutter or pause when touching down or about to land. This annoyance was occurring randomly in spots and with any aircraft. I read on some forum that MSFS2020 loads in external “extras” such as tire smoke, skid marks, etc., that can actually stop the sim while loading. This is a painful reality I had thought was gone years ago, but apparently not. I tried out this tip myself and it works like a charm. 

First, locate your “Asobo/Base” folder using Windows Internet Explorer. Then find two lines to edit—the “SmokeLanding” small and large effects. From there, simply enter with a mouse click and add something in front of each effect name, such as, in my example below, “off_”.

Next, find your “Legacy/Effects” folder and do the same for three more entries concerning touchdown effects. Name them “OFF_” as shown in the yellow highlight box below.

Once all of this is accomplished, you should not have any more touchdown stutter or pausing. I was astounded by how well this worked for me, even flying various aircraft where it had previously been a problem. One caveat, however, is that on external views you may no longer see smoke, dust, or snow kicked up while landing. If you have a powerful system, you won’t have to use this trick, but for those who have an annoying pause on touchdown, this is well worth sacrificing that visual effect.

Settings to Tweak for General Smoothness

I’m not entirely sure if this is “snake oil”, but I have been running the sim on my laptop in “Developer Mode” for quite some time now. It seems to produce far fewer sudden slowdowns or frame-rate reductions than when I don’t have this option enabled. I am not alone, as many on forums have seen this too. It absolutely doesn’t harm or reduce performance, so why not?

Also, no matter how powerful a system you have, it seems everyone is advising sliding back the “Terrain Level of Detail” and “Objects Level of Detail” sliders to 100. In addition, after somewhat exhausting tweaking comparisons, I have found some performance enhancement by reducing “Buildings, Trees and Grass and Bushes” to “Medium.” They all look just as good as on “Ultra” but knock frame rate down quite a bit in crowded, urban, or perhaps very woodsy backcountry locations. Try it!

You may notice somewhat slightly blurrier panels and CRT fonts on the instrumentation, but things run smoothly and slightly faster than on the max quality “Anti-Aliasing” modes. Asobo really put a lot of work into this mode, and it makes everything run quite blazingly fast on my laptop. A powerful desktop PC can probably just use TXAA at the maximum toggle for absolute clarity and quality.

Simulating Realistic Consequences

I found out that enabling “Crash Damage” and “Aircraft Stress Damage” provide more realistic consequences for poor piloting or ignorance. If you should make a rough, off-airport landing, or actually crash your airplane, it will remain in place, skid, roll off a mountain, etc., in a much better fashion than just receiving an annoying message saying you crashed and instantly forcing a reset of your flying session. This keeps the sim running and is a lot more useful when it comes to visualizing the mess you’ve gotten yourself into. I have made some horrendous mountainside “crash” landings in small bush airplanes, only to have gotten blown upright by the winds near summits, and was able to fly again. With crash enabled, you won’t get an unrealistic second chance to fix that kind of mistake.

Controller Options

Assigning common autopilot commands, such as “Hdg Sel,” “Heading Knob,” “Alt,” “VS,” “On/Off”, etc., to an Xbox 360 or Xbox Elite controller is easy. I also have flap handles and gear attached to buttons. This is all in addition to the primary joystick and throttle quadrant I carry with me or the fixed hardware at my house.

Viewing Height

Proper viewing height, “pilot’s-eye view” or pilot’s chair height, is my biggest pet peeve among flight simmers! In order to properly see the world outside, you must readjust the default “far too low” views that the developers have set. I cannot figure out for the life of me why all these sophisticated developers place the default viewing height as if it’s seen from the perspective of a 6-year-old. The fix is very simple, and I have discussed it in previous articles.

You must assign a keyboard key function to “Increase Cockpit View Height,” and “Decrease Cockpit View Height” in the “Cockpit Camera” section. I like “[RIGHT SHIFT] + [UP]” and “[RIGHT SHIFT] + [DOWN].” Just like in any real aircraft, a proper seat height that allows you to see over the panel and down to the runway is the best for flaring. Unfortunately, in a flight sim we don’t get the full 3D effect, so we must compromise a bit by fiddling with the viewpoint before locking it into a memorized viewpoint you can refer to instantly via a keyboard or controller button. I usually base it all on being able to see a small portion of the VSI unit to aid in takeoff and landing. This pretty much lines up with my real eyeballs.

I hope you’ll find these tips and tricks handy and helpful. As always, no flight is complete without using a great set of controls. I would recommend the folks at Sporty’s Pilot Shop, with my first choice being the “flight sim starter set” featuring HoneyComb hardware. 

Also, check out my beginner’s guide on setting up your simulator for the first time.

The post Tips and Tricks for Flight Sims appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

To get a taste of winter, I decided to manually input weather. There are several reasons to make your own weather scenarios:

• I am writing this in Montana, where it was 0 degrees, an early snowstorm blanketed the area, and I was inspired to simulate frigid conditions. Also, the fall foliage plus snow in sim, as in real life, is absolutely stunning. I often simulate weather that matches my location. My obsession for realism goes way back to my early 20s when I would even eat meals based around my worldly locations to simulate me being there. I recall once eating a pineapple because I flew to Hawaii over the Pacific in Track Racer FS3. 

• Real weather works great, but sometimes I may want to make it extra challenging or more realistic than it does by itself. When using real weather, if you’re not in that area, or at least in the exact time zone, you may experience undesirable effects, such as dense fog, as it could be reading that in the middle of the night in Europe even though you’re trying to simulate a daytime flight where you are sitting. It would always be smooth too in this case, not realistically replicating noontime where you may be. 

• I can really start to fine-tune visibility to where photos and sky colors explode. Often, text METARs only read up to 10 miles visibility, so that’s all you may get in the sim. Ten miles is very hazy in the real world, so I love cranking up that to 100 miles, a very realistic setting in most places.

• I am testing and enjoying wind and chop modeling below the clouds, something real pilots see all the time but sims lack. 

To start, I programmed snow cover, powerful winds aloft from the north, temperatures near zero at the surface, some lower scattered clouds that form in arctic air, and perfect visibility. This substantial surface airflow makes for some great low-level jolts, and in the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner add-on that was just released by Horizon Simulations, you can really see the wings flex and bounce! I love this stuff. You can get this free add-on as long as you own the MSFS2020 deluxe version, with the base model 787-10. Horizon Simulations’ 787-9 is available at here.

To enhance your European or any other worldly ATC experience, I love to have this new program running in the background, called “ATC Chatter.” It plays as you fly along with realistic recordings of aircraft and controllers from around the world. You’ll hear ground, tower, center, approach, etc., all with the dialect and accents, depending on automatic or manual selection of the facility. It adds so much background noise and realism that it is my favorite new add-on of the year. It is available here.

In addition, no flight is complete without FSRealistic, available at here. I often speak of this gem. It adds so much in terms of sounds, vibrations, and head motions to all your aircraft.

After breaking in the 787, and really enjoying its realism, enhanced somewhat from the default 787-10 (all the jetliners recently received a great built-in avionics upgrade that was pushed through to all users), I decided to use the Citation Longitude. I love this bizjet as it’s the closest thing to the Challenger 300 I fly in real life. It’s ultramodern, with touch-screen Garmin flight deck avionics and, just like the jetliners, it recently received a complete systems and functional avionics makeover pushed to all users. I have no experience on the real thing, but in asking a buddy of mine who flies a similar Cessna Citation Latitude, it’s all in there. 

So I cruised down to Molde Airport (ENML) in Norway. Another spectacular place to see.

In running MSFS2020, it’s easy to use the icon on the top of the screen to change the weather on the fly, so to speak. You can do all this while not stopping or interrupting your flight, which is a nice feature. I will often tweak back the time a bit to lengthen the “golden hour” because it’s so nice. I may also change the winds quickly to try variable conditions.

Grabbing a Cessna on skis to further explore the region was a must. I used the WB-Sim-modified Cessna 172 to up the ante. This great add-on can be had here. I ditched the glass cockpit and flew a traditional steam six pack. Toggling the added landing gear knob raises or lowers the ski set, allowing landings on snow, ice, or frozen lakes. All is simulated quite well in MSFS2020. One of my favorite activities is  landing on a snowy mountain slope and using power to maintain place. There may be no brakes or a slope so great that the only hope of staying planted in one spot is the throttle! Finding that sweet spot to keep yourself from sliding off a mountain is exciting.

So there it is, a taste of the high-latitude beauty of Norway. This is only a tidbit of what awaits you and all the incredible beauty to explore. MSFS2020 also has wildlife zones to see that are shown on the world map. I was so distracted by this stopover that now I feel like doing a lot more flying over Scandinavia. Soon the long, dark winter will take hold, prolonging the “golden hour” for several months. It’s a great time to take endless screenshots of your adventures all while worrying about winter weather. 

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