Game Discussions Microsoft Flight Simulator

Buying scenery leaves me cold, but in the future I might look into buying planes. I just hope there will be a segment for lower price but not study-level functionality as I'm not prepared to pay north of €20 for an aircraft.

Yeah 20€ or more for an airplane is too expensive, I do have a crapton of DLC airplanes for IL-2 and Rise of Flight (I just can't resist), but I got almost all of them during sales. Regarding scenery and airports, I also doubt I'll be getting any.

Out of the already shown ones, I'm most interested in the Concorde, but that thing must be very difficult to fly (land) for sure. :)

Where can we see the incoming aircraft? All I know so far is that the first big update will bring helicopters, which will be yet another whole world of fun. Can't wait to get to the choppa!.

edit: just seen it on OA's channel.

As for the 25000 ft, how long would it take to get there?

In such an underpowered plane, far too long. Most likely longer than most of my flights :D

And how much oxygen do you have to bring? :eek:

A crapton for sure... 25K feet is nearing Himalayan kind of altitudes...
 
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I couldn't complete the purchase to give the Kitfox STi a trial. However "shift+Ctrl+F1" is full lean mixture and "shift+ctrl+F2" is incremental lean. There should also be a fuel flow shutoff somewhere - I remember people saying this plane was way overpriced in X-Plane so I never bought it for that (also the panels looked "jobbie" in that version).

BTW - I looked at what images I could find and there didn't look to be a mixture control - I see that the Rotax 915i engine has an engine management system so that might explain it if that is the modelled engine?
 
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I prefer glass cockpits for casual flights to be honest, it is just too convenient. But I do see the appeal of the opposite too, I had great flights in the Shock Ultra.

I have to admit I'd much prefer steam over glass cockpits though; tempted to upgrade my FS2020 version just for the steam planes...

I like both. I tend to prefer steam gauges as I find them easier to read and in general more appealing (although this is highly subjective), but I also like the map and additional info from a glass display.

Maybe that's why my favorite sightseeing airplane is the Flight Design CTSL, not only it looks crude and fragile, making every flight feel like an adventure, but it also has a mix of steam and glass.

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At night though, glass cockpits just look drop dead gorgeous:

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BTW - I looked at what images I could find and there didn't look to be a mixture control - I see that the Rotax 915i engine has an engine management system so that might explain it if that is the modelled engine?

Maybe mixture is auto then, however there should be some way to turn the engine off... The Flight Design CTSL also doesn't have mixture control, but it has a choke to start it up from cold, and a fuel valve to to turn the engine off.
 
I like both. I tend to prefer steam gauges as I find them easier to read and in general more appealing (although this is highly subjective), but I also like the map and additional info from a glass display.

Maybe that's why my favorite sightseeing airplane is the Flight Design CTSL, not only it looks crude and fragile, making every flight feel like an adventure, but it also has a mix of steam and glass.

Yep, I like the CTSL for the very same reasons, but call me blind but I couldn't find the virtual horizon in the instruments panel. Had to use the variometer to trim it and keep it level, good for short hops around, far less for longer flights. In the end I still prefer the DR400, nice, clear indicators, perfect for VFR and compass navigation, easy to keep stable, good forward visibility and great lateral one.
 
Maybe mixture is auto then, however there should be some way to turn the engine off... The Flight Design CTSL also doesn't have mixture control, but it has a choke to start it up from cold, and a fuel valve to to turn the engine off.

Yep, I finally managed to sort out the purchase system and no that airplane doesn't want to stop it's engine! Seriously, not even the keyboard mixture cut it off and as you say, no sign of a fuel cut-off valve. In fact to start the thing I had to use Ctrl+E as the oil pressure was flashing red and there was no sound at all during the start - sound and oil OK after Ctrl+E.

One other annoyance, the reg no doesn't change on the tail.
 
I'm growing a liking for the DR400: easy to fly, very stable, great visibility...it's now my main candidate for my planned tour of Italy. It could take a while.

Having just finished my +-2000NM 'bush trip' in a DR400 all I can say is: great choice! :)

VS3JRAB.png


It started at Luis Eduardo Magalhaes Airport, Mimoso Do Oeste, Brazil, and ended in:

Same with the Saba location in the Caribbean which I did in both the 152 and the 172. That's one short runway! :)

Saba. :) And the trip ended in style with another pilot attempting to squeeze a landing in before me, veering off to the right on touch down, scrambling to clear the rocks, stalling and then just barely recovering before almost slamming into the ocean. Meanwhile another pilot was inexplicably blocking the touch-down point while staring over the ocean. :ROFLMAO: The vid is the last 15NM trip including a full start-up, landing starts at around 12:45. Will have to look for a new tool, the part during the landing has terrible sound and it refuses to record 4K. Mute if you watch! :/

 
Yep, I finally managed to sort out the purchase system and no that airplane doesn't want to stop it's engine! Seriously, not even the keyboard mixture cut it off and as you say, no sign of a fuel cut-off valve. In fact to start the thing I had to use Ctrl+E as the oil pressure was flashing red and there was no sound at all during the start - sound and oil OK after Ctrl+E.

One other annoyance, the reg no doesn't change on the tail.

That's another one. First time it started ok, just turned on battery, alternator, then pressed the starter and it sprung to life, did a test flight with it no issues other than not being possible to turn it off. When I got back to it later, it happened the same as you, no fuel pressure, after starting the engine the oil pressure dropped and engine stalled, never got off the ground. :/ Seems like the plane might be a bit buggy. And some controls are missing. Shame, as it looks nice (even liked the stains on the glass) and will be a fun airplane when it works properly.
 
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Having just finished my +-2000NM 'bush trip' in a DR400 all I can say is: great choice! :)

it's a very cool little airplane indeed! I also like the cockpit on it's Robin sibling the Cap 10, but it's an aerobat, so a bit too twitchy, the DR400 feels more like a "proper" airplane. I love the vintage looks on both.

Saba. :) And the trip ended in style with another pilot attempting to squeeze a landing in before me, veering off to the right on touch down, scrambling to clear the rocks, stalling and then just barely recovering before almost slamming into the ocean. Meanwhile another pilot was inexplicably blocking the touch-down point while staring over the ocean. :ROFLMAO: The vid is the last 15NM trip including a full start-up, landing starts at around 12:45. Will have to look for a new tool, the part during the landing has terrible sound and it refuses to record 4K. Mute if you watch! :/


Nice video and smooth touchdown!
 
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A new 15GB patch just dropped!

PATCH NOTES 1.8.3.0

The primary focus of this patch is to address many of the « in-sim » issues reported by the community. We are constantly triaging the issues/feedback we have received to help plan our future patch work. Feedback from the community is a vital part of how we define our focus for each update. Thank you for all your help and we look forward to continuing working with the community to improve the Microsoft Flight Simulator experience.

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT

  • Optimized cockpit screen display when screens are not displayed on screen.
  • New option available to control cockpit screen update frequency.
  • Tweaked CPU thread priorities to reduce interruption of frame critical threads.
  • Optimized loading system to reduce overall loading times.
  • Optimized heavy airport scenes impact on CPU.
  • Reduced the amount of GPU overdraw to improve GPU performance.
  • Memory optimizations to reduce software memory footprint and improve performance on memory limited computers.
  • Overall performance optimizations.

    ATC

  • Incoming ATC Azure speech has now three different voices.
  • ATC voice gender is now based on the avatar of the pilot/copilot.
  • Fix for the incorrect voice pack being used if the game is not localized in English and if the Windows Offline Text-to-Speech option is used.

    UI

  • Filters and sorting have been improved in the marketplace.
  • Manual cache layout has been improved and the download estimated time should now be correct
  • Improved support for gamepad navigation in many menus
  • Case sensitive search is now working properly in control screen
  • Search by axis in control screen has been fixed
  • Active pause button has been added in the toolbar
  • Pause button has been fixed in the Content manager

    AERODYNAMICS

  • Improved wind turbulence simulation to reduce horizontal turbulences
  • Added simulation of low rpm piston engine vibrations on cockpit
  • Added simulation of water particles (rain/clouds) density in aerodynamics => generates vibrations
  • flying through clouds or rain
  • Fixed wet surface friction and braking distances
  • Fixed live weather wind offset in higher latitude areas (America, Asia…) that was causing the 3kts Wind bug

    PLANES

    Cockpits visuals and animation


  • Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX: AP buttons animations have been fixed
  • Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX, Beechcraft Bonanza G36, ICON A5: placards have been updated
  • Cessna 172 Skyhawk : compass texture have been improved
  • Zlin Savage Cub : tail wheel blur effect is now correctly triggered
  • Zlin Shock Ultra : arcs on airspeed indicator is correctly set
  • Zlin Shock Ultra : turbo mode has been removed from dashboard
  • Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : MCP buttons visual improvements

    General aviation systems

  • Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX : propeller sound has been improved when RPM is changing
  • Cessna Longitude : AP altitude and speed management improvements
  • Cessna Longitude : auto throttle is now inhibited during take off and until 400 feet AGL
  • Daher TBM 930 : yaw damper is now automatically turned on when the AP is enabled
  • Beechcraft King Air 350i : windshield deicing is now working
  • ICON A5 : « incorrect heading indicator » notification is now correctly triggered
  • Zlin Shock Ultra : flaps now operate mechanically instead of electrically
  • Zlin Shock Ultra : trim management improvements
  • Cessna Citation CJ4 : reverse thrust has been removed
  • Cub Crafter X Cub : IAS AP mode is now working properly
  • Daher TBM 930 and Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX : PT6 engines shutdown duration has been increased

    General aviation avionics

  • Cessna Longitude : several knobs of the G5000 are now working
  • Beachcraft Baron G58, Beechcraft Bonanza G36, Cessna 172 Skyhawk G1000, Diamond DA40 NG : fixed missing ALT
  • Beechcraft King Air 350i : « menu » key is now working properly
  • Cessna 152 and 152 Aerobat : avionics state have been fixed using Honeycomb device battery switch
  • GNS 530 : flight plan display alignment has been fixed on the Garmin GNS 530
  • G1000 : automatically switches from NAV to LOC when needed
  • G1000 : ETE and ETA fixed wrong values
  • G1000/3000/3x : AP setup is no longer reset when enabling AP
  • G1000/3000/3x : fixed missing flight plan when the selected departure is coordinates on the world map
  • G3x : text size in « approach box » has been increased
  • G3x : approaches can now be selected and loaded
  • G3x : fixed bad information in nearest VOR page when unknown VOR is selected

    Airliners systems

  • General : AP behavior improvements
  • Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental : rear wheels steering has been fixed
  • Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental : pressing the battery button now always display the ON part
  • Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental : improved flaps deployment and retraction sequences
  • Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : fixed auto-throttle not giving back control to the pilot when disabled
  • Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : center tanks drain first when decreasing fuel quantity via fuel and payload menu
  • Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : auto-throttle is now automatically disengaged when landing
  • Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : auto-throttle now engages correctly during take off roll when conditions are met
  • Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : alt intervention no longer needs to be pressed again when not needed
  • Airbus A320neo : automatic speed management improvements
  • Airbus A320neo : alpha floor condition is now correctly triggered

    Airliners avionics

  • General : weight is better taken into account for V speed calculations
  • Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental : FMC now allows to activate approach without going to route page
  • Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental : approach VREF speeds are fixed
  • Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental : empty rectangles no longer displayed on the FMA
  • Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental : runways are now displayed in correct order in the FMC
  • Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental : cruise altitude no longer automatically filled in the FMC
  • Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : LNAV and VNAV correctly displayed as armed in FMA when conditions are met
  • Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : altitude target on MCP can no longer be set to negative values
  • Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : auto-throttle mode no longer displayed on FMA when auto-throttle is disabled
  • Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : fixed wrong flaps value displayed in the FMC take off page
  • Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : target heading line on ND is no longer reset while in heading mode
  • Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : direct-to flight plans can now be entered in the FMC
  • Airbus A320neo : target altitude can now be changed when AP is disabled
  • Airbus A320neo : armed modes no longer appear in boxes on the FMA
  • Airbus A320neo : flaps « FULL » indication instead of « F » on ECAM
  • Airbus A320neo : FMGS message « INVALID ENTRY » replaced by « NOT ALLOWED »
  • Airbus A320neo : FMGS now only displays arrival procedures corresponding to the selected runway
  • Airbus A320neo : FMGS now correctly displays ETA for approach points
  • Airbus A320neo : removed remaining waypoints on ND after selecting different approach procedures
  • Airbus A320neo : fixed heading bug alignment offset issue
  • Airbus A320neo : fixed missing runway in the perf page of FMGS when a departure runway is already selected
  • Airbus A320neo : fixed constraints flickering on ND
  • Airbus A320neo : FMGS block fuel indication now correctly initialized

    MISCELLANEOUS

  • Fixed freezes caused by glass cockpits
  • Travel to feature no longer disengages autopilot when used

    WEATHER

  • Fixed 225°/3kt issue with inconsistent wind in game
  • Fixed issue with weather persistency on flight restart

    SERVICES

  • Upgraded multiplayer servers

    MARKETPLACE

  • Rating display on bundles has been improved
  • Performance drop after downloading an item in marketplace has been removed
  • An add-on purchased outside of the marketplace no longer has an impact on the "Installed" filter in the marketplace as it is considered as a "community" content

    CONTENT MANAGER

  • Add-on purchased outside of the marketplace now also visible in the Content manager when online, and offline if downloaded in the community folder
  • 3rd Party content thumbnail display improved
  • Pause download during installation is fixed

    LOCALIZATION

  • Various typo fixes in multiple languages

    ACCESSIBILITY

  • Subtitles are now enabled by default
  • Subtitle option has been moved from Sound menu to Accessibility so users can set it during initial install

    CAMERAS

  • Remove rotation clamp on “Instrument cameras”
  • Pilot camera position can now be saved or reset

    BUSH TRIPS

  • Fix leg completion trigger
  • "Completionist" achievement should now unlock when all activities have been completed

    WORLD

  • Detected buildings that intersect roads are now excluded
  • Longer bridges are less prone to having a gap
  • UK city houses models should no longer appear in US suburbs
[*]"In The Wild" achievement can now be unlocked

Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

edit: Microsoft download speeds are still the same though...

edit 2: for figs sake Microsoft... It's like downloading games with eMule in 2001!!!
 
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Mine was 11 and a bit gig, downloaded pretty quick, maybe 30 minutes.

The biggest thing for me would be the improved load times. Maybe they're a bit quicker, but still seems to be slow. Will restart the game and see what happens.
 
Live weather seems to be fixed, this is the first time I start in a storm (after using the precipitation filter to choose the starting location) using live weather.

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I'm not a fan of this update system where Steam says its a small update only to find out it's an over 11 GB update when I launch the game. I aborted the update because I've got unfinished missions in ED that I'll never get to if I dedicate my evening to downloading this monster (on my slow internet). I guess Frontier picked a good time get fix Galnet, since I'll be tabling MSFS until I have time to let my computer download updates for multiple hours.
 
Now that live weather is finally working, and spectacular harsh weathers are now much more common, it's time for me to start avoiding choosing airplanes without de-icing systems when flying in Kamchatka and very cold places in general...

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While the effect is undoubtly cool (and potentially catastrophic), I feel that the speed at which the airplane turns into a Cornetto once you fly through a cloud in cold weather might be a tad overdone... Regardless of that, playing with live weather now produces amazingly gorgeous visual results.

Just learned that an airport can refuse you VFR landing if the weather conditions are bad (in this case was heavy fog), only allowed IFR. This game keeps getting richer and richer :)
 
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Meanwhile there's a new landing challenge, this time is a simple, scenic landing at Nice.

First attempt, landed on the wrong runway (the left one instead of the right). Second attempt, managed to get into 1423th position, so I had to immortalize the moment! :D

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Of course, the challenge just started, so by tomorrow I'll probably be relegated back to 700000th position...
 
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