microsoft simulator flight

USE A VIRTUAL CO-PILOT AND WAYPOINT ASSISTANCE

Alternately, you could ask your virtual co-pilot to work the radio while you worry about driving.

Up on the quick-access menu, you’ll find an icon shaped like a pilot’s head. Clicking on it will open a menu. Toggle the Manage Radio Comms option to turn on your AI co-pilot. Now when you approach your destination, they’ll radio in to get you clearance to land. You can even give them control of the plane if you need to step away for a few minutes.

Once you reach your destination airport, Microsoft Flight Simulator assumes that you know which runway is which. That’s especially challenging at larger airports with multiple, intersecting landing strips. If you need help getting your bearings, head to the pause menu, hit the Assistance tab, and play with the settings inside the drop-down to the left of the Navigation tab again to dial things in to your liking.

Route & Waypoints will give you floating markers in the sky to follow all along your flight path. Landing Path will even direct you down to the right runway, helping you get onto the right glide path for final approach.

CONDENSE LONG TRIPS WITH TRAVEL TO

The menu at the top of the screen, showing the Travel To tab and the Travel To map.

Another handy feature for longer flights works a lot like time-lapse, yet it’s actually much more elegant. And only works if you have a flight plan dialed in.

Up along the quick-access menu again, you find an icon that looks like a little teardrop-shaped map pin. This is the Travel To tab. It doesn’t move you from place to place so much as it moves you between the different phases of your flight plan, skipping from Takeoff or Cruise to Approach or Final. Using this feature is a great way to condense a cross-country trip into a cool 30 minutes.

TAXI WITH ASSISTANCE AND AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL

A twin-engine plane taxiing at O’Hare Airport.

With a flight plan locked in, know that Flight Simulator defaults to placing you on a runway ready to take off. But, to get the full experience, think about starting at a gate or in a parking space. You can access that option via the drop-down menus directly below the Departure and Arrival airports on the World Map.

Beginning and ending a trip by taxiing on and off the runway can really add to the immersion of role-playing a pilot, but actually finding your way around the tarmac can be a pain. That’s why I lean on the built-in Assistance features to help me out. From the Welcome screen, hit the Options tab at the top. Then select the Assistance menu, select the drop down caret to the left of Navigation Aids, and turn the Taxi Ribbon option on. You can also get there from a similar Assistance menu on the Pause screen once you start flying.

For the taxi ribbon to appear — and actually guide you out to your assigned runway — you’ll need to communicate with air traffic control (ATC). To do that, open up the ATC interface (available on the quick-access menu at the top of the screen) and request pushback, clearance to taxi, permission to take off “straight-out,” or whatever combination of the previous gets you assigned to a runway. Just don’t forget to acknowledge the tower when you do finally get clearance.

COMPLETE THE FLIGHT TRAINING FIRST

Microsoft Flight Simulator is, unsurprisingly, a realistic flight simulator. Unlike an arcade flying game, there’s a lot you need to know before you can even take off properly. Everything you need to know to take off into the sky, stay up there, and land safely is explained in detail in the Flight Training section.

The Flight Training menu in Microsoft Flight Simulator — Complete all eight exercises and you’re set

While it’s hardly exciting to recommend that everyone dive into training mode first thing, it’s essential. Flight Training covers nearly every concept worth knowing, and it’s designed to get you up in the sky as fast as possible. At the same time, it explains a handful of controls that might not be intuitive, especially if you’re planning on playing this game with a controller. These eight and short exercises will familiarize you with basic controls, navigation, and landing.

Completing Flight Training takes roughly 30-40 minutes, and by the time you’re done, you should feel confident enough to fly around the world on your own.

WHICH PLANES TO USE

In Flight Training, you’ll exclusively use the Cessna 152, which has a cruise speed of 107 KTAS (knots true airspeed). As you’ve learned in your lessons, that speed range is fairly good for cruising around a small area. If you want to cover more ground, you’ll need a faster plane.

In this section, we’ll discuss the types of planes in Microsoft Flight Simulator, and give you some ideas about when and why you might want to use them.

PROPELLER PLANES

Propeller planes like the Cessna 152 are great for flying low and relatively slow. If you plan on sightseeing around dense areas like cities or trying to find where you live, pick a propeller plane with a cruise speed of less than 150 KTAS.

TURBOPROPS

Turboprops are similar to propeller planes, but they’re twice as fast and have double the maximum altitude. These are good planes to move up to after you’ve gotten comfortable with propeller planes. They’re also a good fit when you want something faster, like when going over larger stretches of land like mountains, large forests, or big lakes.

AIRLINERS AND JETS

To cover longer distances, consider stepping into an airliner or jet. Both options have quadruple the airspeed of the plane you learned the basics on and can climb to more than three times the altitude. Both options have comparable speed but handle differently due to their size. Some airliners have much larger fuel reserves, in case you feel like simulating an intercontinental flight from the comfort of your home computer.

HOW TO FLY ANYWHERE

One of the most exciting aspects of Microsoft Flight Simulator is the ability to fly anywhere in the world. Setting off to the skies above some of the world’s most beautiful sights — or even your home — is simple, but there are a few things worth knowing first.

Most of the world’s major landmarks are called Points of Interest. If your goal is to check out famous places or natural wonders, then all you need to do is search for them in the World Map / Free Flight mode.

Searching for a landmark in Microsoft Flight Simulator

If your destination is a famous landmark, you can easily find it by using the search function from the map screen in Free Flight mode. Once you’ve found your location, the map will zoom in on it, allowing you to set it as a departure point or arrival area. In our guide to finding famous landmarks, we recommend setting Points of Interest as arrival points and locating a suitable departure airport.

To see how your house has been modeled, check out our guide on finding where you live in Microsoft Flight Simulator.