12 Tips and Tricks for Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator is an incredibly close piece of software. I hesitate to call it a game myself, because it really requires players to know their way around a plane. But there are a few ways to make the experience easier for yourself, especially if you are just starting out.

Here Microsoft Flight Simulator manual, we have compiled 12 tips and hidden features to help you get the most out of your first hours with the game.

Start in the air

My first instinct with Flight Simulator was to start my first game session already on the track, staring at the midline and ready to start. But getting an airplane into the air can be intimidating, especially if you do not know how to handle it. So I advise you to start your first few flights already in the air.

To start mid-air, click anywhere on the World Map next to an airport and select “Set as Departure.” That will start your journey over 1500 meters high, all at a safe cruise speed.

Once you get a handle on how your controls work – including pitch, yaw, roll and throttle – it’s time to dive into the Flight Training tutorial. Feel free to do the first five modules at your own pace, but stop short of lesson six – your first solo flight. It’s a bit hinky and requires more precision than you’re probably capable of now.

Make a flight plan

Some Microsoft Flight SimulatorThe best features do not work unless you have first made a flight plan. So, now that you know how to get on and off, it’s time to pick up a few airports and get started.

Select from the World Map both a departure and a arrival airport on the world map and get to work. Just make sure they are relatively close at first.

Taxi with assistance and control for air traffic

With an embedded flight plan, you know that Flight Simulator is the default to place you on a job that is ready to boot. But, to get the full experience, think about starting at a gate or in a parking lot. You can access this option via the drop-down menus directly below the airports for departure and arrival on the world map.

Starting and ending a trip with taxis on and off the runway can really add to the immersion of playing a pilot, but actually finding your way around the asphalt can be a pain. That’s why I believe in the built-in Assistance features to help me out. From the Welcome screen, tap the Options tab at the top. Then select the Assistance menu, select the root root left of Navigation Aids, and turn the Taxi lint option on. You can also get there from a similar Assistance menu on the Skoft Skoft once you start flying.

For the taxi ribbon to appear – and really lead you to your assigned job – you need to communicate with air traffic control (ATC). To do so, open the ATC interface (available in the quick access menu at the top of the screen) and request pushback, taxi delay, permission to ‘get off’, or any combination of the previous one you get assigned to a runway. Just forget about recognizing the tower when you finally get approval.

Use a virtual copilot and waypoint helppoint

Alternatively, you can ask your virtual copilot to operate the radio if you are worried about driving.

Up in the quick access menu you will find an icon shaped like a pilot’s headline. Clicking on it will open a menu. Change the Manage Radio Comms option to turn on your copilot. Now when you approach your destination, they will record radio to get to your country. You can even give them control over the plane if you have to step away for a few minutes.

Once you reach your destination airport, Microsoft Flight Simulator assuming you know which job is which. This is especially challenging at larger airports with multiple, intersecting landing strips. If you need help getting your bearings, go to the pause menu, hit the Assistance tab and play with the settings within the drop-down to the left of the Navigation tab to choose things to your liking.

Route & Waypoints will give you floating markers in the air to follow your full speed path. Landing path will direct you to the right lane, helping you to get on the right glide path for definitive approach.

Condense long trips with Travel To

Another handy feature for longer flights works a lot as time passes, yet it is actually much more elegant. And only works if you have signed up for a flight plan.

Up along the quick access menu you’ll find an icon that looks like a slightly teardrop-shaped card pin. This is the Travel to tabs. It does not move you from place to place because it moves you between the different phases of your flight plan, switching from Takeoff or Cruise to Approach or Final. Using this feature is a great way to condense a cross-country trip in a cool 30 minutes.

The animals are fine

In the promotional videos for Microsoft Flight Simulator, developers showed off a bush airplane next to a herd of flamingos. They are absolutely in the game, along with grizzly bears, elephants, and more. But there is not much chance that you will find them on your own.

Type “Fauna” on the World Map in the search bar on the left, and it will bring up a list of where you can find animals Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Once you are in the air, go back to the pause menu and hit the Assistance tabs. There, under the drop-down menu Navigation menu, switch to the option for “Faunamarkers. Now your giraffes or seagulls will be much easier to find than what you were looking for.

Use Active Pause for nice screenshots

Another handy feature in Microsoft Flight Simulator is called Active Pause. This allows you to stop your plane at noon and change everything from the time of day to the type of weather you are flying in. It’s also a great way to get screenshots.

You will find Active Pause under the Pause menu, behind the Controls tab and the Menu drop down, where the default is for the Pause button on a full-size keyboard. You can assign it to any button you want. Just be careful when using it at low speeds or at low altitudes, as it tends to send you to a nasty stall once you return with the flight.

Receive TrackIr

The cockpits in Flight Simulator can be very claustrophobic, but they are actually full of useful dials and functioning switches. Use the scroll wheel on your mouse to get a wider view, or buy TrackIr … which gives you a neck.

TrackIr uses the same kind of infrared technology that made the Wii motion controllers so fun to use. You attach an emitter to your headset and a receiver to the top of your monitor. With the calibration program, you can then translate small movements of your real head into large movements of your pilot’s head in-game.

Show name tags and gamertags of air traffic

Flying in multiplayer is a lot of fun, but small planes and enormous distances can make it difficult to find each other in-game. To make things easier for yourself, go to the General tab of the Options menu and click the Traffic button. Once there, enable the highlighted setting Show traffic type plates. In large friendly letters above their airplane-in-game, will list the gamertag and the height of the friends you fly with.

How to land an airplane?

Microsoft Flight Simulator only comes with a tutorial that teaches you how to land a single plane – the all-winning Cessna 152. But the base game itself comes packed with dozens of different planes. So how do you learn to land an airliner without your Google search history getting you on an FBI list? With a function called Landing path. You’ll find it again in the pause menu, under the Assistance tab, in the Navigation menu.

To practice a jumbo jet, you choose a departure time and an airport of arrival that are about the right size. Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports fit the bill. Since they are relatively close together, your loading times will be a bit faster because you have less environmental data to pull out of the cloud when you use the Travel To feature.

Once in the game, simply open the Travel To tab again to move yourself to the Approach or Final phase of your flight plan. While you’re close to the airport, Flight Simulator will set up a series of glowing hooks to help guide you through.

Satellite overlay

The world map in Microsoft Flight Simulator is quite hilly, with a single muted gray color to represent the land masses all over the world. You can switch this over to a satellite overlay instead. It’s low resolution, but it will give you a little more visual information when you try to land in specific parts of larger areas. Maybe you’re just trying to find your home, or maybe you want to see a certain section of the Nile River delta or the Grand Canyon.

To turn it on, go to World Map, select Open filters from the bottom of the screen, and switch the background map from IFR to Satellite.

Move menus with multi-monitor support

Lastly, once you are comfortable with all the different features of the game like ATC, navigation preview and GPS maps, you should have more than one window open on your screen at a time. For some, that means shrinking the game into a larger mode on a larger screen. in addition Microsoft Flight Simulator supports native multi-monitor setup.

To pop up these pop-up menus, simply press the middle button in the top right corner of the window – the one with the up and down arrows. Once done, you can drag the window anywhere on your desktop.