Beginners Guide and Tips from Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator delivers on a great promise, allowing you to explore almost every inch of the earth from the skies.

If you are a newcomer to the fltsimulator simulation genre, who would like to see and see the sights, this may not be so easy at first. It’s worth it to master a few basics early on.

Polygon’s Microsoft Flight Simulator beginners guide will give you the foundations you need to take care of. Before exploring the sky to see everything, check out these essential tips on flying, navigating and controlling the camera.

Complete the Flight Training first

Microsoft Flight Simulator is, without surprise, a realistic fltsimulator. Unlike an arcade flying game, there is a lot you need to know before you can even step up properly. Everything you need to know to take in the air, stay up here and land safely is explained in detail in Flight Training department.

Image: Asobo Studio / Microsoft Corporation via Polygon

While it is hardly exciting to recommend that everyone dive into training mode first, it is essential. Flight Training covers almost every concept it deserves, and it’s designed to get you up and running as quickly as possible. At the same time, it explains a handful of controls that may not be intuitive, especially if you plan to play this game with a controller. These eight and short exercises will familiarize you with basic controls, navigation, and landing.

Completing flight training takes about 30-40 minutes, and by the time you are ready, you should feel confident enough to fly around the world on your own.

Which aircraft to use

In Flight Training you will exclusively use the Cessna 152, which has a cruise speed of 107 KTAS (knots actual air speed). As you have learned in your lessons, that speed range is reasonably good for cruising in a small area. If you want to cover more ground, you need a faster plane.

In this section, we will discuss the types of aircraft Microsoft Flight Simulator, and give you some ideas on when and why you might want to use them.

Propeller aircraft

Image: Asobo Studio / Microsoft Corporation via Polygon

Propeller planes like the Cessna 152 are great for low and relatively slow. If you are planning sightseeing in dense areas such as cities or trying to find where you live, choose a propeller plane with a cruise speed of less than 150 KTAS.

Turboprops

Image: Asobo Studio / Microsoft Corporation via Polygon

Turboprops are similar to propeller planes, but they are twice as fast and have double the maximum height. These are good planes to go after after you are comfortable with propeller planes. They are also a good fit if you want something faster, such as if you are going over larger areas of land such as mountains, large forests, or large lakes.

Airplanes and jets

Image: Asobo Studio / Microsoft Corporation via Polygon

To cover longer distances, consider stepping into an airline or jet. Both options have doubled the air speed of the aircraft you learned the basics about and can climb to more than three times the altitude. Both options have similar speeds, but treat differently because of their size. Some flight attendants have much larger fuel reserves, in case you are simulating the feeling of an intercontinental flight from the comfort of your home computer.

How to fly everywhere?

One of the most exciting aspects of Microsoft Flight Simulator is the ability to fly anywhere in the world. Setting up the skies above some of the most beautiful sights in the world – or even your home – is easy, but there are a few things you need to know first.

Most of the largest landmarks in the world are mentioned Points of interest. If your goal is to check out famous places or natural wonders, then you should only look for them in the World Map / Free Flight wise.

Image: Asobo Studio / Microsoft Corporation via Polygon

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 have found your location, the map zooms 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 points of arrival and finding a suitable airport.

To see how your home is modeled, check out our guide on finding where you live Microsoft Flight Simulator.

How to use active pause

Active pause is a feature that you may have seen recommended on a loaded screen, but it is not tied to any key, so you may not know how to use it.

Image: Asobo Studio / Microsoft Corporation via Polygon

You can take active breaks stop the movement of your plane and look around. Switching to the normal pause menu by pressing the Escape key on your keyboard or pausing on your controller brings up your options and hides everything. However, if you want to stop the action and watch it for a while, you need to bind your Active Pause function to a key.

The Control key works well because the game does not use it, and it is at the bottom of your keyboard, which makes it quick and easily accessible.

Image: Asobo Studio / Microsoft Corporation via Polygon

We put the shot above in with Active Pause. With the feature enabled, we orient the external camera (by clicking on the View button on our Xbox One controller) and set the position of the sun to the correct height by changing the weather settings in the toolbar.

This feature is also great if you are trying to find your home and you need to take a moment to search to find it.

Have fun with the ATC options

Before you leave for your flights, you need to make sure that you are the ATC options. Changing these air traffic control settings will not have a big impact on your flight, but they can give you a little fun with the radio messages you hear while flying.

Image: Asobo Studio / Microsoft Corporation via Polygon

Whatever you write as you tail number will appear on the back of your aircraft. You can add a few letters or numbers here. This does not really make a difference, but it’s nice to see your name as favorite numbers on the side of your plane.

Dyn call sign is usually a set of identifying characters that the air traffic control team will use to identify you over the radio. Any letters you use in your call sign will be exclaimed with the phonetic alphabet, but if you write in a short word, chances are they will say so instead. Short names and words work great, though we found that profane language is replaced by a generic call sign.