Microsoft Flight Simulator launched on 18 August 2020 and streams Bing Maps imagery with Azure generated 3D buildings across roughly 37,000 airports. The 40th Anniversary Edition arrived with Sim Update 11 on 11 November 2022 as a free update, adding helicopters, sailplanes, seven historic aircraft and the Airbus A310, taking the roster to 37 flyable machines with individual flight models. Live weather and live traffic feed real conditions into the sim, so a departure into low cloud at 03:00 local is genuinely low cloud at 03:00 local.
This guide covers everything you need: core mechanics, the best builds, equipment worth investing in, location progression, and the tips that actually make a difference.
Core Mechanics
Streamed satellite terrain
Scenery is pulled from Bing Maps and rebuilt in 3D by Azure, with photogrammetry applied to several hundred cities. Microsoft lists 5 Mbps as the minimum connection and around 50 Mbps as ideal, and the difference between those two numbers is visible the moment you fly over a photogrammetry city.
Live weather and live traffic
Real METAR data drives cloud, wind, pressure and temperature, and live traffic can populate the sky with actual flights. Turning live weather off gives you presets instead, which is the sensible choice when practising an approach you keep failing in a crosswind.
Flight planning and ATC
The world map screen builds VFR direct routes, low or high altitude airways and full IFR plans with SIDs and STARs before you load in. The built in ATC then works that plan, issuing clearances, vectors and altitude changes you can accept or ignore.
Assistance and realism sliders
Almost every system can be automated or handed back to you: engine management, taxi ribbon, auto rudder, unlimited fuel, crash detection. The sim ships heavily assisted by default, and turning those off one at a time is the actual difficulty curve.
Rotary wing and sailplane flight models
The 40th Anniversary Edition added the Guimbal Cabri G2 and Bell 407 with a proper helicopter flight model, plus the DG Aviation LS8-18 and DG-1001E neo sailplanes with thermal and ridge lift simulation. Both need control setups that fixed wing flying never asks for.
For a deeper dive into how these systems interact, see our Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) 40th Anniversary Edition combat guide.
Builds Overview
| Build | Tier | Playstyle | Key Stats |
|---|---|---|---|
| General aviation VFR pilot | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Airline pilot | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Bush pilot | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Helicopter pilot | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Sailplane pilot | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
For full build breakdowns with gear and stat priorities, see our Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) 40th Anniversary Edition builds guide. For rankings, check the tier list.
Equipment Guide
| Equipment | Why It Matters | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Cessna 172 Skyhawk (G1000) | The most flown light single in the world and the sim's default trainer. | Learning the basics, VFR sightseeing at 110 knots, and any airfield with a short strip. |
| Daher TBM 930 | A single engine turboprop that cruises above 300 knots and climbs to the low thirties, with a Garmin G3000 touchscreen suite. | Medium and long range flights when you want jet speed with light aircraft workload. |
| Airbus A320neo | The sim's default narrowbody and the aircraft most tutorials use for a first airliner flight. | First IFR flights with SIDs, STARs and an autopilot managed descent. |
| Airbus A310-300 | Added with the 40th Anniversary Edition, a two crew widebody from an earlier generation of airliner design. | Long haul flights and pilots who want more hand work than a modern glass airliner gives them. |
| Guimbal Cabri G2 | A light two seat training helicopter and the gentler of the two rotary aircraft added in the 40th Anniversary Edition. | Learning the hover, which takes most people several hours before it stops being a fight. |
Cessna 172 Skyhawk (G1000): The most flown light single in the world and the sim's default trainer. The G1000 glass cockpit version gives you a moving map and autopilot, while the analogue variant makes you fly with a compass and a chart.
Daher TBM 930: A single engine turboprop that cruises above 300 knots and climbs to the low thirties, with a Garmin G3000 touchscreen suite. It is the fastest way to cross a continent without learning airline procedures.
Airbus A320neo: The sim's default narrowbody and the aircraft most tutorials use for a first airliner flight. The stock version is simplified compared with study level add ons, which is exactly why it is the right place to start.
Airbus A310-300: Added with the 40th Anniversary Edition, a two crew widebody from an earlier generation of airliner design. Its flight management system is older and less automated than the A320neo's, so more of the flight lands on you.
Guimbal Cabri G2: A light two seat training helicopter and the gentler of the two rotary aircraft added in the 40th Anniversary Edition. Its low inertia rotor is unforgiving of clumsy collective work, which is the point.
Full breakdowns in our Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) 40th Anniversary Edition weapons guide.
Location Progression
| Location | Level Range | Key Rewards |
|---|---|---|
| Innsbruck Airport (LOWI) | Intermediate | Valley approach technique, terrain awareness, confidence flying near high ground |
| Courchevel Altiport (LFLJ) | Advanced | Short field landing discipline and a genuine commitment point |
| Tenzing-Hillary Airport, Lukla (VNLK) | Advanced | High altitude performance planning, plus the sim's most famous single approach |
| Princess Juliana International Airport (TNCM) | Intermediate | Low level approach practice, and the beach flyover everyone screenshots |
| Barra Airport (EGPR) | Advanced | Soft field technique, crosswind handling and a genuinely unusual runway surface |
Innsbruck Airport (LOWI): An Austrian airport sitting in a valley with Alps on both sides, which forces a curved visual approach rather than a straight in. Its circling procedures are studied by real airline crews and it is the standard first hard approach in any flight sim.
Courchevel Altiport (LFLJ): A French alpine altiport with a runway around 537 metres long on an 18 percent uphill gradient and no go around once committed. You land uphill and take off downhill, and there is no second chance.
Tenzing-Hillary Airport, Lukla (VNLK): The Everest trekking gateway at roughly 2,845 metres elevation, with a sloped runway near 527 metres ending in a cliff at one end and a mountain wall at the other. Thin air also robs your engine of performance.
Princess Juliana International Airport (TNCM): Sint Maarten, where the approach to runway 10 crosses Maho Beach at very low height. It is an easy landing by any technical measure and the most photographed approach in aviation.
Barra Airport (EGPR): In the Outer Hebrides, the only airport in the world where scheduled flights land on a beach. The three runways are marked with poles and the real timetable moves with the tide.
See our maps & locations guide for detailed area breakdowns and our walkthrough for the optimal progression path.
Tips That Actually Matter
- Set a manual rolling cache in the data options before you fly anywhere twice. The sim streams scenery every flight, so caching the areas you fly often removes the pop in and cuts bandwidth use dramatically on repeat routes.
- Microsoft lists 5 Mbps as the minimum connection and roughly 50 Mbps as ideal. If your terrain looks like grey blobs on approach, that is bandwidth rather than your graphics card, and lowering render distance will not fix it.
- Turn assistance options off one at a time rather than all at once. Auto rudder, taxi ribbon, engine automation and assisted takeoff each hide a specific skill, and switching them off individually shows you exactly which one you never learned.
- Trim is the single biggest gap between new sim pilots and comfortable ones. A trimmed Cessna 172 holds altitude with no control input at all, and fighting the stick to hold level flight is the reason most people find long flights exhausting.
- For repeatable practice, switch live weather to a preset. Real METAR changes hour to hour, so an approach you failed in a 20 knot crosswind may be calm the next time you try it, which teaches you nothing.
- In the helicopters, bind the collective to a proper throttle axis and reverse it. Trying to hover on a spring loaded joystick throttle is the reason most people bounce the Cabri G2 off the pad and give up.
- The sailplanes visualise thermals and ridge lift in the sim's weather overlay, so gliding is a reading exercise before it is a flying one. Launch by winch or aerotow, find the column, then circle inside it rather than chasing altitude in a straight line.
- The 40th Anniversary Edition also brought back 24 classic missions from earlier Flight Simulator releases along with 25 handcrafted airports, 4 classic commercial airports, 14 heliports and 15 glider airports. Those missions are the most structured content in an otherwise open ended sim.
- World Updates are free and improve terrain, buildings and airports region by region, starting with Japan, then the United States, then the United Kingdom and Ireland. Install the ones covering areas you actually fly rather than all of them, since each costs disk space.
- The Dune expansion released free on 3 November 2023 added an ornithopter and Arrakis, which is worth knowing simply because it is the one aircraft in the sim that does not obey ordinary flight planning.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Blaming the graphics card for blurry terrain when the actual bottleneck is streaming bandwidth.
- Starting on the A320neo before ever flying a Cessna 172, then not understanding why the autopilot does something unexpected.
- Holding the stick to maintain level flight instead of trimming, which makes any flight over 30 minutes miserable.
- Leaving live weather on while practising a specific approach, so no two attempts are comparable.
- Buying the 2020 title expecting the 2024 release, since Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is a separate product with a separate store page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the 40th Anniversary Edition separate paid content?
No. It shipped on 11 November 2022 as a free update alongside Sim Update 11, and existing owners received the helicopters, sailplanes, historic aircraft and A310 at no cost. The store editions were simply renamed to carry the 40th Anniversary label.
Is this the same as Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024?
No. App 1250410 is the 2020 title. Flight Simulator 2024 is a separate release with its own store page, its own install and its own career mode, and owning one does not give you the other.
Which edition should I buy?
Standard covers the core sim and the majority of aircraft. Deluxe adds 5 more aircraft and 5 more handcrafted airports, Premium Deluxe adds 10 of each including the Boeing 787-10 and airports such as London Heathrow and Dubai. The base sim is the same in all three.
Do I need an internet connection to fly?
You can fly offline, but scenery falls back to much lower detail base data because the satellite imagery and Azure buildings are streamed. Live weather, live traffic and photogrammetry cities all require a connection.
Do I need a yoke and rudder pedals?
No. The sim is playable on mouse and keyboard and comfortable on any joystick or gamepad. Rudder pedals matter most for helicopters and crosswind landings, and a throttle quadrant matters most for multi engine aircraft and for the helicopter collective.
More Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) 40th Anniversary Edition Guides
- Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) 40th Anniversary Edition Best Builds
- Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) 40th Anniversary Edition Tier List
- Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) 40th Anniversary Edition Walkthrough
- Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) 40th Anniversary Edition Beginner's Guide
- Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) 40th Anniversary Edition Tips & Tricks
- Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) 40th Anniversary Edition Weapons Guide
- Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) 40th Anniversary Edition Combat Guide
- Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) 40th Anniversary Edition Boss Guide
- Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) 40th Anniversary Edition Maps & Locations
- Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) 40th Anniversary Edition Crafting Guide
- Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) 40th Anniversary Edition Classes & Characters
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