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.
Starting Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) 40th Anniversary Edition can feel overwhelming. This guide tells you exactly what to focus on during your first hours so you don't waste time on things that don't matter yet. For the full progression path, see our walkthrough.
What Kind of Game Is This?
Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) 40th Anniversary Edition is a simulation game built around Streamed satellite terrain and Live weather and live traffic. The core loop involves mastering these systems to progress through increasingly challenging content.
What to expect: Time investment in learning mechanics, experimentation, and gradual mastery. The game rewards patience and knowledge.
Choosing Your First Build
| Build | Beginner Rating | Why |
|---|---|---|
| General aviation VFR pilot | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Airline pilot | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Bush pilot | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Helicopter pilot | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Sailplane pilot | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
Our recommendation: Start with Airline pilot. It offers the most forgiving experience while teaching core mechanics.
Avoid Sailplane pilot as your first pick. It requires deep knowledge of game systems to use effectively. Once you're ready, check our classes guide for all options.
First Session Step-by-Step
Step 1: Learn 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.
This is the foundation. Spend your first 15-30 minutes getting comfortable with how Streamed satellite terrain works before worrying about anything else. Our combat guide breaks this down further.
Step 2: Head to 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.
Clear the main content here before moving on. Everything teaches fundamentals you'll need later. See our maps guide for all locations.
Step 3: Get Your First Upgrade
Look for Daher TBM 930: it's the most accessible early upgrade. 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.
Step 4: Understand 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.
This is the system most new players overlook. Invest time here early. It pays off throughout the entire game.
Step 5: Push to 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.
Essential Mechanics Explained
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.
Common Beginner Mistakes
1. Blaming the graphics card for blurry terrain when the actual bottleneck is streaming bandwidth
This is a common trap that costs new players significant time.
2. Starting on the A320neo before ever flying a Cessna 172, then not understanding why the autopilot does something unexpected
This is a common trap that costs new players significant time.
3. Holding the stick to maintain level flight instead of trimming, which makes any flight over 30 minutes miserable
This is a common trap that costs new players significant time.
4. Leaving live weather on while practising a specific approach, so no two attempts are comparable
This is a common trap that costs new players significant time.
5. Buying the 2020 title expecting the 2024 release, since Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is a separate product with a separate store page
This is a common trap that costs new players significant time.
First 5 Hours Checklist
- Understand Streamed satellite terrain and Live weather and live traffic
- Choose Airline pilot as starting build
- Clear Innsbruck Airport (LOWI) main content
- Acquire Daher TBM 930 or equivalent upgrade
- Reach Courchevel Altiport (LFLJ)
- 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.
Tips for New Players
- 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.
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 Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) 40th Anniversary Edition Overview
- 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 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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