The Flight Simulator Edition

Sean Siff (SS) is a private pilot who has worked in marketing in the aviation industry.

Flight simulator software today, like the venerable Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, offer near photo-realistic digital aviation experiences that can be enjoyed from home. Photo by the author during a recent flight.

Sean here. Have you ever looked skyward, watched a small airplane fly overhead, and thought about learning to fly? Perhaps you marveled at the magic of the four forces of flight on display passing over you and concluded that it is just a little too far out of reach. 

I know the feeling. Like many kids, I wanted to learn to fly for as long as I can remember. My obsession with flight began as a boy and continued through to my 14th birthday. After two years of occasional flying lessons, I was one of the few fortunate high school students who got to fly a small airplane solo before I could even drive myself to the airport. (Thanks to my mother and father for driving me to my flight lessons until I got my driver’s license.) To supplement my two flight lessons per month, I purchased my first joystick, which I paired with an early color version of Microsoft Flight Simulator. Back in the ‘90s, the comparatively simple software allowed me to explore the digital world, and to practice some basic maneuvers taken from my real-life flight lessons. I was part of the first generation of gamers who could take part in a gaming experience from home and didn’t have to go to an arcade, where flight simulation experiences were few and far between.  

Why is this interesting?

Today we are living in the golden era of home flight simulation. Two main factors brought about this moment: the first was the re-launch of the fabled software, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (abbreviated to MSFS) in August of 2020. This introduced the world of aviation to a captive audience of Microsoft Xbox users and home PC gamers when most of the world was largely stuck at home during COVID-19. The second factor was the pre-COVID surge in Bitcoin mining that caused renewed demand for home PC gaming equipment and computers. Having weathered the same supply chain challenges as other consumer electronics categories, home gaming computers and their parts are largely back in stock today. 

During COVID, millions of users felt the desire to explore our world from the air again, and MSFS helped fulfill that need. The net result of this resurgence in the popularity of flight simulation was that MSFS reached a new generation of aviation enthusiasts: 12 million global users since launch, to be exact. The popularity of MSFS is so widespread that I expect a cohort of future pilots to claim that their first exposure to aviation was through a digital flying experience, something I wrote about in FLYING Magazine. Furthermore, MSFS has found a way to draw in a wider audience with software expansion packs timed around the launch of recent blockbusters, like Top Gun Maverick and Dune II. Who among us hasn’t at least wondered what it is like to catch the third wire on the aircraft carrier, or outfly a mammoth sandstorm on Arrakis in an Ornithopter? 

MSFS is so visually compelling because it uses highly detailed models and sophisticated photogrammetry available for many of the earth’s major urban centers, which means that exploring your world from above has never been as easy or as detail-rich of an experience. You may even be able to find your house, or at least a squishy, somewhat low-res polygon-shaped version of it.

Enjoying a high-fidelity digital aviation experience from your home matters, because a real airplane is not an ideal classroom. This won’t become obvious until you take your first flight lesson, and experience the incredible sensations of being carried aloft in the confines of metal wings. It can be overwhelming at first: the feeling of flight, the view of our incredible planet from the air, and the engine noise–though you will wear a pilot’s headset provided to you by your flight school to help reduce that. You can enhance your first real-world flight by trying a simple flight on MSFS from the comfort of your home.   

If you are seeking a new adventure, want to change your perspective, or perhaps want to satisfy the curiosity you had about the world of flight from your childhood, I absolutely encourage you to explore the real world of flight.  After many years, I continue to find the aviation world an inclusive and friendly community made up of people who are willing to help you begin your aviation journey. But if you have a relatively modern home computer or an Xbox, you can supplement that first real-world flight experience with an immersive digital one. (SDS)

(Note from the author: If you’re in need of a flight simulation starter pack, check this one out from Sporty’s pilot shop: https://www.sportys.com/flight-sim-starter-set.html – I am not sponsored by Sporty’s, but I have flown with that hardware before and feel comfortable recommending it.)

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Thanks for reading,

Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Sean (SS)

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