Weekly Recap

The entire Microsoft Flight Simulator Team wishes godspeed to the crew of Artemis II on their historic space flight to the moon! We know many of you watched the launch yesterday, and if you’re interested in celebrating this mission some more, be sure to join our Community Fly-In Friday group flight this week as we visit Kennedy Space Center in the sim. See the Community section below for more information.

We also want to give a big congratulations to our friends at iniBuilds on the release of their TriStar Airliner add-on this week! Available exclusively from the in-sim Marketplace for USD $49.99, MSFS 2024 pilots can now live their dreams of flying this classic trijet that harkens back to the 1970s.

Public pre-release testing for Sim Update 5 continues with test build 1.7.16.0 being made available late last week to those enrolled in the optional beta. You can read the full release notes for this build on our forums here.

As a reminder from last Thursday’s Weekly Briefing, the next Developer Livestream will be coming up sometime in April (exact date is still TBD). If you would like to pre-submit a question to the panel in advance, you can do so by completing this web form. Be sure to follow our official Twitch channel if you’re not already so you’ll receive a notification whenever we start a public broadcast.

Last but not least, the Marketplace Spring Sale is on now! Enjoy big savings on thousands of add-on products for the next 13 days. If you’ve had your eye on a specific add-on or just want to go impulse shopping for your next favorite aircraft, airport, scenery, or mission pack, don’t miss out on these savings!

Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020): For 13 Days starting on April 2nd, save up to 85% on more than 4300 items.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024: For 13 Days starting on April 2nd, save up to 80% on more than 1000 items.

Check out this week’s NEW and UPDATED releases for both the MSFS (2020) and MSFS 2024 in-sim Marketplaces.

Explore Products

Community Fly-In Friday

On April 1, NASA launched the Artemis II mission from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sending three American and one Canadian astronauts on a trip to the moon! This will be the first time humans travel to the moon since 1972.

To mark this historic occasion, our Community Fly-In Friday group flight this week will see us visit the site of the Artemis II launch at Kennedy Space Center. We will start at KATL, the world’s busiest airport, and then have touch and go landings at Tallahassee and Jacksonville. Our route will also see us over fly the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT Center resorts at Florida’s Walt Disney World!

Optional Payware Add-on: Participants may also choose to purchase the Kennedy Space Center V2 add-on by developer TerraBuilder from the in-sim Marketplace. This add-on allows simmers to see KSC during many different historical NASA eras, including Artemis, and also has the ability to launch rockets! This purchase is entirely optional and is not required to join this fly-in.

See Event Details

Highlights from last week’s Community Fly-In

Last week’s event took place in the Netherlands!

“A fun community flight! I was impressed by the areas that have received a photogrammetry update, looks almost real.” – ElkanDavid (Forums)

Here are some screenshots from the Fly-In:

Screenshot by SparrowJLT

Screenshot by Orbitbold

Weekly Flight Inspiration

The world is a big place! If you’re looking for ideas about where to fly this week, check out our Community Managers’ recommendation here!

With humans returning to the moon on the Artemis II mission, why not take a flight down to Florida and the Kennedy Space Center to see where the crew launched from just yesterday evening?! We highly recommend enhancing this scenery with the payware TerraBuilder Kennedy Space Center scenery, available via the MSFS in-sim Marketplace.

Airport of the Day

Today’s Airport of the Day is EDDF! Head over there and search for fellow pilots in the sky, and feel free to join our Airport of the Day Voice Chat in Discord anytime! The airport refreshes daily to provide a new spot for simmers to meet and fly.

upcoming Community Events

B.A.R Community Check-In – Warbirds Over Wanaka 2026: Popular content creator twotonemurphy has revealed a new B.A.R meetup at the Crosswinds Cade during Warbirds of Wanaka in New Zealand. This is a great spot with view of the air display and is free to access. This will be the first B.A.R event in New Zealand, and we’ll be sure to share more details once the details are finalised!

Regular Community Fly-Ins: If you’re looking to join in with group flights, or even host your own, the best place to begin is via our dedicated Forum category. With a whole host of groups organising regular events, there’s something for everyone! Find more details here.

Community Video

We regularly feature YouTube creator FlightSim Experience in these Weekly Briefing’s, and we’re once again highlighting another incredible video this week! Join them as they fly the Douglas A-1 Skyraider for a low level flight through snowy mountains in this very well put together video: