Weekly Recap

Public testing for Sim Update 5 remains ongoing. Last week we released a new beta build, 1.7.7.0, to volunteer testers from the community. You can read the release notes for this test build here. If you are not currently enrolled in the beta and would like to help assist the dev team by testing the latest pre-release build and sharing feedback and bug reports, you can find instructions on how to join here.

If you are in the beta, please be sure to vote in our forum surveys. This feedback is regularly reviewed by the team and is incredibly valuable to us! Thank you once again to all the volunteer testers from the community!

We recently published a Creator Highlight article about flight sim content creator FlyWithLado. With over 540,000 followers on Instagram, Lado has one of the biggest followings among all MSFS creators! Check out the article here.

Finally, last week flight sim fans gathered together for two separate community-organized Bravo Alpha Romeo events, one in Dallas, Texas and another in Melbourne, Australia! If you — yes, YOU — would like to host a B.A.R. event in your local area, the MSFS Community Team would love to help you with organization! You can join the B.A.R. Organizer Discord server here for more information!

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

We’re off to Africa this week for a picturesque flight in Angola! Starting in Benguela on the coast of the South Atlantic, we’ll make our way generally northbound for a touch & go landing at Waku Kungo and then a full stop at the capital city of Luanda.

See Event Details

Highlights from last week’s Community Fly-In

Last week’s event celebrated the Year of the Horse with a group flight to Shanghai, China!

“It was a nice route, no mountains this time but the scenery was pleasant nonetheless. I especially liked the flooded fields, those looked great. I changed the time and date when we arrived at Shanghai so I would have the fireworks over the city. Also now I know I am a fire rabbit.” – TheHunDude (Forums)

Here are some screenshots from the Fly-In:

Screenshot by Orbitbold

Screenshot by TheHunDude

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!

This week marks a number of National Holidays and Independence Day celebrations including in Estonia, the Dominican Republic, and Kuwait. If you’ve never flown in these regions, or haven’t visited for a while, why not use these special occasions to take a trip in the sim?

Airport of the Day

Today’s Airport of the Day is EDVK! 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 refreshed daily to provide a new spot for simmers to meet and fly.

upcoming Community Events

FlightSimWeekend: Next month the annual FlightSimWeekend” event will take place in Lelystad, Netherlands. This event is held at the Aviodrome Aviation Museum, which will be open for community members to explore alongside the event. The Microsoft Flight Simulator team will be present at the event, where we are looking forward to attending our first dedicated flight simulation event in Europe!

Flightsimweekend website

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

It’s time for another thrilling cinematic experience, brought to you by FlightSim Experience, this time taking the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird to the edge of space! With air-to-air refuelling, go-arounds, and speeds of well over mach 3.5, this video has it all: