July 9th, 2020 Development Update - Microsoft Flight Simulator

Screenshot by CaseBug92496684

As the month of July continues, our next big deliverable has arrived!

Alpha 5 has been released, and Closed Beta has moved into final testing.

Wishing everyone the very best of health and happiness!

– MSFS TEAM

ALPHA 5 HAS BEEN RELEASED!

Welcome the Microsoft Flight Simulator Alpha 5 (build 1.5.4.0)!

In this update you’ll find improved content, bug fixes, and an updated list of known issues.

A note from the development team:

This update is focused primarily on community feedback, bug fixes, and an overall polish pass.

All planes have received another round of polish and tuning. We continue to triage bugs and reset priorities when needed. You should also find an updated round of polish (on-going) to the world, airports, scenery, and the weather.

We are hard at work focused on community feedback, polish, polish, and more polish. Please keep the feedback coming as we genuinely value the community’s help improving the overall flight-experience!

Improved Content

FLIGHT MODEL

The engine/propeller effects on all propeller planes has been improved for P-Factor, Torque, Gyro-Precession, and Prop Wash
Flap lift and drag adjustments across all planes were made
Belly landings are now possible for the Bonanza G36
Overall A320 Fly By Wire (FBW) improvements continued
TBM 930 Engine torque adjustments made
Ongoing improvement to the ground effect formula to improve the overall “realism”

Community Feedback and Fixes

THANK YOU FOR YOUR FEEDBACK!

TBM 930:

The radio altimeter would continue to give indications regardless of the set bank angle

AIRPORTS

[KMLB] Many taxiway signs were missing or were far away from the runway
[EDDN] Users identified issues with several buildings, including some that were missing, that have now been corrected

[GMMX] Users identified issues several buildings, including some that were missing, that have now been corrected
General Improvement passes made to our procedurally generated airports to add any missing towers based on locations identified by users

PERIPHERALS:

Pilots were reporting difficulty to understand or figure out how to delete their individual peripheral mappings. Please try again and let us know if the changes made have improved this.

X52 Pro was reported as non-intuitive – we made efforts to improve the mapping and the trim controls to help

WEATHER

Inconsistencies were reported between what was listed on the load screen and what appeared in game

Plane Specific Changes/Improvements

A320neo

Vertical Speed (VS) improvements:

No longer using pitch to aim target speed but corrected to use thrust instead
VS no longer decreased upon activation of VS mode
Stall warning no longer triggers when in Alpha protection
Speed mode now correctly toggles when reaching the cruise altitude
Fixed that the aircraft was sometimes not following its approach when reaching a transition
Engaging the AP1 button would also engage AP2 – this is no longer true
Auto Pilot was too aggressive – this has been tuned and improved
Engines used to shut down when adjusting fuel mid-flight
Improvements to APPR mode, fixed some issues where it was not working correctly
We had a regression issue found in how the plane would level off in the last update, this is now working as intended

B747-8i

Vertical Speed (VS) Improvements:
Vertical Speed was not behaving as expected and would cause the plane to climb and descend erratically
Using ALT mode would still allow control of the vertical speed selection
We found animation issues with the wheels, now fixed
We found that when spawning the aircraft, the front wheel would sometimes spawn in the air – now corrected
FLT number now uses up to 7 characters as expected
Overspeed warning no longer announces when under the cruise speed
Speed protections are now working
Auto throttle was not reaching the target speed during a climb
Worked on aircraft overshooting turns when following the flight plan
The check list is no longer missing the steps that enable the engine generators
Adjusting the trim was having no effect in flight

DA40

The glass cockpit waypoints now show correctly in the map and on the toolbar
We corrected the Low Volt displayed after completing the checklist

BONANZA G36

Audio: The engine audio on startup is now correctly synced to the engine startup
Following the checklist, it was impossible to read the RPM because the MFD was OFF
The Alternators 1 and 2 are no longer ON when starting from Cold and Dark

TBM 930

You are now able to tune the NAV Radios using the touch screen
The NAV screen sometimes showed flight plan errors and artifacts, improvements have been made here
The tuned VOR was not giving a bearing
Checklist issues:
Prop RPM and TRQ was not achieving goals
The engine was not turning off because the throttle was not reaching the Cut Off position

Airport Specific Changes

AIRPORTS

ZBAA – There is a large green texture on the ground in the ZBAA Beijing airport
KMCO – Landing Ribbons do not remain solid at KMCO Orlando International
LXGB – Road traffic crossing over LXGB airport
VQPR – Service vehicles fall from the sky when departing from Parking 20 at the VQPR Paro airport
KLAX – Wrong departure runway at KLAX

Bug Fixes and QoL Improvements

ALL PLANES

Auto Pilot was causing many aircraft to “rock” from left to right when ON
The “Landing Gear” alert was spamming when at 16,000 MLS

AIRLINERS

Mach Speed Management – we found issues that were affecting overall airliner performance that are now fixed. Mach numbers should now be more consistent
Vertical Speed logic improved – the aircraft was only following the vertical speed and would not adjust for speed. This was having a negative effect on the Auto Pilot functionality. This has now been fixed but let us know if there are any other autopilot issues of which we should be aware
Airliners should now be managing speed correctly – this was previously causing the aircrafts to overshoot their designated speeds

Live Air Traffic

Live Air Traffic was only representing one or no planes during Free Flight
Navigation Lights used to detach from the Live Planes
We were missing pilots in the live planes – now we are not…

Cameras

The 3rd person camera would shake when performing 45° degree turns
Multiple Instrument Camera Controls were lacking functionality
The user would get stuck while looking at instruments combined with the Right Click + Drag free look in Cockpit view

Flight Director

The Flight Director was not always in sync with the activation of the FD button at the start of a flight
Users were unable to turn off the Flight Director in some aircraft during flight

COCKPITS AND INSTRUMENTATION

Issues fixed with the altimeter “jumping” during flight
G1000: Auto-tuning the NAV Radio on a G1000 used to default to NAV1 instead of the selected radio
G1000: the approach drawn after setting the direct to or classic-flight plan was not correct
Glass Cockpits: Tooltips were corrected

MULTIPLAYER

Issues fixed that were preventing pilots from seeing other pilot’s planes during flight
Existing friends would display as disconnected in the friends list after launching the game
Making changes to the Custom Weather settings was not applying those changes to all group members in a Multiplayer Session

Known issues

A320neo

The aircraft speed does not maintain when changing altitude in the managed mode
The NAV mode only activates when also activating the autopilot

B747-8i

AUTO BANK gives bank angles that are too low (e.g. 5° instead of 25-30°)
Once speed targets change to Mach, multiple interactions are then required to get your speed to follow the target

DA40 NG

Cannot currently clear “Direct To” flight plan in the DA40NG
The aircraft is currently rocking left and right during navigation

GRAND CARAVAN

Autopilot currently overshoots too much to reach the FPL leg

TBM 930

Airport info doesn’t appear when selected in the nearest airport list
You are currently unable to monitor COM2 in the TBM 930 without also using ATC window
The aircraft doesn’t follow the flight path during steep turns (smoothed trajectory)