Where can I find aircraft documentation describing flight controls, instrument locations, flight characteristics, etc. for default aircraft in MSFS? It’s a feature in a competitive sim. Why is it hard to find in MSFS?
Guess what, their aint no documentation in sim. You can BUY sofly’s manual, i got the firs one, but, it did not cover nearly enough technical stuff in any of the Boeing AP’s. Some of it’s good, but experience trumps lots of it. Youtube is your friend, on procedures in AC’s, no specific documentation on them, but lots of people use CA to teach a process. Just do search on exactly what you want to find on YT, and someone has done video on it. That no manual on this sime is criminal to me. XP11 provides manual, e-mail tips and tricks when you sign up. Yeah scenery is not as good, and outside view of planes (real giveaway is nose wheel, skidding across runway when turning, true for most of them, FSX and maybe MSFS too), tires look flat things like that. But it works way better than MSFS currently.
I have videos like that on the CJ4 (Working Title mod), TBM 930, and Cessna 152 along with other videos on basics of aviation that is a work in progress. thecorporatepilotdad - YouTube
If you want general documentation not specific to an airplane type, check out the FAA’s Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge: Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (faa.gov) This will give a good overview of aviation basics.
For more flight specific topics try this one also: Airplane Flying Handbook (faa.gov)
Yup. YouTube is what I use everytime i jump into a new plane. Some great resources and TCPD a great one 
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I bought Sofly’s manual with the promise of unlimited upgrades, then the sneeked in a new version expecting me to buy it again. No more Sofly ever for me. You can rip me of once!
Forums are good places too to learn a thing or two. Not all of them but there are people with knowledge around if you have specific questions. Physics of aviation don‘t change over night and instrument panels are basically always more or less the same, flight instruments, engine instruments. Procedures don‘t have any consequence in the default airplanes anyway and addons usually come with a manual.
Yeah, I know all about that stuff… it’s just annoying how much you spend for a sim which has no documentation for the users primary interface (the airplane). Seems kinda ridiculous to expect users to look outside the sim to learn how to do things in the sim. Otherwise, what’s the point of the higher price. Graphics?? That’s the same at any level you pay for. Beyond the least expensive version, it adds planes and airports. Shouldn’t those “more expensive” planes have even basic documentation? Saying look elsewhere doesn’t help solve in sim issues.
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And this being moved to “General Discussion” exemplifies MSFS not giving one darn about documentation, which should be provided, but will instead rely on the community to provide that for them for free. Heck, even the defunct Flight Sim World had manuals for each aircraft. Why not Asoso’s MSFS?
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In all honesty, the internet is used all the time to search everything, it‘s not so difficult to get these information with a 3 word google search. Or Bing, for that matter… „cessna 172 panel layout“ „how do wings work“ „VOR navigation explanation“. You downloaded this sim, you have proven that you know how the internet works, the time of thick boxes with extensively printed documentation on how to start an airplane for the first time is over. The reason is simple: hardly anyone requires it and those few who still search for reasons to get angry will have a problem with the manual because it‘s not a ringbook that stays open by itself.
Yeah, rant over.
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The way I see it is that it’s a simulator, not a flight education replacement. Having in depth documentation for all included planes would easily cover thousands of pages of documentation. So they could either offer a very basic documentation which would have you look outside the sim anyway at some point or limit the amount of planes they could offer in depth information for. That’s not even considering this documentation becoming outdated as soon as they update their planes (which they intend to do for the Boeings for example).
The ideal case would be for the sim to be so close to reality that I can use the official POH/FCOM for understanding the systems and flight characteristics of each plane. So I’d rather they invest more time in that instead of duplicating documentation that’s already available.
Just my opinion though.
I agree that the days of printed manuals are over. But that doesn’t mean that the days of manuals in general are over. There is a manual online for the MSFS SDK. Whenever necessary they add some chapters or update sections that are outdated. Great! Why is it asked too much to have something like that for the sim itself?
The FSX included a tutorial that explained how to set up the sim, how airplanes work in general and told us a bit about the included airplanes - everything you needed as a beginner. In addition to that there were these great tutorial lessons that taught us all the basics to get the planes in the air and back down. That was perfect!
Now I am expected to spend hours at youtube to find out how to fire up the engine of my C172 (ok, I’m exaggerating a little). I have to watch a 20 minutes video to get the little piece of information that I was looking for - or to find out that this video wasn’t the right one. Youtube is very entertaining but it eats up so much time. And please don’t tell me I should learn how to use the internet better.
It’s easy to say “hardly anyone requires a manual”. That’s an easy excuse for anything. Production for spoons could be stopped worldwide, because everybody can easily print one for himself on a 3-D printer. Well, yes, that’s true. Or you can drink your soup from a cup…
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All default aircraft have innovative checklists that is very easy to follow, if the game had come with detailed manuals we would probably have to pay 10 $ more for the game.
A manual explains things, a checklist only tells you what button to push. The checklist itself is a great feature, especially when learning your way around the cockpit. However I would gladly pay $10 for a manual (pdf/website/whatever) that would explain how to fly the plane, how to navigate etc… Currently I rely on general aviation documentation (such as the FAA manuals mentioned above), however sometimes the sim works differently than the real world, which at first you are not aware off and it leads to frustration and waste of time.
Amazon has a book on it called tips and tricks for Microsoft flight simulator (fs2020 edition)
Best is to check the documentation from the manufacturer of it’s available. For the TBM 930 you can find it on their website http://www.tbm.aero/, another good source as mentioned are YouTube, just make a check who is doing the tutorial as the quality/knowledge can vary.
I don’t see the point in Asobo/Microsoft to handle such documentation.
Because the default air planes only implement limited functionality/fidelity? Ideally you would read the actual POH and then apply the knowledge in the sim. That doesn’t always work because of limitations in the fidelity of the sim, or missing functionality in the implementation of the avionics. Having some guidance from Asobo/MS in this respect would be helpful. A sort of addendum to the POH. Also, finding the POH of the exact type that is modelled can also be cumbersome.
JustFlight’s Arrows have solved this nicely by adding the performance charts to their documentation. Don’t know if you are familiar with their products, but they include a brief manual, just to get you started and an aircraft performance document, which you can use for planning and flying.
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I understand that viewpoint but usually there is just as much work to keep documentation alive and accurate (given the changes to ongoing) as to create it in the first place. I just think it consumes too much resources to be worth it.
In the past, software was much more static and hence it was much easier to provide documentation. It was also a way to boost the value of a product.
Today, with the resources available on the internet and the community aspect, the need is not there in the same way. I totally understand it would be handy to have, I just don’t think there is a business case for it, given the work/resources it would require.
lol If your are going tp play this game… you have to possess the cranial capacity to figure out things on your own.
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