hi everyone,
im having trouble installing third party freeware addon aircraft into msfs 2020. i download the aircraft of my interest into my downloads folder and i have my community folder in the correct location i checked. well i unzip the aircraft zipfile and extract it to the community folder within the sim but when i do i boot up the sim and check and the aircraft i just downloaded and installed into the community folder doesnt show up in the aircraft stock list. i dont know what to do or what i could b doing wrong. i use flightsim.to and it has a good selection of different kinds of aircraft. if someone could please get back to me as soon as possible with any detailed info on this topic itd b great i have watched several youtube videos on this and done everything i can think of. thanks again.
sincerely,
adam angelo
flight sim 2020 user
gamertag
tiedrhyme389710
which aircraft and from where did you download it?
Sometimes there’s a zip file that contains an extra folder called ‘aircraft’ or similar that you also have to open until you find the actual airplane folder that goes into your community manager folder…
unfortunately it isn’t quite a uniform process just yet
hi fusionhorse151,
im trying to download the piper warrior aircraft from flightsim.to and it says at the bottom this is a third party aircraft u can purchase the aircraft here. im trying to find one that i dont have to purchase and can just download and install to my community folder without having the frustrating instance that it doesnt show up in the aircraft stock list in the sim.
thanks.
adam
tiedrhyme389710
There is no freeware Piper Warrior aircraft. That plane was developed by Just Flight and it costs money.
There are a few freeware planes available on flightsim.to, and at least one on simouthouse.com (the DH-89 Dragon Rapide, it’s actually quite good). Rob Richardson is another freeware author for MSFS. A few of the freeware planes are pretty good. The freeware Goose, if it still is there is quite good. I haven’t tried many of the others as I like to pay developers for their work. As it seems you’ve found, many of the freeware ones don’t work very well, mostly because the bar keeps moving, and those developers don’t have the time to keep up with the changes because they have families and other jobs.
Hi fusion horse,
Its adam again i meant to tell u that the aircraft folder that has the default aircraft in it is called the onestore folder which is also in the official folder under the community folder in the flight sim directory. I am getting confused as to what folders the newly downloaded aircraft goes in i tried looking at the sim objects folder at the airplane folder and for the actual airplane zip file but was not able to find it either. This is frustrating to have this like this. I dont know what else to do it’s confusing as heck. Please let me know what i can do to make it easier for myself if possible thanks.
Sincerely,
Adam Angelo
Tiedrhyme389710
1 Like
It sounds like you are downloading a REPAINT for that aircraft and that the text in the REPAINT description is telling you where to buy the aircraft that the REPAINT you are downloading belongs to.
As mentioned by FlyingsCool5650 in his post, there is NO free Piper Warrior. You have to buy it.
If you are putting a REPAINT into your community folder or the onestore folder you will see no such aircraft in the sim - because that folder you are downloading only contains the texture folders and not a Piper Warrior 3D model.
Also - any REPAINT you download is going to be for a specific aircraft model - in your case it looks like the paint you are downloading is for the JustFlight Piper Warrior - so that paint will ONLY work for the JustFlight Piper Warrior.
I hope this is clear
Hi fusion horse,
It’s me Adam again just letting u know that its with any aircraft I download and try to install the default aircraft in the sim r already in the onestore folder but which folder does the newly downloaded aircraft go in since not the onestore folder. That’s what I’m wondering cause its been with any aircraft not just the piper warrior but any other one. If u could please get back to me as soon as u can any info on this itd b great thanks again.
Sincerely,
Adam
Tiedrhyme389710
Vast majority of third party content (aircraft, skins/repaints, scenery, airports etc.) go to the community folder. The game should give you prompt to choose the directory, but by default it would be something akin to C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator\Packages/Community.
If you are downloading an actual freeware aircraft from Flightsim.to, say the RV-7, then you can just drag and drop the uncompressed folder into your community one (so that the layout and manifest files are in the folder below the community one). The payware products from Just Flight’s online store (such as the Piper Warrior) use an installer to create the aircraft folder into your community one.
ok - as Pantszer says - there are two folders for addon aircraft.
OneStore folder is for all of the MSFS/ Asobo aircraft. Anything that either came with your purchase of MSFS (whatever the version) or that came free with any SU or WU (update that included a free aircraft)
Community folder is for everything else - scenery, aircraft, utilities, that you either buy or download free - aside from the Asobo stuff above.
OneStore content goes to that folder by itself - there is literally nothing that you will ever have to put into that folder. This is why the Community folder was created by MSFS - to keep the two kinds of content separate.
Most folks probably have the ‘Community’ folder (shortcut) on their desktop for easy access
hi pantszer,
its me adam again. i got ur response i just downloaded a couple freeware aircraft from flightsim.to and extracted them both into my community folder. the issue im encountering is this theres a seperate community folder in ther sim directory and then theres a second community folder in microsoft.flightsimulator_etc under localcache/packages. which community folder do i install the addon in so i dont get confused. the 1 community i said or the 2nd one within the directory. cause i just did and the aircraft did not show up in the aircraft stock list so i dont know what to do. i have done this several times no luck. if u could please help me in any way itd b appreciated thanks again.
sincerely,
adam
tiedrhyme389710
hi fusionhorse,
its me adam again. i just did what pantszer told me to do and i downloaded a couple freeware aircraft from flightsim.to and extracted them to my community folder. well i have a seperate community folder and a 2nd within the microsoft.flightsimulator_ etc localcache/packages folders. well i booted up the sim and the addon aircraft were not there so i dont know what to do like i said i have 2 community folders one standalone one and another one within 2 olther folders in flghtsim/localcache/packages. which one is the right community folder im confused…
sincerely,
adam
tiedrhyme389710
in your case that you have indicated above, inside the ‘Packages’ folder - you should have two folders -
One is called ‘Community’ and the other is called ‘Official’
That ‘Community’ folder is the actual folder where you would place your freeware and payware addons. I know of no other ‘community’ folder that would work and really no other such folder should exist in the MSFS directory.
I am not going to talk about putting a shortcut to that folder on your desktop or anywhere else at this point as it would likely confuse the matter more…somehow.
hi fusionhorse,
its me adam again i just did what u told me and the aircraft didnt show up in my sim when it was done loading. im so baffled. i dont know what to do now if anything ive tried the way u showed me along with pantszer and still nothing.
sincerely,
adam
tiedrhyme389710
then either the ‘aircraft’ you are adding are not complete (they are repaints of aircraft that you want only)
or
you are opening your downloaded aircraft folder and placing the contents into the Community folder incorrectly.
Since I can’t see exactly what is happening I’m afraid I can’t help you any further.
Good luck
I’m having the same issue since I replaced my C:drive and updated to windows 11
I have the same issue, I do exactly what’s being suggested, but I boot the game ? The plane is not on the list, I googled it and it says that I need the base aircraft, but where can download just the base aircraft model , thank you
