[Official] Community Fly-In Friday: Naval Aviation

SeedyL3205 · November 5, 2025, 11:49pm

* NOTE START TIME IS 1900 UTC DUE TO THE RECENT FALL TIME CHANGE *

We will be hosting an Official Fly-in alongside a group of community members (you!) on Twitch. This is an open event, free to all who would like to fly along with us and available to pilots of all skill levels. The goal is to have a great time, explore new locations of the world, and make new friends. This event is open to pilots on both sim versions (MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024) and both the PC and Xbox platforms.

Hosted by @SeedyL3205 and @JoeyBolo77
When: Friday, November 7 @ 1900Z for two hours.
2025-11-07T19:00:00Z
Where: The Official Twitch Channel of MSFS

There will also be a Discord event channel open for those who want to voice chat with other members of the community.

Please see below for details on the upcoming Fly-In Event:

FLIGHT DETAILS

On November 5, 1915, Henry Mustin of the United States Navy piloted the first aircraft to be launched via catapult from a moving ship. The flight, which launched from the armored cruiser USS North Carolina (ACR-12), took place off the coast of Pensacola, Florida.

In commemoration of this event, our Fly-In Friday flight this week will see us fly a modern naval aircraft (the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet) departing from Naval Air Station Jacksonville. We will have a touch and go landing at Naval Air Station Pensacola (site of the first catapult launch), then proceed for a full stop landing at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, named for the former US president who was himself a naval aviator during the Second World War.

MSFS (2020) and MSFS 2024 Pilots on PC can download the .pln file here:
2025-11-07 Naval Aviaiton.PLN (2.1 KB)

MSFS 2024 Pilots on both PC and Xbox can import the flight plan from the new Flight Planner tool at this link.

You can find instructions on how to load a flight plan from the Flight Planner website to your in-sim EFB on your PC or Xbox console on our forums here.

We will be starting at KNIP. Please load your aircraft 10 minutes prior to take off and taxi over to the runway in preparation for departure.

AIRCRAFT

Recommended aircraft: Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet or any aircraft of your choice with a cruise speed of 400+ knots.

MULTIPLAYER SETTINGS

Please adhere to the following settings so you can see everyone / be seen by everyone.

Variable	Setting
Server	SE Asia
Multiplayer	All Players
Live traffic	As preferred
Weather	Few Clouds
Time of Day	Daytime

COMMUNICATION

To communicate with others, a voice channel on the "Official Microsoft Flight Simulator Discord” at https://discord.gg/msfs will be available to join.

LET’S FLY

This is meant to be a fun and informal flight. Everybody is welcome, no matter your platform, sim version, or level of experience.

UnwiredEddie · November 7, 2025, 9:05pm

Mostly figured out the FA18 by the time we reach the destination. I think I still prefer the GA planes - more my speed.

CriminalPilot · November 7, 2025, 9:07pm

Caution wake turbulence!

I somewhat frequently fly military jets on the community flights, so it was very cool to see so many others in them this time around, too, and trying to keep up some formation flying!

IceManDBB · November 7, 2025, 9:13pm

started in the L-39, but seemed too slow, even at full throttle. It also does not seem to burn any fuel even though I didn’t have unlimited fuel on.
Changed to F-18 and activated unlimited fuel for the rest of the flight.

buzzing the tower at the destination

ElkanDavid · November 7, 2025, 9:27pm

MiniRoadster996 · November 7, 2025, 9:38pm

Orbitbold · November 7, 2025, 10:35pm

I was late to the party today. On most FlyDays, I can just pick my usual Fly-In aircraft, the L-39, and easily catch up with the crowd. Today, that wasn’t going to work, and I don’t like using slew mode unless absolutely necessary.

I believe that the F/A-18 is the fastest of the default planes, which is why I chose a third-party aircraft that could catch up with it without constant afterburner use.

It took me some time to find other players, the name plates weren’t showing anyone at a large distance. I was then amazed to find that my aircraft’s avionics were better at showing other traffic than artificial signs floating in the sky.

Correct. Even after multiple updates of the plane, and at least one bugfix of the sim’s fuel system, the L-39 is still a perpetuum mobile that requires no energy source of any kind to run its engine at maximum thrust. Indefinitely.

IceManDBB · November 8, 2025, 6:29am

This should have been fixed in 1.6.23.0 and worked for me. Were you still on 1.6.22.0, as 23 released durectly before the fly-in.

Only thing still not working correctly is the fallback to generic planes in “high fidelity” mp model mode. I couldn’t see your EF, only the nameplate. So I switched to “low fidelity” models.

BlackCatsRIP · November 8, 2025, 7:31am

TheHunDude · November 8, 2025, 9:20am

First time I flew the F/A-18, it was a nice experience. I tried to create the sonic boom effect but unfortunately it didn’t show in the sim (don’t know if it was because of the graphics settings I use or it is not modelled in 2020). Still it was cool when suddenly there was no engine sound while watching the plane from external view.

Also, nice guitar covers of Danger Zone and the Top Gun theme from @SeedyL3205, I think we all felt the need for speed after those.

The closest i dared to fly to the ground inverted:

Orbitbold · November 8, 2025, 4:16pm

Yes, I had missed that update.
And thanks for pointing out the fallback issue with “high fidelity”. I didn’t know that.

SparrowJLT · November 14, 2025, 2:07pm

Navy day so of course it had to be the TOMCAT .. joining was @HeXtHeLeGeNd318 ..in a NAVY plane.. @Edorin5981 and @Groversaurus in a kinda Marine plane so it counts @TheHunDude @jv747captain in Hornets.. @PowerCreep also in a TOMCAT .. @Nikrath was in a navy plane too but for me somehow it rendered as the generic Bonanza.. and @Nodlezz and @cmdfreezer in FatAm.. i mean F-35s