[Official] Community Fly-In Friday: New Zealand (With Bonus Gliding Option!)

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, @SimFlightPro, @ZKd0s
When: Friday, January 24 @ 1900Z for two hours.
2025-01-24T19:00:00Z
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

We’re off to New Zealand this week for a beautiful flight on the South Island! Starting from Christchurch, we’ll be making our way to Queenstown and then on to our full stop landing at Milford Sound, situated in a picturesque fjord that provides for a spectacular approach!

Alternatively, for those of you who like sailplanes, you can also fly one of your favorite gliders from Omarama (NZOA), globally-renowned for being one of the best soaring locations on the entire planet and location of the World Gliding Championships in 1995 and 2006-2007! Enjoy some of the best thermals and ridge soaring conditions that can be found anywhere!

MSFS (2020) Pilots on PC can download the .pln file here:
2025-01-24 New Zealand.PLN (4.1 KB)

MSFS 2024 Pilots on both PC and Xbox can import the flight plan from the new Flight Planner tool by clicking 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 NZCH. Please load your aircraft 10 minutes prior to take off and taxi over to the runway in preparation for departure.

OR

For the soaring option, start at NZOA!

AIRCRAFT

Recommended aircraft: Cessna Grand Caravan, Extra 330LT, Pitts Special, or any aircraft of your choice with a cruise speed of ~150 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.

3 Likes

Wanted to join with a glider. After a hour make all the keybindings with my joystick i was ready to go.
Wondered how i could take off after and when i solved it nothing happens.
Stepping out and taking a look it went all clear i did it wrong ^^


Feeling more comfy in this King Air C90 GTX

Aligning on the left and missing the trees

After nice approach at NZMF parking the King Air C90 GTX

5 Likes

First Fly In Friday after getting my DOF H6 running. Was really nice, didn’t realize there was Glider Flight planned (should actually read the flight details and not just download the flight plan :upside_down_face:).
But this way I flew till the glider field and then switched plane to a glider and let myself draged up with the towplane.


actually went over the top of the mountain, and had a close call getting back over the ridge again into the updrafts


some cattle shortly before the runway

4 Likes

It was another great event on Friday, landing at Milford Sound was challenging but also rewarding (another destination that I would have missed if it wasn’t for these fly-in Fridays). Live weather was somewhat similar to what we could see on Seedy’s real life videos. The whole trip was nice and ZKd0s’ insights made it even better.

4 Likes

Yup! It was a lot of fun! I see you also flew in fs20.

2 Likes

Yep, still going strong with the 2020 crew. :slightly_smiling_face: Pretty sure I will not switch to 2024 until I can get a stronger PC setup (which is probably at least half a year away).

1 Like