To celebrate 5 years of Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020), we’re challenging you to share five favorite somethings from the past five years.
In aviation, “5x5” means your radio signal is loud and clear, and we want to hear you loud and clear, too!
What to Share
Post any five of your favorite things from your time in the sim in MSFS 2020 or MSFS 2024 - your call on what they are! Some ideas:
5 of your favorite screenshots
5 most memorable flights
5 aircraft you’ve fallen in love with
5 places you discovered
5 favorite 3rd party developers
5 POIs that you find the coolest
5 simming friends you’ve met and what they’ve meant to you
5 milestones or moments that meant something to you
How to Participate
Reply in this thread with your list, screenshots, or even a short story.
You can also post your 5x5 on social media and tag @msfsofficial in your post OR Instagram story, or use the hashtag #MSFS5x5 in your post – we’ll be sharing some of our favorites all week long
This thread will be open starting now and throughout Community Week (August 18-22), so take your time and enjoy the memories.
Let’s celebrate the unforgettable moments in the sim and what this community has mean to you. We look forward to continuing to improve on the simulation experience and hope to earn a spot as one of your favorite flight sims for years to come.
I remember my facial expression when I first saw the announcement trailer. What a blessing.
Truly, forever grateful that this has happened.
Thanks team!!
My second most favorite thing:
the professionalism and cohesiveness of Asobo, Microsoft and third party developers!!
I am so happy and thankful we simmers benefit from such a valuable and dedicated team!
My 3rd most favorite thing:
Is this wonderful community
On number 4:
My favourite flight
The approach into Busan Gimhae airport RKPK!
Its one of my most popular destinations because of its challenging circling approach. Especially when the sun is about to set, illuminating the cloud tops. Penetrating through this cloudlayer only to find these bright pulsing guide in lights is always a huge relief.
Edit: Just so I don’t make this all about me, I’ll say this: I appreciate the hard work the community managers and mod team do to keep the forums clean and on topic. I also appreciate the hard work the developers put into FS20, and are putting into making FS24 the best it can be. I’m hoping for many more years of soaring the virtual skies. One of these days, I’ll try to make a Community Fly-In event!
Edit edit: It’s also amazing that the whole world is rendered at this level of detail. Asobo should be proud of that accomplishment.
Here’s a shameless plug! I started a world tour back in January of this year to reignite my passion for the hobby. The only hard rule is radial engines only. Here’s five screen shots!
I love Big Radials’ Goose, and the DC-3 with the Duckworks mod. So fun to hand fly, and those radial noises never get old. If anyone cares, you can follow my trip on this thread. I post after each leg! Radials 'Round the World
The first thing than widened my eyes on day one were the ocean waves of MSFS 2020. That was so real I couldn’t believe. Sadly it seems to me that the oceans have calmed down a lot since then.
The rendering of the world! Villages and cities that I knew appeared almost correctly in the sim. No more landclasses but correct street layouts and places. I could see my house down there! From the first moment I knew FSX/P3D was dead (I never tried Xplane though).
Real human developers with dedication, sympathy and humour. It was the first time I saw the faces behind the work. The enthusiasm and love for the project was just fun to see. And so interesting to hear how things worked and what was planned for the near future.
The forum and the community! A million thanks to the forum managers and moderators for being so dedicated and patient, although sometimes the discussions get a little rough. We are all part of the project and I hope that stays.
The SDK - I eagerly designed airports and areas, within certain technical limitations though. But I learned much about 3D modeling and had a lot of fun exploring my possibilities.
It seems to me like the enthusiasm of the developers is not the same as it was then since the introduction of XBOX compatibility and the too early start of MSFS 2024. I hope the current problems will be solved soon. Thank you for all the magic you did so far and all the best for the future!
Below are my top 5 favorite screenshots! As you can see, one of my favorite aspects of the sim is the scenery and the lighting of the sky. I also really like the accurate positioning of the sun and moon based on date and time!
I still remember the day the sim got revealed at E3 2019 out of nowhere. I was playing FSX for about 4 years at that time and thought the series was dead to never return. Everything about that trailer felt emotional. It was about a year and a half after release until I got my hands on it, and the simulation is fantastic. Over time, I have added VR and flight peripherals to my set up making a very immersive experience. Love the simulator, developers, and community that have contributed to Microsoft Flight Simulator!
My top 5 MSFS-related events from over the last five years:
The first-ever trailer for MSFS 2020. I remember watching E3 at the time and seeing the trailer pop up at the Xbox event and my jaw dropped. The same can be said for the MSFS 2024 Pre-Release Trailer.
Seeing my town and house for the first time, and even being able to see a mural I helped paint!
The Top Gun Maverick Collab. I’m a huge Top Gun fan and loved the movies so much. Spent hours perfecting my F18 skills in the sim and completing all the challenges. Really miss this in 2024, but understand it cannot be due to licensing. Hopefully, something can be done for the upcoming TOP GUN 3
The 40th anniversary celebration. It brought some amazing addons which I continue to use in 2024 today.
The MSFS Team works closely with us. I love how the team every week shares a dev log with us and gives us monthly live stream updates, as well as the community streams done by the lovely CMs. Very few studios do all this, and it is really appreciated. Can’t wait to see what the next 5 years hold!
I was often flying the short route KROC to KJFK and KROC to Orlando KMCO in a few different default aircraft (including to see if the 787 10 would be a good option for short haul) I also remembered trying to predict the default aircraft in fs2020 which my five predictions for default aircraft was very wrong which was
Boeing 757 200 I thought would have been a definite must have
Airbus a220 200 I thought would have been a definite must have
a flyable Dash 8 100, would have been in there as a fun fleet Easter egg from FSX so there would have been a chance
Piper PA18 super cub with flight simulator always having a Piper cub variant I thought this one would have been the fleet surprise before a massive production on super highly modified j3cub like aircraft happened
Cessna 206, a small chance to see it if they were doing new Cessnas and this aircraft got updated in the 2010 time frame to more modern avionics
But fs2020 was still very fun, and I still hope these aircraft would be new default in game aircraft someday
Here are my five favourite screenshots. I bought FS2020 the day it came out, and had to wait 4 years before I owned a PC that was capable of running it!
