Sim Update 3 Beta (1.5.2.0) Release Notes - May 21st, 2025

We are continuing to investigate stability/crash issues reported by the community on Sim Update 3 flighting update 1.5.1.0. Please note these issues have not been resolved in 1.5.2.0 and will be addressed in a future Sim Update 3 flighting update.

We’re also investigating another top issue reported by the community (the sim only recognizes one connected peripheral), and working to fix this as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience and feedback!

-The Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

RELEASE NOTES Sim Update 3 Beta - 1.5.2.0

If you are playing on PC, outdated packages in your community folder may have an unexpected impact on the title’s performance and behavior.

If you suffer from stability issues or long loading times, move your community package(s) to another folder before relaunching the title.

FAQ

Will joining the Sim Update 3 Beta (and future Sim Update Betas) impact my progress in Career mode on the live build?

  • No, Career mode progress is locked to the live build. No Career progress made in the flighting build will carry over to the live build. However, all Career mode specializations are unlocked by default in the flighting build.

Will my leaderboard records in Challenge League transfer when the flighting build becomes the live build?

  • No, Challenge League leaderboards in the flighting build will always be separate from the live build.

Will progress in other game modes (Discovery, Free Flight, etc.) be separate in the flighting build and live build?

  • No, only progress in Career and Challenge League are affected. This could change in the future.

Will content I own or purchase in the Marketplace be available on both the flighting build and the live build?

  • Yes, all content owned or purchased in the live build or the flighting build will always be available in both builds.

New Content and Features

  • Added fade in on images for Marketplace item, Profile, Briefing, Activities, HQ,
  • Home, Career, Challenges, Controls, Install, Redbull
  • It is now possible to click and drag on all the sliders of the game

Stability & Performance

  • Fixed a potential crash
  • Optimized cabinservice’s loading to not open the same file several times

General Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an issue where the language change popup could not work as intended
  • Fixed an issue where the ATIS would not appear in the ATC window
  • Fixed an issue where the first message sent using the group chat was not displaying a notification
  • Fixed city markers not visible in free flight mode
  • Fixed crash when detecting invalid token in scenery XMLs
  • Fixed possible crash when applying or deleting a control preset
  • Fixed retrocompatibility for livingworld config files
  • Fixed wind impacting the aircraft inside the mission’s hangar scene
  • Fixed tracking of foot distance achievement
  • Fixed an issue where the aircraft part condition could linger on the screen after a player enter a vehicle
  • Fixed update Material Animation interpolation
  • Fixed a bug preventing the player from entering the “Customize Identity” screen just after leaving it

Backwards Compatibility Bug Fixes

  • Fixed loading of bitmaps found in 2020 packages that haven’t been properly compiled through the package builder (no DDS, no JSON) when those packages are installed in the Community folder (fixes some aircraft lights)

Aircraft

  • Aircraft fleet: engine oil temperature, EGT, CHT tuned in FLT files to have more realistic temperature after spawning with engine running.
  • Added keys KEY_PARKING_BRAKES_ON and KEY_PARKING_BRAKES_OFF
  • Added a new tag for “Container” in xml : “WaitForPilotCopilot” (boolean). Default false, if true, will wait for the pilot and copilot to be ready to finish aircraft’s loading
  • Added RadiatorTemperature_DegR and CHT_DegR to the FLT files for engine configuration.
  • Aircraft configurator camera position has been tweaked to let the whole aircraft and especially the nose to be in the windows.
  • Aircraft configurator camera is not impacted anymore by very big bounding spheres.
  • Fixed red GEffect

Airbus Helicopters H125

  • Removed cargo tab from Mass and balance section of the EFB for Rescue and Rescue Hoist variant
  • Fixed rain on windshied and fuselage flowing in the wrong direction
  • Updated color order in livery.cfg so they fit the new palettes

Boeing 737 MAX 8

  • FMS flight path calculation now supports flyover fixes.
  • Added realistic spool up times when setting takeoff thrust.

Cessna 172 Skyhawk

  • Corrected fuselage to get the right amount of drag in sideslip. That fixes the required bank angle to compensate the yaw.

De Havilland Canada CL-415

  • Fixed cockpit lod issue while using cockpit camera into the cabin
  • Fixed aicraft disappears at short distance
  • Fixed floating part when opening the front door
  • Fixed floating object appear when interacting with static pressure source switch

DG Aviation DG-1001E

  • Fixed flickering frost on side canopy windows

Extra E330LT

  • Corrected the maximum lift and stall AOA.

Guimbal Cabri G2

  • Fixed floating seam texture in cockpit
  • Updated all livery palettes
  • Fixed some issues with livery texts

Heart Aerospace ES-30

  • Fixed adaptive livery color
  • Fixed tail white square logo in career

Aircraft Core Systems

Fuel System

  • Added new version of the fuel system to fix an issue causing some setups to potentially cause freezes

Glass Cockpits

G1000 NXI

  • Improved autopilot glideslope tracking stability when the airplane is close to the runway threshold.
  • FMS flight path calculation now supports flyover fixes.

Garmin G3000 / G5000

  • Improved autopilot glideslope tracking stability when the airplane is close to the runway threshold.
  • Fixed an issue where the CDI auto-slew function would not trigger correctly when loading into a flight with a localizer already tuned.
  • FMS flight path calculation now supports flyover fixes.

Garmin G3X Touch

  • Improved autopilot glideslope tracking stability when the airplane is close to the runway threshold.
  • FMS flight path calculation now supports flyover fixes (when coupled with external navigator).

GNS 430/GNS 530

  • Fixed players unable to enter waypoints
  • Improved autopilot glideslope tracking stability when the airplane is close to the runway threshold.
  • Fixed an issue where in airplanes with a manually adjustable heading dial, the dial could affect the rotation of the airplane icon on the map display.
  • FMS flight path calculation now supports flyover fixes.

Primus Epic 2.0 Integrated Avionics System

  • FMS flight path calculation now supports flyover fixes.
  • Added full array of GPWS modes, including basic modes, enhanced forward-looking terrain alerts, and inhibits through the TSC.

Pro Line 21 Integrated Avionics System

  • Place/Bearing/Distance entries are now correctly limited to 0.1-199.9 nautical miles of distance from the reference fix.
  • Fixed wrong title on LEFT/RIGHT DISPLAY MENU 2/2 page.
  • Fixed extraneous semicolon in VNAV page title.
  • Fixed various layout issues in the SELECT WPT page.
  • Fixed the INDEX link on the status page.
  • FMS flight path calculation now supports flyover fixes.
  • Added WPT ALREADY EXISTS, REPLACE/CANCEL prompt to FPLN, LEGS and DEFINE PILOT WPT pages.
  • Added WPT NOT MATCHED error message when the reference fix of an along-track offset does not match the leg it is inserted on.
  • Added N/A IN POLAR REGION error message when a fix in the polar region is entered on the FIX INFO page.
  • Added N/A IN POLAR REGION error message when pilot waypoints are entered with a reference fix in the polar region.
  • Added SELECT DEF page allowing to select between ambiguous pilot waypoint formats.

UNS-1Ew SBAS-Flight Management System

  • FMS flight path calculation now supports flyover fixes.

Physics

  • Integrated full inertia tensor support, MOI re-calculation fix for weight changes, and rotational dynamics fix into the C172 and Extra 330LT.
  • Added support for a full inertia tensor via the new “empty_inertia_tensor” parameter in the [WEIGHT_AND_BALANCE] section of flight_model.cfg (see SDK for details).
  • When this parameter is specified, it also enables the following fixes:
    1. Fixed previously unaccounted influence of payload stations on MOI changes. Note: if you previously compensated for this by increasing the empty aircraft MOIs, re-adjustment may now be necessary.
    2. Fixed MOI recalculation during in-simulation weight changes.
    3. Fixed rotational dynamics modeling: the laws of conservation and evolution of angular momentum and rotational kinetic energy are now satisfied with high accuracy.

Flight System

  • Fixed issue with wing flex not working correctly on right side wings.

EFB

  • Fixed an issue where irrelevant or unresponsive options appeared in the map contextual menu.
  • Fixed an issue where the map contextual menu would appear outside the viewport.
  • Fixed an issue where procedure previews were overly zoomed in, causing legs to appear cropped.
  • Fixed incorrect ownship projection on charts for close-to-border geo points by correcting orientation rotation logic.
  • Fixed an issue where the air pressure would not show if the METAR has the pressure in inHg.
  • Fixed an issue where airways with 1 letter and 4 digits were not recognized.
  • Fixed an issue where a single enroute waypoint was not visible when the rest of the flight plan was empty.
  • Fixed an issue where removing the origin airport did not clear the runway from the departure procedure.
  • Fixed an issue where “Add Waypoint” buttons were unresponsive during an active waypoint search.
  • Fixed auto routing generating IFR procedures when VFR route type is selected.
  • Adjusted spacing and button sizes of the Route page layout.
  • Fixed arrivals filtering to show only those without runway transitions or with at least one transition compatible with the selected runway.
  • Fixed the procedure selection window layout styling.
  • Fixed an issue where the incorrect runway transition was selected in certain conditions when a procedure was selected.
  • Fixed an issue where the Payload & Fuel Page “Load” button was disabled too early in flight.
  • Fixed incorrect ETE calculations.
  • Procedure names are now sorted in alphabetical order.
  • Improved process of adding a waypoint to the flight plan from the map contextual menu.
  • Disabled georeferencing for FAA charts due to unreliable metadata.
  • Navlog distance column will now show a decimal place for single digit values.
  • Changed styling of performance warning to be more clear.
  • Send button is now disabled when the route is empty to prevent sending an empty route to the sim.
  • Updated the map toolbar to change the tablet orientation directly on icon click.
  • Reorganized the layout of map overlay components.
  • Chart preview now opens when clicking on the chart name, instead of requiring the right-side button.
  • Moved airport ident in the clipped charts page to the left, and clicking it now opens the facility info page.
  • Added always-visible stopwatch to the map with new controls for start, stop, and reset.
  • Added a “Private” option to the airline list.
  • Added an advisory popup when sending a route with VFR procedures to avionics.
  • Added persistent saving of custom basic performance input in the performance popup (per aircraft).
  • Added support for coordinates where the latitude and longitude are separated by a slash. (e.g. “5500N/04000W”)
  • Added transition information to the procedure section summary on the Route page.

Aircraft Gameplay

ATC

  • ATC now refers to the player as ASXGS if its tail number and atc_id are empty
  • Removed the legacy “Request IFR Clearance For Instrument FP” and replaced with “Request IFR Clearance” using the EFB filed plan.
  • Added and improved post-processing of radio effects on ATC communications.
  • Fixed an issue where the “Toggle ATC” keybind would only toggle the ATC on but never off.
  • Added support for STARs, and descent via a STAR for larger aircraft.
  • Remove the “feet” suffix from spoken altitudes.
  • Fixed class B and C airspace VFR transitions.
  • Improved the algorithm for selecting arrival procedures (STARs, approaches, and transitions).

Passive Aircraft

  • Removed generic passive aircraft from the game
  • Fixed wrong ICAO for A319 United Airlines

Vehicles

  • Improved visual of the Tug01 vehicle
  • Improved the visual of the Car Vintage
  • Improved the visual of the Car Ground Power Unit
  • Improved the visual of the Car Japan
  • Improved the visual of the Car Limousine
  • Improved the visual of the Car Military
  • Improved the visual of the Car Mini
  • Improved the visual of the Car NorthAm 02
  • Improved the visual of the MiniBus Asia
  • Adjusted badly setuped LOD switch for one of the fire trucks

Career

  • Fixed day night icons in career briefing never changing when departure or arrival time are at night.
  • Added a popup to inform the player that airports have been deleted
  • Replaced temperature data by wind data in missions briefing
  • Added a popup when the current mission has expired
  • Added a popup to introduce the concept of special missions

General Bug Fixes

  • Fixed wrong aircraft livery used in freelancer mode
  • Fixed “Aircraft to check up”, “Grounded aircraft” and “Aircraft in use” displaying the wrong value in company fleet page
  • Fixed duration unit of measurement disapearing on certification screen after enterning the briefing and going back
  • Fixed aircraft thunbnail missing in some career screens
  • Fixed dialog playing twice at end of missions.
  • Fixed unexpected landing failure trigger after a back on track

Free Flight

  • Fixed the towplane spawning at the wrong position when launching a flight with a glider on a runway

Missions

Aerial Construction (Rotorcraft)

  • Added an exclusion area to remove other powerlines around drop zone

Agricultural Aviation

  • Added failure condition when moving too far from the field during the spraying objective.

Cargo Transport - Hook (Rotorcraft)

  • Fixed copilot not spawning in aircraft

Search & Rescue

  • Fixed retrieval RTC focused on avatar instead of aircraft

Search & Rescue (Rotorcraft)

  • Fixed target retrieval blocked

Certifications

CPL - Commercial Pilot Lisence - Rotorcraft

  • Fixed “Maintain altitude” step displayed before linked “Climb to altitude”

World

  • Fixed camera zooming issues when selecting departure or arrival locations

Airports

  • Fixed missing detail maps for grass surfaces coming from MSFS2024 packages.
  • Fixed light preset intensity from 2020 package
  • Reverted generic airport lat/long to fix backward compatibility with apron UV from 2020 packages

Fauna

  • Fixed issues with bounding boxes and animations on fauna models

Traffic

Air Traffic

  • Better compatibility with 2020 passive aircraft packages.
  • Optimize performance of live traffic model matching.
  • Force live traffic model matching to only use models optimized for AI traffic.
  • Improved live traffic model matching to do the matching on a specific ruleset.
  • Airline + Planetype > Airline + Fallback Planetype > Airline + Plane series > Houselivery of Planetype including alternates
  • Added fallback mechanism when there is no traffic model available for a given plane type which will choose alternative models of similar type.

Road Traffic

  • Loader_Elevator_02, LODs switching improvement.
  • Loader_Ramp_02, LOD switching improvement.

Virtual Reality

  • Fixed Black UI screens displayed in front when using an HDR monitor.
  • Fixed the scan of the VR controllers in the controls menu
  • Fixed a leak when switching to VR
  • Secondary/Tertiary interaction can now be bound and used in VR Controllers

Controls

  • Disabled the import/export preset buttons on console
  • Fixed some unusable actions being listed in control settings
  • Added a timer when rebinding an input, so that you have still time to bind when the UI focus leaves the current line

Peripherals

Various Peripheral Fixes

  • Fixed view mode rapidly switching when inputing “COCKPIT/ EXTERNAL VIEW MODE” at the same time as entering a textfield

Activities

Landing Challenges

  • Fixed target runway on MSFS 2020 landing challenges

Training

  • Fixed textual error in Helicopter → Confined area training, right downwind leg instead of left
  • Added “red” indication for the failed steps which could be skipped in the Helicopter trainings

Challenges Series

  • Added popups whenever the player joins a cohort for the first time, gets promoted or a serie ends.
  • Added information popups when the player changes between leagues

Character assets & animations

  • Fix animation of copilot in multiplayer mode
  • Fixed avatar having a frame in T-Pose when editing it inside the avatar selector

DevMode

  • Fixed crash chen resetting devmode settings.
  • Fixed toolbar min size too small + made it resizable in width

General

  • Model thumbnail baker: Added the option to load a ModelLib package into the tool and see its thumbnails.
  • Fixed corrupted BGL when it contains only models with invalid bounding box.
  • Model Thumbnail Baker: Added option to choose the package to bake
  • Fixed appearing tools not taking focus when docked to current node and a subwindow is docked on another node

Project Editor

  • Fixed crash when building scenery with polygon that has duplicated points.
  • Added a “Close project” button to package order hint popup

Scenery Editor

  • Added “lens flare” parameters for lights in SimPropContainer
  • Fixed biome picker not showing deprecated biomes (but not selectable in the dropdown list)
  • Use runway ILS references from base airport if bespoke airport doesn’t have one.

SimObject Editor

  • Added editor for label files

SDK

  • Added ProcessingOptions parameter block for model processing. Moved MergeSkins option in that block and added ResetRig and RemoveSkinnedCollision here too.
  • MergeSkins will automatically merge all skins in gltf sharing common bone(s)
  • ResetRig will automatically rescale and re-orient badly setuped rigs for characters or fauna models and associated animations.
  • RemoveSkinnedCollision will automatically remove any skinned mesh during RPT since this is not supported ingame.

Samples

  • Added ModelBehavior sources to sdk samples
  • Updated Bear Sample
  • Fixed Simple Biome sample

SimConnect

  • Fixed the size & aligment issue that you could encouter if you use STRINGV type variable in SimConnect if a localized string was returned

SimVars

  • Fixed regression on EXIT Simvars which would access non-exit types of interactive points
  • Fixed regression on EXIT and INTERACTIVE POINT Simvars which would incorrectly fallback to the first interactive point when given an invalid index or name

WASM API

  • Changed the Wasm (re)compilation detection to use hash of Wasm file instead of date + size (to avoid multiple recompilation when changing another file in the panel folder for instance)
  • Added chart relationships and applicable aircraft types to chart metadata.

JS API

  • Added a JS listener for obtaining forecasted weather data along a path.
  • Fixed an issue where the shared global listener (JS_LISTENER_SHAREDGLOBAL) could send multiple events for a global being attached or detached.
  • Added chart relationships and applicable aircraft types to chart metadata.
  • Added error events to the JS Charts API.

Exporter 3DSMAX

  • Fixed multi material links broken on export due to flatten
  • Fixed expand and collapse button not working
  • If scene hierarchy list is outdated, a popup is triggered when interacting with list
  • Fixed stats popup in mesh inspector
  • Added display statistics threshold in mesh inspector
  • Added reload for mesh inspector
  • Added search in mesh inspector
  • Reduced size of expand/collapse buttons
  • Small feedback and tooltips fixes
  • Added ground collision tag to collisions
  • Fixed export animation options
  • Fixed minor issue with text overflow in wiper tool
  • Fixed scene hierarchy refresh + mesh inspector statistics display

Exporter Blender

  • Day/Night Cycle not supported in advanced lights
  • Added “ground” tag for collision. Sim objects will use them as ground elevation.
  • Fixed emissive material Animation
  • Fixed material animation on different material slot of same object
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