I just wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude to the incredible team behind Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. This simulator is absolutely amazing, and I truly enjoy every moment I spend playing it. With over 600 hours logged (mostly in career mode), it’s safe to say that MSFS 2024 has become a big part of my life.
What makes it even more special for me is that I’m currently working on getting my Private Pilot License (PPL) in real life. The level of detail and realism in MSFS 2024 is incredible—I often find real-world landmarks and references that help me practice and stay familiar with navigation and flying techniques. It’s such a valuable tool for both learning and enjoyment.
I understand that the launch might not have been exactly what everyone expected, but what you’ve accomplished so far is monumental. Your continuous efforts to enhance the experience are deeply appreciated, and I just wanted to say thank you for your hard work and dedication.
What are your favorite experiences or features in MSFS 2024? Feel free to share them below!
Thanks again to the team and this amazing community for making this journey so special. Happy flying, everyone!
In the spirit of being positive, I really enjoy the career mode and doing a walk around preflight. Once in the plane, I grab my POH and do my checklist. It’s fun having a career. I don’t mess with the sim rate and I enjoy the entire ride.
The sim has a ton of potential and am looking forward to its development and improvements.
With two glowing reports in the thread so far - it feels appropriate to determine what is different between your systems and usage and those of the numerous people who have a very different opinion.
What type of System - XBoxS; XboxX; PC?
If PC What CPU, RAM, GPU, GPU VRAM, VR or 2D?
What type(s) of controller do you use?
For Career mode - Which Activity? Which Plane?
What Types of flight do you do VFR/IFR
If PC, what is in your community folder
If PC, what external utilities (e.g. Little NavMap) do you use
Anything else that could possibly help identify why some people have a wonderful experience and others have a terrible experience
I wouldn’t say my comment was overly enthusiastic, but I wanted to keep things positive and highlight something I enjoyed. There are plenty of other threads where I’ve shared my concerns about FS24, but since the original post had a positive tone, I felt it was only right to contribute in kind.
What type(s) of controller do you use? Turtle Beach yoke, quadrant and rudder pedals
For Career mode - light courier Cessna 172 G1000
What Types of flight do you do: VFR
If PC, what is in your community folder: empty
If PC, what external utilities: none
Anything else that could possibly help identify why some people have a wonderful experience and others have a terrible experience: none that I can think of. I have random crashes and enter key doesn’t always work to announce ATC. I make the best of it as I play. I get just as upset and frustrated as others.
I second your sediment with thanks to Microsoft and the Asobo team! They have truly made something special with MSFS and MSFS 2024 improves on things in many ways! Asobo literally recreated the whole world in fine detail. Amazing!
Not for my PPL but for my IFR rating Flight Simulator saved me an absolute fortune in flying hours in 2000 because I could do all my holds and instrument approaches in the sim. So, indeed, thank you Microsoft.
Career Mode Progression:
I’ve played through the Career Mode from the beginning in order, progressing through the following aircraft:
Cessna G1000 (light courier missions).
Cessna G1000 (cargo variant).
Cirrus Vision Jet (VIP missions).
Cessna Caravan (cargo missions).
Pilatus PC-24 (cargo missions).
Currently flying the 737 Max (passenger flights).
Type of Flights:
I fly both VFR and IFR, with a mix of local, regional, and medium/long-haul flights.
Community Folder:
Empty.
External Utilities:
I use ActiveSky for weather in free flight, and I rely on Navigraph and SimBrief, which I access directly on the in-game tablet.
P.S.: If I were to start my Career Mode again today, the only thing I’d change would be choosing the Draco X instead of the Cessna G1000 for the early stages. However, I haven’t personally tested the Draco X in Career Mode yet, so I can’t confidently recommend it until I’ve tried it myself. While it performs beautifully in free flight and I’ve had some amazing moments with it, I want to ensure it works just as well in Career Mode before suggesting it to others.
Yes, I played around 200 hours until I reached the 737 in Career Mode, and now the hours are accumulating more easily. Since I’m flying long-haul flights, I let the aircraft fly while I do other things during the day.
That said, I do experience some score loss because I don’t always respond to ATC during these long flights, but it’s not a big deal to me.
Currently, I have a fleet of 241 aircraft, and I don’t plan to go above 330. Managing each of them individually takes me about 1 hour every 5-6 days, so I’m already spending quite a bit of time on that!
How many times have I posted that pilots are problem solvers LOL! A substantial PC certainly helps solve problems in MSFS, starting with the CPU/RAM. That’s one big take away from these two success stories. Just as we fly through the flight director at times, we must also fly through the bugs and defects using what works to our best advantage. That said, there is nothing like owning the PC that is up to the task, and it is not really a middling one. While I have enjoyed MSFS on Xbox Series X for a few years now, I’m making my PC parts wish list!
This, for folks like me who believed, tried, and ultimately refunded, is good information.
Curious about the PC24. Prior to just recently that thing was, according to anyone who tried, unflyable. I’m assuming your cargo mission came about after the fix that got the PC24 flying again? Or you flew with half of the stuff missing and the landing gear down all the time. If so, that’s good info too. Either way it gives perspective. “I flew the PC24 but it was after the update” or “I flew the PC24 with all the issues and just did major workarounds”, both are valuable pieces of information.
Anyway, I wish more would post detail, pics, videos to share their experiences on 2024 but the whole forum is weirdly devoud of that. “Post Your Sunrise”… pretty much nothing but 2020 shots.
So many posts about how much better the graphics are but rarely any pics 2020/2024 to show that. Hmmm…
Regarding the PC24, I’m certain I’ve been flying it after the update that addressed many of the initial issues. I don’t recall seeing it in the Career Mode shop during the first few days after release, so I only started using it later.
Before purchasing any aircraft, I always take it for a test flight in Free Flight Mode to familiarize myself with how it handles. This helps me feel more confident and ensures I can fly with the minimum insurance level right away, reducing costs. The only exception to this was the 737, where I kept the insurance higher initially until I became more comfortable flying it.
For the PC24, my cargo missions have been smooth, and the aircraft has performed well since I started using it. I haven’t experienced any of the earlier issues others mentioned, like missing components or the landing gear staying down.
Thanks again for sparking this discussion—it’s always great to exchange experiences with other simmers!
I want to echo my appreciation of MSFS2024 as well! I mostly fly airliners and have been immensely enjoying the A321 and A330! With the RJ and Fenix in the sim now as well, I have uninstalled FS2020. Please don’t be discouraged by the negativity in social media echo chambers as this sim has a lot to love already and has so much more potential!
I completely agree with you! I’ve also uninstalled MSFS 2020 and can’t imagine going back—it’s amazing how far MSFS 2024 has come.
The developers have done an incredible job, and they absolutely shouldn’t let the negativity on social media discourage them. There’s so much to love about the sim already, and I’m confident the best is yet to come. Let’s keep appreciating the hard work they’ve put into making this such an amazing experience!
Once I got the Duke and TDS GTN going in Free Flight, I saw no real reason to return to 2020. There are a lot of good features in that mode and it’s been working very well on my rig.
Honestly, I’ve been mostly enjoying career mode as well. The biggest issues for me are just finding a reasonable flight pairing/aircraft and matching the plan to historical weather so I know what I’m getting into. The mission map UI is difficult at best. That and there are some aircraft that are simply unuseable or unrealistic. I find that as long as you stick to aircraft that you know work, and know how to do all the preflight planning (airports, performance, weather), it’s not too bad.
But FS has always been kludgy with aviation realism anyway, and I have a strong “that’s pretty unrealistic” filter that allows me to handwaive things as such (and it doesn’t negatively affect my real-world flying in any way that I can perceive - mostly helps it, TBH).
What upsets me is how the bugs and lack of communication affect people who rightfully and expectedly don’t know how or don’t want to work around them.
Here’s my issue (other than having so many issues I refunded)…
We should be seeing TONS of 2024 video showing successful flights using stock ATC, traffic, weather, etc. Maybe using the easy replay system that’s advertised.
From an advertised functionality standpoint, how much of the promo video is able to be reproduced? The answer should be “All of it”.
However, even simple comparison screenshots are a rare accompaniment to positive 2024 experiences, much less video and as such, one has to wonder why? I mean, a single video showing a great flight from startup to shutdown, ATC, traffic, weather, etc (like 2020), maybe screen recorded from the advertised replay system… that single video would shut everyone up.
I hear you, and I totally understand where you’re coming from. To address this, how about this: give me two airports in France, and I’ll record a full flight from start to finish using only the built-in MSFS 2024 systems.
I’ll:
Use SimBrief for the flight plan.
Avoid third-party tools like ActiveSky (I’ll use the in-game weather system).
Use Navigraph charts to guide my taxiing since I personally prefer them over the in-game taxiway lines (just a personal preference, nothing buggy).
Once the video is ready, I’ll post it on YouTube and share the link here. Hopefully, this will showcase a smooth and enjoyable experience and demonstrate what MSFS 2024 can do! Let me know which airports you’d like me to fly between.
I had the same idea but backwards. I think I’ll start a new thread for this. Collaborative 2020/2024 comparisons visually.
I’ve had 2020 since 2020 but just flew into Aspen last week. The approach visually was wonky as the road curves up on the hill/mountain with cars driving sideways, etc. And like all 2020 snow covered mountains, there’s little definition. The look reminds me of a cake in the shape of a mountain that has that frosting that lays over it like a blanket and makes any sharp edges round and smooth rather than jagged edges of a real mountain/rock structure.
Anyway I think shorter, more specific vids are good. Approaches, takeoffs, landings. Hopefully concentrating on what’s different visually and by how much. We all know about the bugs so nobody is expecting a video showing fully functioning internal ATC, traffic, weather all captured by the internal replay system despite what I said in part of my previous post.
So I mentioned Aspen and I’d love to see the approach in 2024.
Hello everyone,
What are your favorite experiences or features in MSFS 2024? Feel free to share them below!
