Was I mistaken in being led to believe we were going to get wear and tear in 2024?
As it stands I’m only seeing this as a part of Career Mode and not a part of free flight.
Was it specified in pre-release materials that it was going to be a feature that was locked behind Career Mode?
Did I miss something here?
I see no reason why wear & tear and failures could not be part of free flight. Optional state saving for every aircraft would be great.
My understanding was that it mostly, if not completely, relates to Career Mode. Unfortunately, the only type of “wear” I’ve seen in Free Flight is dust/dirt build up on the airframe. Logistically, I’ve not heard of any maintenance system outside of Career Mode.
Same, but how to wash them? It would be good to add a jet wash facility that sits with the old AV fuel area, or your character just has one about their person, a little bit like Farming Sim.
I think the only way is to back out to the main menu and load a new flight. It would be really nice if wear and tear, and dirt, was persistent in Free Flight and you had a maintenance screen to take care of everything. And of course, make it an option that can be disabled for those who wish not to use it. But alas…
I don’t understand why it would be locked just to career when you do walk around checks and can check the condition of the aircraft in free flight mode
I’m gonna see if I can badly damage an aircraft and see what happens
Add to do notes for Friday 
What is interesting is if you go to an aircraft from the selection screen and click “Configure”, like you’re going to select a variant or a livery, then click “Help” at the bottom of the screen.
The help sheet reads like we would have all this information here regarding wear and tear.
I think you can add that in wishlist…to be voted!
Naturally we can add a Wishlist item, but Wear and Tear was mentioned in pre-release promotions by the developers. I specifically recall they discussed/mentioned it in one (or more) of the keynotes they presented.
I’m asking here if I misheard them, because as it stands it seems the only part of the sim that supports wear and tear is Career Mode. I just do not recall that being specified in the pre-release keynote addresses. I’m not saying that they didn’t specify this, I’m just not remembering it so.
I’m also wondering if that system can be tapped by developers for use outside of Career Mode.
Some 3rd party aircraft have this, namely the A2A Comanche. The exterior even gets dirty as you fly and you have to wash it. And someone left an empty water bottle in the passenger side floorboard and an empty bag of chips in the back.
The state remains across uses, including all controls and settings. It’s really a gem.
I am aware. I’m just saying that state saving could be a simwide feature and not something a few third party developers create for their specific products.
TBF I think you misheard/misread. There’s no persistence in the free flight mode. Whenever you reload a plane, it will be brand new.
You can see things break during your flight (not visually though), like the landing gear collapsing with a hard landing, faillures (and to some extent, wear and tear) are working, but they will be reseted when you reload the aircraft.
That said, would be nice to have the choice to turn on persistence in the free flight mode. Also, would be nice to be able to fly our own planes (purchased in the career mode) in the free flight mode (so we can use the same planes and keep our maintenance schedules).
I tried to raise in the wishlist the concepts discussed here to retain wear and tear and have cleaning, repair etc. here and they removed my wish and suggested I vote on this one as the most similar: Tuning, painting, washing and repairing airplanes in the hangar - Official Microsoft Flight Simulator / Wishlist - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums
I am planning a long flight…this kind of option would add immense realism to the adventure.
I am already well on my way to building this as an external mod that directly interfaces with the sim. It works really well with 2024 compliant aircraft. The Persistent Aircraft Simulation Tool (AKA BirdMod)
It’s designed to bring the Career Mode features to Free Flight, but improved. It has an plane roster that keeps track of each airframe (based on type / tail number). Dirt is persistent between flights and you can wash it off when you want. Chocks can be reinstalled and are persistent as well. A complete wear and tear model is currently underway (though modeled much more in depth than the Career mode version). Single Piston Engine is available already in the beta. Other engine types, Multi-Engine, Flight control surfaces, Landing Gear, Electrical and all the other essentials are coming down the line as well.
There are also wear elements that are tracked between flights - so water buildup in the fuel, dust / grime from leaving it sitting on the ramp.
It is a big project. Check it out. Not sure what the policy is on promotional links, but Google: “Flight simulator 2024 stupid bird” and that should get you there.
I started a tour around the world, I am recording it and I call it “Pelo Mundo Afora”…
This mod would be very interesting adding realism to the adventure.
Looks like a real great mod. Very unfortunate it’s locked behind a paywall, and worst of all, a subscription… The worst kind of mods monetization IMO. Reminds me of Luke Ross.
No idea who that is - See, here is the thing. I don’t care about monetization. To be brutally honest, I don’t really care how many people use it. Don’t get me wrong, i am glad that something i have built makes people happy and fills gaps in their Flight Simulator experience - but really I am building it for me, for fun, and $4 / month is the cost of tagging along.
And really, we are not playing <Unnamed Large FS Developer DRM here> games here. Pay for a month, install the latest version. you get that version forever. Want support and updates after the 30 days, well sign up for another month and cancel again. If you really want to support it the project, then stay subbed - whatever makes you happy.
Looks very interesting but I have to agree with Phobos here, subscription model is part of a larger issue with modern gaming and I refuse to encourage it out of principle.