Microsoft Flight Simulator Becomes Even More Spectacular With Free USA World Update, Available Now

As announced a few weeks ago, Microsoft and Asobo Studio released the second World Update for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

This time around, the update focuses on the United States of America, improving the look of the country considerably.

This includes new aerial photography, digital elevation maps, four airports, and tons of points of interest.

To download the update, you’ll need to grab a small patch on the Microsoft Store app or Steam client, and then launch Microsoft Flight Simulator to download the whopping 12.75 GB update itself.

After that, you’re not done just yet. You’ll need to go to the in-game marketplace where you can find the new scenery, which weighs 4.24 GB.

You can check out its beauty in the trailer below.

The update doesn’t just bring changes to Microsoft Flight Simulator’s scenery, but also extensive tweaks to the gameplay. Here are the patch notes.

Airports

• KATL – Atlanta International
• KFHR – Friday Harbor
• KDFW – Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)
• KSWF – New York Stewart International Airport

Points of Interest

• Chimney Rock
• Crazy Horse Memorial
• Pilgrim Monument, Provincetown MA
• Fort Jefferson
• Washington Monument, Washington DC
• Capitol, Washington DC
• White House, Washington DC
• Wright Brothers National Memorial
• Mount Rushmore
• Biltmore Estate
• Devils Tower
• New River Gorge Bridge
• United States National Arboretum
• Bixby Creek Bridge
• Chesapeake Bay Bridge
• Sunshine Skyway Bridge
• Mackinac Bridge
• Navajo Bridge
• Astoria-Megler Bridge
• U.S. Grant Bridge
• Lowry Avenue Bridge
• Lewis and Clark Bridge
• The Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge
• Fort Knox
• Monument Rocks National Natural
• Coronado Heights Castle
• Ellis County Courthouse
• Monument Valley
• Yosemite El Capitan
• Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde, Colorado
• Shiprock, New Mexico
• Haystack Rock at Canon, Oregon
• Half Dome, Yosemite
• Dworshak Dam
• Hoover Dam
• Oroville Dam
• Alcatraz (water tower and lighthouse only)
• Fort McHenry, Baltimore
• Rainbow Bridge, Niagara Falls
• Glen Canyon Dam
• Las Vegas Strip (Night)
• Confederation Bridge
• Johnson Space Center Houston (visitor’s center)
• Kennedy Space Center Florida (visitors center)
• Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (memorial site)
• Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii
• National Radio Astronomy Observatory
• Gulf of Mexico, Oil Rigs
• Airport Graveyard, Tucson

PERFORMANCE AND STABILITY

• Several crashes were fixed to improve overall stability of the title
• Optimization on photogrammetry loading
• Offline air traffic aircraft are now properly removed at a long distance. This caused a performance degradation over time.

PLANES

• From handling and flight model improvements to auto-pilot fixes, a general review of all planes has been made for this update.

AIRLINERS

• Fixed: Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental fuel consumption issue
• Fixed: Airbus A320neo fuel consumption issue
• Reduced yaw oscillation on the Airbus A320neo by further reducing yaw gain

GENERAL AVIATION AIRCRAFT

• Pipistrel Virus SW121: Fixed – Cruise speed adjusted (previously too low) in the aircraft selection menu
• Cessna 152: 5% more elevator authority
• Cirrus SR22: Fixed – The mixture control is no longer set to Automixture
• Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX: Fixed – invisible spoiler removed
• EXTRA 330LT : Engine reactivity increased
• EXTRA 330LT : Fixed full castoring tail wheel animation and allowed up to 90° rotation
• Robin Cap10 : Allowed 90° range of motion for full castering rear wheel

Garmin glass cockpit equipped aircraft:

• Added visual notification on PFD when deactivating AP
• Flight director is now automatically turned on when AP is enabled and cannot be disabled

UI

• The data consumption value calculation has been fixed
• Fix input feedback on some devices
• The livery name should now be correctly displayed in the menus
• The weather image in the flight plan should now be correct in all cases
• Some accuracy for the live time have been fixed
• Fixed an issue that prevented the checklist eye button to be selected
• The bushtrip menu should no longer freeze
• Switching from online to offline in the menu should no longer freeze the title
• Fixed some behaviors that resulted in having the World map search not responding

INPUT

• Honeycomb Bravo Throttle Quadrant default preset has been added (GA Twin engines configuration)
• CH Throttle Quadrant default preset has been added
• CH Flightstick Pro default preset has been added
• CH Combatstick default preset has been added

ACTIVITY

• The logbook should now properly log unfinished flights (either via return to main menu or via landing and shutting down the engine and Master)
• The landing challenge target should now be properly displayed after restarting the activity

WORLD

• Streetlights of smaller streets and roads should now be displayed more randomly
• Workers on an airport should no longer randomly freeze and stop being animated

During an event a few weeks ago, the developers of Microsoft Flight Simulator shared a lot of details about future plans, talked about the success of the simulator defining it as a “thriving platform.”

If you want to learn more about Microsoft Flight Simulator, you can check out our review that will tell you everything you need to know about Asobo Studio’s game.

Microsoft Flight Simulator is already available for Windows 10 and Steam. An Xbox version is also planned sometime in the next year.

You can also check out our guide wiki that includes more information to help you get started in the game.