$69.99Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Every flight, a job worth doing
Take any of dozens of aircraft anywhere on Earth, from calm sightseeing hops to medevac runs and firefighting, at your own pace.
Is Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 worth it?
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is worth it if…
- you want to build from first solo to airline pilot, one certificate at a time
- you like slow, scenic flying, landing anywhere and looking around on foot
- you enjoy planning fuel, payload, and routes as much as flying them
- you want racing and landing challenges against other pilots
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A pilot career with real jobs
You pick a home airport and start earning certificates, reputation, and better work. Early on that means sightseeing hops and light cargo; later it stretches to medevac flights, search and rescue, aerial firefighting, remote cargo ops, and airline passenger transport. Missions span the planet, so your logbook becomes a travel diary. The flight planner helps you act like a professional, with IFR and VFR layers, fuel and payload planning, and airport weather and NOTAMs, on desktop or on your phone before you fly.
Races, rival pilots, and tricky landings
When you want pressure instead of procedure, the Challenge League puts you head-to-head against other pilots. Rally races, precision landings, and low-altitude challenges test stick-and-rudder skill in dozens of activities, alongside Red Bull Air Races and Reno Air Races with the new Roswell courses.
A camera that likes the window seat
As a World Photographer you travel to capture natural vistas and famous landmarks, building the pictures into a travel book. Photo challenges grade both your eye and your flying, since getting the angle means putting the aircraft in exactly the right place at the right height. It rewards slow flying and small airplanes: a Cub over a river valley, a helicopter hanging beside a waterfall, a balloon drifting past historic streets. For relaxed pilots, this is the gentlest reason to keep exploring.
A planet that keeps the details straight
The digital twin covers airports, cities, countryside, and ocean in unusual depth: hand-crafted airports, glider sites, heliports, points of interest and oil rigs, plus procedural airports, helipads, buildings, and trees on a massive scale. You can land out in the wild, step out of the cockpit, and walk through 27 biomes with seasonal grass, rocks, flowers, and vegetation. Wildlife, livestock, ships, road traffic, and licensed airline liveries fill the gaps. New cloud types, auroras, and photometric lighting do the sky justice.
Good to know before takeoff?
How does the career actually progress?
You start where you like, take lessons and certifications, then unlock paid activities. Think charter flights and cargo runs first, specialized work like firefighting and rescue later, airline transport at the top. Reputation and experience gate what you can fly, so it feels like working up the ladder.
What can I fly?
The Standard Edition includes over 65 aircraft, from the Cessna 152 and Cub-style taildraggers to the A320neo, 737 MAX 8, 747s, A400M, gliders, helicopters, a hot air balloon, an airship, and oddities like the Spruce Goose and Wright Flyer. Higher editions add more types, such as the 787-10 Dreamliner, Chinook, and Dreamlifter.
Is it only about systems and checklists?
No. The simulation models electrical, pneumatic, fuel, hydraulic, payload, passenger, and avionics systems, with walkaround preflight checks for the detail-minded. But you can also spend an evening doing photo flights, rally races, or low passes over photogrammetry countryside. Set your own mix of study and sightseeing.
How big is the world?
Planetary. Enhanced elevation, over 500 detailed cities and large photogrammetry countryside areas, 150 hand-crafted airports plus tens of thousands of procedural ones, 80,000 helipads, 1.5 billion buildings, and wildlife and ship traffic worldwide. If you can name the runway, the lake, or the lonely oil rig, you can probably go there.
