Flight Simulator continues to have its challenges as the sim heads into 2022 and several bugs that were introduced in the latest sim update are being squashed as Asobo looks for testers to join the latest public testing opportunity before releasing to the wider public. There’s also a weird high altitude weather bug that causes planes engines to fail and drop out of the sky. Let’s catch up on both of these things.

Public testing opportunity

The latest sim update for Microsoft Flight Simulator has improved many aspects of the sim but it has also brought new challenges and new bugs. Among them are a persistent TrackIR problem that seems to disable TrackIR even if its enabled. Asobo are busy squashing these bugs and looking for testers to jump in and help with the process.

This public test “flight” (as Microsoft calls many of their testing builds) will, according to Asobo, be opened up on Monday December 6th for Microsoft Store and Xbox users. Steam users, unfortunately, are not part of it although a Microsoft representative on their forums reported that they have discussed that.

Here’s what they are working on.

This optional build includes fixes for several issues, including Track IR and VR controls. A full list of release notes will be found in the public, pre-release testing section of the forums soon. There is no set release date for this specific build as we will evaluate your feedback to determine if/when we can publish it to everyone, but we will provide updates to you as often as we can to keep you informed on the process. 

The full list of fixes is also due by Monday so we’ll know what Microsoft intends to fix before the holidays roll around.

For the full details, visit Flight Simulator.com.

Have you been sent tumbling out of control?

Numerous Flight Simulator pilots have reported problems at higher altitudes with their aircraft being sent spinning out of control. Winds jump to high values and the outside air temperature goes from -25 to +200c (toasty!) before their aircraft’s engines shut down and the aircraft falls from the sky.

I’ve seen a few posts about it but none were more dramatic than this one posted by a user on Reddit.

Can someone explain? Just before this both engines shut down… got them restarted and was climbing back to cruse altitude. Was trying to see why the engines shut down when this happened. OAT spiked to over 200 and the winds showed over 250kts for a second. from MicrosoftFlightSim

The bug with live weather had become widespread since the last update and had migrated to lower altitudes. Users are reporting that the bug has been resolved (presumably through a server side update) so hopefully future flights are smoother!