The first World Update and the first Local Legend of 2023 has just arrived to Microsoft Flight Simulator. World Update XII is all about New Zealand with the usual array of airports, photogrammetry updates for cities, and points of interest. We also have the release of the Orbx/Asobo DHC-4 Caribou as the next Local Legend. Let’s have a look!
New Zealand
I’m really excited about this. New Zealand is a beautiful country and anyone who has either been there or has seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy will know that its just breathtakingly beautiful. Flying around New Zealand in MSFS has to date been just ok but this new update looks to take the imagery and the terrain up to an incredible level.
Auckland, Christchurch, Hamilton, Nelson, Queenstown, Tauranga, Wellington all get the photogrametry treatment (sidenote, they are calling it TIN or triangulated irregular network now?). There’s a couple dozen points of interest and more than the usual number of airports getting the custom scenery update. The airports include Gisborne Airport (NZGS), Milford Sound Airport (NZMF), Martins Bay Aerodrome (NZMJ), Gorge River Airstrip (NZQE), Rotorua Airport (NZRO), Lake Tekapo Airport (NZTL), Whangarei Airport (NZWR), Westport Airport (NZWS),Quintin Lodge Airstrip (T004).
We also have three bush trips, three discovery flights, and four landing challenges.
It’s all detailed here on the Microsoft Flight Simulator website.
DeHaviland Canada’s Caribou
Designed and built by De Havilland Canada, the DHC-4 Caribou is a cargo aircraft with a specialist capability of being able to do a short field landing and takeoff. 307 were produced in the 1960s and they saw both civil and military use.
The aircraft is available from the Marketplace for $14.99 USD.
Marketplace Sale
There’s also a New Zealand marketplace sale going on with a discount of up to 53% on scenery and Orbx’s P-750 XSTOL.
- Landmarks Auckland City Pack
- NZAA Auckland International Airport
- NZMC / NZGT / NZTW Mount Cook Region Airports
- NZNS Nelson Airport
- NZQN Queenstown Airport
- NZWN Wellington Airport
- P-750 XSTOL
Stormbirds 
Loved the caribou ever since, flight simulator 2004:A century of flight. Great STOL fun .
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Looks good, I’ll grab this now. Thanks.
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So, excuse the ignorance, if I d/l the sim (F2P?) them I buy this landscape and an aircraft then I can fly said aircraft over high-detail Kiwi land but also over the globe that is basic but over high-detail zones should I also purchase such maps?
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Oh it’s better than that. Microsoft streams moderate to high detail all across the planet with the sim. The world updates then add a little extra in specific zones plus custom scenery with points of interest and airports and the like. World Updates are entirely free. They do take up a few extra GB of space. But nothing like a DCS map.
Of what was announced yesterday, only the DHC-4 costs money and it comes in cheap at $15 USD.
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MSFS is a standard purchase sim, with a bunch of different buy-in levels, now F2P.
However, if you do have a Gamepass subscription, the base game is included in that.
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If you plan to buy MSFS, the basic Standard pack is the best value because you get about 90% of what is featured in the most expensive tier plus it has the same map and gets all the World Updates. The next two tiers add 5 more aircraft each and some hand-crafted airports. Look over what is in each package carefully before you purchase. My only regret on choosing the basic package is that it doesn’t include the C172 with analog instrument panel. Unfortunately, Microsoft has made it more expensive to upgrade to the next tier than to buy at that level outright, so I’ve just contented myself with the C152.
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