It’s time to catch up with some of the most recent updates around Microsoft Flight Simulator. Just today we’ve seen aircraft updates including some long awaited tweaks to the Microsoft/Asobo ATR airliner, a few fixes for the MU-2, plus the first invites for the very exciting World Hub are out too. All of this and a look at what is ahead right below.

Aircraft updates: ATR and MU-2

Two aircraft from Microsoft and Asobo (and third parties) have seen some updates today with the iniBuilds created MU-2 seeing a few small tweaks while the ATR 42-600 and ATR 72-600 saw a lengthy list of updates, fixes, and improvements to the turboprop airliner.

The fixes and updates for the ATR are extensive with a couple dozen changes. Those range from support for 3 letter airport codes in the United States to making sure that engines can’t be started after shut down by pulling fire handle. That later one means that there’s new a repair button in the EFB to fix the airplane without a respawn. The MU-2’s list is just three items long with fixes for a Heading Bug becoming misaligned, reduced reflection values for the cockpit and a bug where the airplane could not be started in some cold weather conditions.

Full change log for both airplanes is here.

World Hub testing underway

One of the things that X-Plane has done so well over the years is open up airports to the community to use a common set of tools and scenery elements to upgrade the quality of airports around the world. It’s a mammoth task that a conventional development team cannot tackle but with potentially thousands of community members out there making approved tweaks to default airports, even default airports will start to take on their own flavour and look more accurate and be more functional as a result. Microsoft Flight Simulator is going to do their own take on this that they are calling the Scenery Gateway.

The first batch of invitations for it is out now. More invitations will be coming later and it looks like the application form is still open.

The overwhelming demand will likely only mean good things for all of us in the future.

First developer Q&A of the year

Microsoft Flight Simulator developer Q&A’s have truly been a great approach at connecting with the community in my mind. Featuring a mix of their own presentations, community questions and answers, and third party guest appearances, the live streamed Q&A’s have given me (and hopefully everyone else) quite a bit of insight into the progress that the sim is making and both the challenges and their efforts at finding solutions to complex problems.

That’s all to say that I’m quite excited for the first developer Q&A of the year which is coming up Wednesday, January 31 at 10:30 am PT (1830 UTC). It’ll happen on their Twitch channel first and then be posted to YouTube a few days later.

Other updates on the way

Going back to last week, an active development list gives us some insights into what’s coming up next in Sim Update 15 and beyond. The A320neo V2 from iniBuilds ran into some troubles with poor stability in its testing and so the aircraft was pulled from initial release, however, a new beta testing Flighting will probably include it again as the aircraft is now aimed at a Sim Update 15 release.

Fixes to 40th Anniversary aircraft updates including the PC-6 and A310 are on the way as are various World Fixes, support for the recently released Yawman Controller, and other performances are being done. One item, Air Traffic Control improvements, are very much on my wishlist with several bugs often causing some confusion and annoyance at times.

World Update 16 featuring the Caribbean is also on the way soon so look for that coming up.

Check out the last two developer updates, from January 18 and January 11, for all of this and more.