While a lot of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is clearly buggy and not working as well as it should, there are some parts of it that are working brilliantly and so in this article I want to focus on some positives and on two aircraft that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed flying so far. Got Friends is one of the developers that became a first party partner of Microsoft (and announced to some fanfare back in June at the FSExpo) and they produced the Draco X and the Zlin Norden for Microsoft Flight Simulator. I’ll get around to their other creations soon but for now … let’s look at these two.

Lively and exciting flying in the Norden

I love bush plane flying in Microsoft Flight Simulator. It’s fun flying it solo and even more fun when you’re flying it in a group. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve done a bit of both types of flying and it is a blast! While the Career mode continues to have serious bugs, frustrations and show stopping moments, hopping into the free flight mode and doing what MSFS always did best – free form flight simulation – makes me feel reassured that the core of the sim is largely doing what its supposed to be doing.

This isn’t a review but more of a mention of the two aircraft that I’ve spent some time with. Both are creations of GotFriends and the first one I want to look at is the Zlin Savage Norden. This small bushplane is one of the newer models from the Zlin company and is like a lot of bushplanes in configuration with its high wing, big tires, and carefully designed wing aimed at high performance at very slow speeds. Unlike some in the category, those who have flown it report that the Norden is a bit of a jack of all trades offering an easier to fly airplane rather than a monster performer. Maybe its this more simple approach that appeals to me because I really do love this aircraft.

The great visibility in most aspects is paired with a very cool looking modern instrument panel complete with Garmin GPS and synthetic vision. The instruments are easy to read at a glance and that means you can spend most of your time flying and looking around. And that I did with some terrific flights in the mountain passes of British Columbia near Bella Coola Airport (CYBD).

One such flight had me flying up the side of mountains and then ducking down into the river valley. The new trees and machine learning mesh details really stand out here with this kind of flying. Infact it was this flight where I can pinpoint my mood slowly begin to shift from disappointment and frustration with the new sim to appreciating all of the new lighting and aircraft effects. MSFS 2024 is going to need some time to mature but fun can be had and this was it!

I appreciate that this aircraft has a full slate of working electronics systems including working circuit breakers. I also appreciate that there are lots of little things programmed in there. My air speed indicator stopped working at one point, something I thought was a bug, until I realized that it had frozen over. It thawed and started working again once I got down into some warmer air in the valley. Awesome!

I’m going to take this one on some back country adventure flying complete with flight journals on the subject once I have time.

The Draco X beast

While the Norden is a something of a middle ground bush plane performer that feels almost modest in its approach to this kind of flying. The Draco X is the exact opposite. It’s a beast of an airplane with a turboprop engine, pressurized cabin (you have to inflate the door seals for that to work – its simulated!), and specialized wing design to make the most out of its short field capabilities. The aircraft is a simulation of the real world Draco X bushplane, a rework of the original Draco, created by Mike Patey.

This thing feels like a fighter plane. Not even… its a totally bonkers airplane. Based on a PZL Wilga, something that Got Friends did a brilliant release of for 2020, this aircraft powers up and is almost immediately airborne with almost helicopter like performance. Climbing the sides of the mountains near Bela Coola was easy to do with incredibly high nose pointing and insane climb rates. It’s not going to beat a fighter jet at speed over distance but it feels a bit like one when you’re climbing away effortlessly from an airport.

Chucking it around in the sky is easy generally and the hardest part is finding the smooth balance when coming in for a landing on a short strip or out of the way sandbar. It’s just go so much power that it wants to pull and push you in different ways. Master it, however, and its brilliantly capable. People who discover this over the coming weeks and years are going to have an absolute blast.

It’s also very capable with a pair of glass panel displays, autopilot, and altitude capability. Again, this is a plane I intend to take on some longer adventure flights as soon as I can find some time to do that sort of thing.

While there are lots of MSFS 2024 problems and even some aircraft are not functioning they way they should you can count on these two bushplanes to offer a ton of fun in free flight mode. Go find a secluded airport, some nearby fields or sandbars to land on and take in all of the fantastic flying that you can do with them. The rest of the sim will get there eventually.