As we get to the end of the year I find myself thinking about the “last time” I will do something in this calendar year. With the new X-Plane update out and my desire to make sure I got one last flight in on the sim before the year is out, I picked out a short journey for myself and set out to fly it while learning a bit more, first hand, about the new ATC system.

Power up, request and taxi

For this flight I’m back in a favourite of mine. Aerobask’s DA42 came out in 2023 and forms a trifecta of Diamond aircraft with their DA62, DA50 RG and DA42 (arriving into X-Plane in that order) being popular options from the developer. I’ll definitely be revisiting each of them soon but for today’s flight its all about the DA42 TwinStar!

For today’s flight I made use of the new ATC system for X-Plane 12. It was kind of a coincidence that I jumped in to use it just as it had been updated but that worked out well for me. One of the new features is that the ATC system now has better VFR options. I asked for a VFR departure from Teterboro and it gave me Runway 24 with taxi instructions. When it came time to cross another runway, I was told to hold and then cleared to cross it. I like that a lot! (MSFS ATC doesn’t do that … yet).

I even got chastised a bit by the ATC when I accidentally tried to send a message while they were talking. Sorry about that eh!

After coming to a stop at the hold line for Runway 24, I was cleared to take off and up we went!

Cruising to Atlantic City

I’m sure I busted a bunch of rules for VFR flying in the NYC area at this point and ATC ultimately did a weird thing of just dropping me from flight following. But eventually I was able to pick it up again… not before taking in the sights over New York.

While X-Plane 12 continues to lack in the scenery department, it does NYC fairly well with a fair bit of custom scenery added and some key landmarks modeled. In some ways its sharper and better than the photogrammetry that MSFS offers and the bridges are far superior!

After passing New York City and leaving it behind, I entered into the airspace above New Jersey flying directly towards my destination of Ocean County Airport.

I decided I’d make a detour and changed course towards the coast taking in the sights over Atlantic City and looking up and down the coast line. Here, the genericness of X-Plane 12 creeps back in again. Hopefully their next gen scenery system will help boost some of that. Nonetheless, it looked alright in the setting sun.

There were plenty of ships of both the small and large variety hanging around off the coast as well. X-Plane still doesn’t have a lively aircraft environment yet (the skies were clear of any airplanes) but the ship traffic is quite good though occasionally a bit chaotic in their movements.

Coming into Ocean County

Eventually I steered course for my destination and got back to the business of landing my DA42. Coming into the airport, Ocean County Airport (MJX) is listed in X-Plane as being untowered so I checked the weather and brought myself in. I would have liked to be able to report position to traffic but that didn’t seem to be an option – perhaps something for a future update.

I headed out to a reference point and then turned myself in for a landing on Runway 9. I ended up being a little fast and sinking a little bit too much but the landing on the whole wasn’t a bad one and the DA42 touched down smoothly.

Then it was time for a quick taxi over to a parking spot, power down, and open up the canopy.

A good last flight in X-Plane 12 and one that has me wanting to come back to the sim and spend a bit more time checking out its recent enhancements. X-Plane 12 continues to play second fiddle to Microsoft Flight Simulator in many ways but ongoing efforts to improve its weak spots, while maintaining its many strengths, are a good look and Laminar Research’s blog post updates have been more comprehensive and better tuned to reporting on the sim’s many virtues as well as needs for improvement.

Looking forward to more time with the sim in 2025!