Flight Sim Expo 2025 is happening this weekend! It’s hard to believe a whole year has passed since the expo in Las Vegas but here we are again with another exciting weekend of events going on. This is a bit of an unusual journal as I discuss the expo, my plans for coverage, and I do a virtual fly-in to the event in the FlightFX Cirrus Jet. Let’s go!

FSExpo coverage plans

Enthusiasts, aviation professionals, and pilots are all converging on Flight Sim Expo this year at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence, RI. With big name vendors, an entire day of product presentations and reveals, and plenty of action all around – it should be yet another great show!

As I have for the last several years, Stormbirds.blog will be covering the full event and I wanted to share what my plans are. First, Friday is going to be a big day with an afternoon of product reveals and presentations. This is the official list of presentations: Parallel 42, Altimeter Motives, Contrail, FeelThere, FliteSim.com, Fly With AI, FlyShirley, FSS, Grinnelli Designs, Honeycomb Aeronautical, iniBuilds, Meridian GMT, Navigraph, SayIntentions.AI, SoFly, VA Systems, WINWING, and X-Plane.

I will be live blogging throughout the day Friday so you can check in and see what has been announced. The event is also going to be streamed live for everyone on several channels. I have the option of doing a live stream from the Stormbirds YouTube channel if enough readers think they will be able to join in. Otherwise, we’ll see you on the live blog with rolling updates through the day.

Saturday and Sunday are packed full of presentations. This will be a little more relaxed, both on site, and with my blogging. I will be doing updates on some of the more notable presentations and nuggets of information that I learned so you can expect updates on both days.

A journal of my virtual flight to the expo

Let’s turn it over to a bit of fun with Microsoft Flight Simulator, Flight FX’s Cirrus Vision Jet and iniBuilds KPVD Providence Rhode Island scenery for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 which, incidentally, includes the downtown convention centre with the floorplan of the expo mapped out. It feels just a little bit like you were actually there!

I start my flight with some familiar scenery to regular readers. FSimStudios CYTZ Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport is an airport that I passed through in real life recently and so I wanted to make my start there. I debated a variety of aircraft for this flight and ultimately chose Flight FX’s Cirrus Vision Jet. This is an aircraft that was initially released as payware, then it was made to be part of the MSFS 2024 aircraft set essentially becoming “free” to owners. I’d heard a lot about this aircraft so I wanted to see for myself. What better way than to do a lengthier flight.

I did a bit more of a meticulous setup on this flight including using the EFB to calculate my takeoff distance on the short runway. CYTZ is operated entirely by piston and turboprop aircraft and jets aren’t allowed – but we’re breaking the real life rules just a bit. The Vision jet has just enough performance on this sweltering (34c at time of departure) day to get up off the runway with a bit of room to spare.

Once through the checklists, powered up, setup and ready to go, I got clearance to taxi and takeoff on Runway 8.

After a few nail-biting seconds, we were up and away taking off over Toronto’s dockyards and famous Portlands and Cherry Beach recreation area. Then I set course for the next waypoint and began the long climb.

The Vision Jet is not the highest performing aircraft with more of a GA level of performance than any business jet. So the climb was relatively leisurely and as we climbed along the length of Lake Ontario it seemed clear that, with current weight, we wouldn’t make the initially planned cruise altitude. So I requested FL210 and settled in for the cruise.

A look at the Vision Jet

Now was a great time to check out the aircraft. Flight FX have done a fantastic job with the aircraft. Strong visuals inside and out with different configurations and liveries available. The modeling is great and the systems work is the familiar Garmin Perspective Touch avionics suite which we’ve seen on several other aircraft including the company’s HJet. I can see why folks appreciated this airplane as much as they did when it came out a few years ago. As it stands today, it’s an excellent GA experience in MSFS 2024 and one of the better modeled airplanes. Even the CAPS parachute system is available – though I did not test it.

Landing at Providence

After a lengthy cruise, we entered into Providence airspace and began the descent. ATC kind of messed up here with the hand-off to Providence tower requesting I climb back to FL310 as filed with no provisions to descend.

So I climbed and climbed and climbed and eventually got there. Then during the next hand-off it neglected to give me clearance to descend. So my descend was late and I made full use of the vectors part of the STAR to extend quite a way out while we made a descent at a safe speed.

By now the sun had set and it was dark out. Setting up the aircraft for landing, we hit a fair bit of turbulence in the hot air on the way down. Undeterred, I brought the Vision Jet in for a smooth touchdown on Runway 16. Nice!

Then it was a taxi over to an FBO and time to turn the jet off.

A look around the airport and the expo

Before ending this, let’s have a look around the airport and the expo with a bit more light on the subject. Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport is rendered with an awful lot of detail as is the iniBuilds way. Its crisp and sharp but also a little performance hungry. My frame rates dropped for quite a bit of the time on the ground though the experience has been inconsistent – I suspect MSFS 2024’s VRAM issues continue to degrade the performance.

There’s a Breeze Airways A220 parked at one of the gates (an optional feature) which is a nice nod to a regular flight into the airport as well as the iniBuilds supported Synaptic A220 project.

Moving from the airport to the expo at the Rhode Island convention centre, there’s a beautiful rendition of the building itself and much of its interior. It’s kind of neat to take the drone camera and move through the expo, exploring the booths and the showroom floor. That was a fun experience! See for yourself!