With a bunch of new airliners coming out this year and other options like PMDGs 737NG series getting an upgrade, I realized that I really should spend a bit of time with the Fenix A320ceo. I’ve had it in my virtual hangar for a long time and the company’s efforts to update it for 2024 have not gone unnoticed. Still, it has been months or more since I last flew the Fenix or really any of the Airbus narrow-bodies and its always good to compare and contrast as some other products come along. In the process of loading up the Fenix, I rediscovered a lot of fun with this product and went on some fun flights. Here are some thoughts and some journeys that you may want to take yourself! Let’s have a look!

Fully native for 2024

Fenix was among the very first to make their aircraft available in MSFS 2024 with a compatibility update that came just weeks after the sim itself had released. MSFS 2024 was in a bit of a rough spot at that time and Fenix’s aircraft, while quite flyable itself, had landed on a sim that had a lot of problems going for it at the time. I appreciated the free upgrade but ended up being distracted by other things… for about a year!

Fenix’s BFU (Big Fenix Update) landed late last year and brought the aircraft along to 2024 with native support. I found, after the update, that the aircraft was performing better than it had been under 2024 previously which was very welcome for me. I do find its still quite heavy at some airport sceneries (with the requirements of both pushing my VRAM over the max) but once in the air its exceptionally smooth.

Fenix have also made some nice changes under the hood by solving my issues with sidestick calibration weirdness. Under 2020, it used to cause me quite a few error messages and some grief despite having done all of the calibration efforts. I’m also finding the taxi behaviour to be far more buttoned-down now which is great. It more or less feels like the other high end airliners in the sim with appropriate levels of friction on the ground and I think that’s a good thing!

And after about a half dozen flights over the span of the last few months, I have to say I am appreciative of the small details that this aircraft offers in how its systems work and how the flight model has been continually tuned. I also appreciate the updated Fenix Installer which makes it easy to decide you’re going to fly a specific livery, install it from one of hundreds available through the installer, and go!

I have to budget both my time and my budget but following over a dozen flights, some detailed below, I keep eyeballing that A319 and A321 and thinking maybe I should give them a look too! Though I may also wait for their A320neo and A321neo release. Depending on what they ultimately deliver, those might be quite interesting experiences in their own right.

Anyways, here are some quick summaries of some fun flights I’ve done over the couple of months in the Fenix.

Helsinki to Oulu

Flying from Helsinki up to M’Msimulations’ Oulu (EFOU) in Finland was fun during this solstice flight. Not many hours of sunlight that far north but I managed to catch a bit of it with this regularly scheduled Finnair flight.

This was a good weather flight with cold temperatures but relatively clear skies on the departure and arrival. Cruising over the skies of Finland as the sun rose and set made for some dramatic colours and an easy first flight back in the Fenix A320.

Gdansk to Copenhagen

Wizz Air flies a lot of routes across Europe with their fleet of Airbus aircraft. On this flight, I picked a regular flight that they do from Gdansk to Copenhagen. It’s not a long flight but its just long enough to get up to a good cruise altitude before descending back down into Copehagen. I’ve got payware scenery for both airports with Drzewiecki Design’s superb Gdansk and FlyTampa’s Copehagen which hasn’t been officially updated to 2024 but seems to work reasonably well anyways.

This was a bit of a moody morning flight with a lot of cloud, sunshine on the tops, and then a descent back into some moody low cloud and foggy skies. Not a difficult flight but a fun one!

Calgary to Victoria

This one wasn’t great for scenery but it was very atmospheric. The journey from Calgary (CYYC) to Victoria (CYYJ) was done at dawn local time. Ran into some thick freezing fog on my way to the runway, took off into the first rays of sunlight, admired the view of the Rockies on the way across and then landed into more thick fog (not freezing this time) in Victoria. All in a retro livery A320ceo from the earliest days of when Air Canada operated the type.

In different weather conditions, this would have been a breathtaking journey though as it was, the moody conditions were just fine!

Oklahoma to Las Vegas

We need a little sunshine so this next one takes us to the southwestern part of the United States and ultra low cost carrier Frontier. Their fleet of A320ceo and A320neo aircraft cover quite a few destinations and on this flight I departed iniBuilds Oklahoma City (KOKC) and set course for Fly Tampa’s newly upgraded Las Vegas (KLAS) V3.

This flight was stunning with some low clouds to start but quickly giving away to some beautiful popcorn clouds, and scenic vistas below. We crossed farm fields and mountain ranges and desert to reach Las Vegas. I haven’t spent much time with the new Las Vegas yet but it looks to be a solid update from the earlier version and 75% off for past owners.

Ibiza to Amsterdam

We’re back with the moody skies! This one was interesting flying from iniBuilds Ibiza (LEIB) over to the MSFS 2024 version of the Amsterdam airport. The twist was that my early morning departure here was during a thunderstorm with appropriate rumbles and flashes – hard to capture on screenshots but it certainly set the initial tone.

After climbing out of the stormy weather, it was smoother sailing over France, Belgium and the Netherlands before landing in the warm glow of the sun.

Kitakyushu to Tokyo

My most recent flight saw me fly from Kitakyushu, one of Japan’s numerous artificial island airports, over to Tokyo with little known (outside of Japan) budget carrier StarFlyer. I love the dark grey scheme and understated lettering on this one.

One MSFS streamer that I was listening to recently, and I feel bad for not remembering who said it, said that any flight in Japan has always been spectacular and this flight confirmed that. Taking off into the pre-dawn gloom, the scene above the clouds was spectacular as the sun came up. We cruised past Mount Fuji (just barely visible with thick clouds underneath the peak) and has a beautiful view of Tokyo and Tokyo bay area coming in for the approach to Haneda. Stunning!