FlightFX has brought their HJet (or Honda Jet) up to spec for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. It was a personal favourite of mine on MSFS 2020 and I had been missing it in my virtual hangar for some time… but no longer! The jet has seen some upgrades which I’ll be detailing in an upcoming review but in the meantime, let’s enjoy the scenery from FL370!

Scenic departure

For our flight today, we’re going to be leaving from Bern airport. The airport, or more specifically the scenery around it, is incredibly scenic and I figured I’d moonlight (fictionally) as a business jet pilot flying out of this incredible spot. The Honda Jet, with its 4,000 feet takeoff distance can easily do the 5,000 feet available at Bern and I feel like this is a great highlight on how you can realistically fly this jet in and out of smaller airports that bigger airliners and business jets just can’t.

The aircraft is also an impressive performer and so for a little bit there I was doing 4,000 feet a minute on the climb out up to 16,000 feet. There were other moments where we were altitude restricted of course but once I had the opportunity, we zoomed up quite quickly to our initial climb altitude. Then, once cleared the departure, we were cleared to climb to FL370.

More scenic on the way!

Now well above the clouds and the mountain peaks, this is an area where you can still appreciate the scenery from higher altitudes. Stunning peaks and deep valleys, lit by the sun and highlighted by winter snow, made for impressive viewing!

I’ve done a half dozen flights with the HJet since it returned and for the first time I ran into a new warning message. Fuel temperature low. It cleared relatively quickly but it highlights the challenges of extreme high altitude flying. The OAT on this flight? -65c! Cold enough that the heaters have difficulty keeping the fuel warm enough. As it turned out, they were able to cope and the warning went away but I’ve read that the other solution is simply to descend to a warmer altitude. MSFS 2024 is pretty good at doing layers of altitude including temperature layers and that made this a fun little simulation moment!

After all of that, it was time to put on some calming music and cruise along at FL370. The HJet can climb as high as 430 but I wanted to take it a bit lower and see what kind of speeds we could see at this lower altitude… Mach 0.7 as it turns out. Fast enough!

Arrival to Bari

Along the way there were various thick clouds at lower altitudes as well as fog and low visibility in areas that obscured the full visibility of the ground. But that all began to pass as we made our way down the Adriatic coast.

As we began to approach, it was time to descent so I used the aircraft’s VNAV system to bring the airplane down, based on FMS constraints, into our arrival at Bari.

Making a sweeping turn inland at around 4,000 feet, I got the aircraft configured for landing bringing down the gear and flaps. Landing lights came on automatically.

What followed was perhaps one of my best landings of all time with a very gentle touch down just beyond the lines after a beautiful little flare and brief stay within ground effect. FlightFX’s CFD flight model work clearly showing off here and it was very satisfying!

Parked, shut it down, and stepped out of the airplane. Extremely satisfying flight!