The first member of Microsoft Flight Simulator’s Experts Series has seen a couple of updates over the last several months. The ATR 42/72-600 airliner has gone through many ups and downs through its released history and its been a bit of a wait for a 2024 native release for the aircraft but that was finally solved with A&AU 04. Its just seen some more fixes with A&AU 05 as well. Are we finally cruising smoothly with the ATR or is there some turbulence still to deal with?

A soft spot for the ATR in MSFS

I have a soft spot for the ATR 42/72-600 developed by Microsoft, Asobo Studio and Hans Hartmann. This modern turboprop airliner is popular around the world on shorthaul flights and that makes it a great option for folks wanting to get into simulated airliner flying on real world routes without spending several hours at cruise. The turboprop nature of the aircraft also makes it somewhat easier to handle for newer pilots with everything happening so much slower. This was all true for me when I started to get into this airplane a couple of years ago and I still credit this aircraft release as being my first true entry into airliner flying. It helped me open the door to the rest of the types out there.

In returning to the aircraft, I’ve also been quite happy to do some of these lower altitude turboprop routes again. I think they are often more interesting and fun. You’re down in the weather too which, for flight simming, makes things more interesting and provides for some interesting challenges that you don’t as often face with higher flying jet liners. The ATR brings that experience in a big way and Microsoft, Asobo and Hans Hartmann still have something of a monopoly on the modern turboprop airliner experience.

The nostalgia for me is significant then but that is up against some real challenges that the aircraft has had in the sim. What has been done to address them? Let’s have a look!

Visual and system changes… and bugs

The A&AU 04 update was a big moment for this aircraft (with A&AU 05 coming with some smaller ones) as it has seen some big changes to the entire airplane. It’s not quite a V2 overhaul but it is still significant.

The changes include a visual refresh of the exterior and interior model changing the effects, updating the textures and materials rendering, and adjusting the geometry. The nose in particular looks to have been adjusted to better match the real airplane and propeller effects are much improved too with better visuals – especially when using frame gen! The interior has also been spruced up with a revised cockpit and interior and gone are the light leaks into the cargo area. Generally the whole thing looks much better.

There are some issues too unfortunately. The nose wheel level of detail distance setting isn’t quite right and disappears while still too close to the camera. Cockpit reflections are also sometimes overwhelming in certain lighting situations and the textured overlay on the glass panels don’t all align either which is annoying.

There have been system updates too! Some systems I’ve had occasional problems with, specifically the autopilot, seem to be quite a bit better now though they remain quirky. It seems able to follow approaches better, it handles turns in flight routes better, and it generally seems to be less “weird” than I remember it being. Good!

But not all good as there are still some bugs with the aircraft. Some of them have been sorted in A&AU 05 though there are still some remaining. I found the approach mode still struggles to capture the ILS approaches. The infamous hotel mode (used on the ATR in lieu of a dedicated APU) still seems to be a bit of a hit and miss as well as to if the propeller will visually spin or not and fuel condition levers remain default bound to the propeller axis instead of fuel mixture like other turbo-props so I had to do a custom bind for that.

It was feeling a little underpowered in A&AU 04 but it seems to be back to its normal power level in A&AU 05. The engine parameters aren’t quite matching the published numbers according to some members of the community who have gone over it in more detail. Still, I think I appreciate the performance being closer to true than the numbers showing correctly. Ideally, we’d have both… especially on an Expert aircraft.

The aircraft also does seem to struggle with a fair number of inconsistent issues. Some users, mostly on console (I’ve observed), seem to have random autopilot disconnects or other various autopilot related gremlins. Some suggest its NAV mode that is causing it and that HDG mode works fine. Again, its hard to know if its the aircraft performing incorrectly or if its user error in there somewhere… and there is a fair bit of user error out there to be sure. There are lots of people who fly the ATR but who haven’t done the work to make sure they know how it operates before declaring it buggy. Admittedly, I might be making a few mistakes with it too.

Flight planning options

ATR has gained a new feature, however, its a bit hidden and its confusing people. You can, through the EFB, plug in your SimBrief ID and run a full flight plan through SimBrief or you can toggle it to run it through the MSFS 2024 flight planner instead. I applaud the option and think more airliners should allow this kind of flexibility.

To get it to work, however, you do need to go into a secondary page on the options menu and toggle which one you want. Otherwise you’ll be plugging in your SimBrief ID and scratching your head why the whole thing isn’t working (there’s no error message). It happened to me and, going by the forums, many of you as well. A slightly better UI approach probably would have made this better or easier to understand.

So contrary to some public opinion, this isn’t buggy or not working but it is a bit confusing. And that may be the case for a bunch of ATR related “bugs” that aren’t bugs at all.

Still some of the best flying around

Despite all of these issues, I’ve had some positively magical flights with the ATR. I flew the included Air New Zealand liveried ATR 72-600 from Wellington to Dunedin and an a similarly outfitted Logan Air 72-600 from Manchester to Edinburgh. I flew from the French island of Saint Pierre over to Deer Lake in Newfoundland and did a hop from Kos to Chios islands in Greece.

All of them were fun flights that felt similar to some of the jetliner ops I’ve done but with slower speeds, shorter routes, and fun airports that you just can’t fully appreciate with jet powered aviation.

The ATR is a cautious recommendation these days. It does have some weird and inconsistent issues that I wish had been ironed out. Maybe it will continue to see updates in A&AU 06 (nothing is confirmed) but as it is … its still fun and mostly good.

In my estimation, its better than many in the community say it is but its not as good as it should be either. One of those moments where two things can be true. Its frustrating to know that this Expert Series airplane is 90-95% good to great with that last 5-10% being a real challenge to work through. It needs more work, it needs more testing, and I really hope it gets it because despite all of the problems… I still think its kinda great! It just needs to jump that last hurdle!