I use a bunch of tools, software and websites to manage my virtual flying, here is an overview of those items.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020
The simulator I use most. Purchased as the Premium addition to ensure I get as many of the handcrafted airports as possible.
A website where I get a lot of the additional content I use, specifically I recommend….
- We Love VFR (Region 1, Region 2, Region 3, Fireworks)
- These addons add many of the missing visual features you would expect to see when flying at low altitudes. Pylons, cranes, chimneys, smoke, antennas, etc)
- Improved airport markings
- This addon improves on the existing markings at airports to help ground navigation and improve the visual fidelity when using VR
- Toolbar Pushback
- This little addon places a new icon onthe toolbar that allows you to summon and control the pushback of your aircraft without having to use the ATC radio controls (which can be buggy)
- Simrate selector
- Another toolbar addon, this time to allow you to select the time rate of the simulation. Ideal if you only have an hour to spare but want/need to run a 3h flight. the rate selector can speed up the simulator, ie selecting a 4x sim rate (of your computer is capable) means that 3h flight now takes less that 1h.
- Addon-linker
- This is an independent application that allows you to manage the large collection of addons you are likely to end up with. In may case this allows me to keep the main game on high speed SSD storage but the addons (which are only loaded as startup) can be kept on my network drive
This is a career manager for flight simulators. It allows you to manage a virtual airline (cargo, people, factories, staff, etc) and operate the flights within the simulator.
FlyByWire (Liveries & Injector)
FlyByWire offer a traffic injector that interfaces with MSFS2020 and takes the real world flight schedules and places these aircraft within the simulator. This means when operating from a large airport you may find yourself taxing alongside an Airbus A380 bound for Australia, or waiting in line to take off while Spanish holiday makers embark on their break.
A free addon that places an iPad style device in your cockpit to provide flight information, airport charts, frequencies etc. It makes a great companion to the flight planning tools.
A great tool for flight planning – especially when flying VFR. I use this to plan all my VFR flights.
A great tools for flight planning – especially when flying IRF.
As a VR pilot I will tend to do the climb and decent phases of a flight in VR, however when flying a modern passenger jet there is a cruise phase that is spent almost entirely on autopilot. During this phase of flight I will often get out of my rig and do something else. In this case I was to switch the sound output from my VR headset to my desk. This application allows to be switch between the two with a hotkey.
As noted in my rig overview, my rig is designed for both racing and flight and as such I have to make car pedals act as rudder controls within the flight simulator. Joystick Gremlin is the way I do that, mapping the throttle and brake peddles into a single axis which MSFS2020 thinks is rudder pedals.
I obviously have a bunch of other addons in use, custom airports, extra aircraft, scenery objects etc…..there are just too many to list here, but the key software/addon/applications I use are here.