Now what has changed in the meantime! With this post, I want to give you a current perspective on Flight Simulation, show you important developments and share my actual knowledge, if you want to dig into the matter home cockpit or flight simulation.

A personal review

At first, a small review on the changes since my last post. In 2021, I made the hard decision to disassemble and sell my homecockpit because of lack of time and space. I needed some time to let everything settle down and devoted my energy to other interests.

Looking back, I was always so busy with building the cockpit in the past, that there was actually no time for flying. Over the years, this lead to a loss of fun and decreased enthusiasm to engage in this matter in general, as the main goal was still to experience flying an airbus A320 as real as it gets.

In October 2024, after consuming some recent Youtube-Videos on Flight Simulation, I decided to start up again with a small desk setup. Just to be able to fly again. That setup developed a little further in the meantime and produces a lot of fun, since it is very easy to handle.

My personal setup with 34″ Asus Monitor, Thrustmaster & WinWing Hardware and MCDU via Fenix EFB.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020/2024

I have to admit that experiencing Microsofts Flight Simulator 2020 (shortened MSFS) in combination with the Fenix A320 was the one big reason for me to start all over again. The delivered immersion and graphics qualitiy is not comarable with anything we used to know in flight simulation before. With appropriate hardware, even fluent playing in 4K resolution is now possible – in that kind of quality! what a huge step! Take a look at my stunning MSFS in-game screenshots. And these represent only “High” and not “Ultra” graphic detail settings.

Crossing the Alps enroute from Munich (EDDM) to Nice (LFMN)
Deboarding at Palermo Airport (LICJ), Sicily

Besides that, it has to be mentioned that some Pilots state, that MSFS is far away from Prepare3D or X-Plane regarding the flight model and weather impacts. So says Captain Ingo, real-life A320-Captain and provider of the A320 type rating course on Youtube in one of his videos.
I personally can’t judge if MSFS flight physics are insufficient or if the weather impacts are unrealistic. What I can say is that I’m actually having much more fun than with FSX/P3D some years ago. And considering that 95% of the flight, the A320 is flown by the Autopilot, for my purposes I can live with that.

MSFS or MSFS24?

If you might ask why I’m using MSFS instead of MSFS24: Currently I don’t see any advantages for my requirements. The graphics don’t show significant improvements to me and I only fly the Fenix A320 aircraft and none of the built-in aircrafts. MSFS24 is brandnew and has still a lot of problems to be solved, e.g. loading times. I don’t like the fact, that most of the data has to be streamed. I have a 100 MBit/s internet connection indeed, but there are large amounts of data that need to be processed in the game and I have my doubts that this will work with the same experience in the nearby future. At the beginning, I went with the Game Pass to try out if everything works. Finally, I bought the discounted MSFS Standard Edition for 35,- Euros in December and I’m very happy with it.

New tools and add-ons

In addition to MSFS: Today we are in the comfortable situation that we can rely on nearly everything we need to make a flight as real as it gets for very low costs at all. Thanks to tools like Simbrief for dispatching work, FSLTL for real-time AI-traffic, Chartfox, POPM and many more. I will offer a closer look at this in a separate post soon.

Hardware aspects

Always and still a huge topic: Hardware. Meaning PC-hardware as well as flight simulation hardware, we could see huge developments in the last months and years in both areas. CPUs and graphic cards offer a stunning performance and also need to be appreciated in a closer view in a separate post soon. The same has to be said about the new chinese players in the area of flight simulation hardware, which seem to have the ability to roll the market upside down, offering quality hardware at low prices.

Projection for 2025

My personal goal for 2025 is to do a flight with ATC-coverage on VATSIM. At the moment I am learning the standard operational procedures (SOPs) for the A320 to become routined in flight management, before I will dive into air traffic communication. Besides that, I’m currently optimizing my personal setup and thinking about modifications. Maybe I will construct some kind of light-cockpit, but that still needs some clarification upfront.

So as you can see, we have many highly interesting topics to be covered and I hope you are looking as forward as I do to continue in this fantastic passion!
Stay tuned and see you soon! 🙂


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