As expected, the Microsoft Flight Simulator world update has now been made available for free to all owners of the new flight simulator. World Update II focuses on the USA, with enhancements to the elevation maps, aerial imagery, new airports and various brand new points of interest added. In addition to the world update, version 1.11.5.0 of Microsoft Flight Simulator also brings improvements to performance and other UI improvements.
World Update II: USA
The United States of America has seen a huge update within the simulator with the latest update. As shown off on the Flight Simulator blog, vast parts of the region have seen improvements to both the elevation data and the aerial imagery. The maps shared indicate the current elevation data used in the simulator. The darker the shade, the better the level of detail. Washington, California and New York all appear to have the highest levels of detail for the elevation, with other most others areas still seeing 16m elevation data. In the second map shared, aerial imagery has also been updated in areas across California, Washington, Florida, Texas and many others.
In addition to elevation and aerial imagery, four brand new hand-crafted airports have been added free of charge to all versions of the simulator. These airports are Atlanta International (KATL), Friday Harbor (KFHR), Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport (KDFW) and also New York Stewart International Airport (KSWF). Furthermore, there have been an additional 50 new points of interest added. Such additions include Chimney Rock, the White House, Fort Knox, Hoover Dam, Kennedy Space Center and also Rainbow Bridge. The full list is down below.
Other Improvements
As mentioned, the update also includes an array of improvements to the simulator itself. The number of changes is somewhat significant with even more performance and stability improvements and also fixes to fuel consumption in the Boeing 747-8 and the Airbus 320neo. The general aviation aircraft also saw a few improvements with the Cessna 152 having 5% more elevator authority and the EXTRA 330LT seeing the engine reactivity increased. For those who have the Honeycomb Aeronautical Bravo Throttle on its way, the simulator will now recognise the unit with a new preset for GA twins.
The whole list of changes, again, can be found down below.
To get the latest update for Microsoft Flight Simulator, launch the sim from your PC and simply allow the simulator to update. Once again, World Update II: USA is a free update for all those who own the simulator through any platform.
Microsoft Flight Simulator World Update II: USA
Airports
- KATL – Atlanta International
- KFHR – Friday Harbor
- KDFW – Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)
- KSWF – New York Stewart International Airport
Points of Interest
- Chimney Rock
- Crazy Horse Memorial
- Pilgrim Monument, Provincetown MA
- Fort Jefferson
- Washington Monument, Washington DC
- Capitol, Washington DC
- White House, Washington DC
- Wright Brothers National Memorial
- Mount Rushmore
- Biltmore Estate
- Devils Tower
- New River Gorge Bridge
- United States National Arboretum
- Bixby Creek Bridge
- Chesapeake Bay Bridge
- Sunshine Skyway Bridge
- Mackinac Bridge
- Navajo Bridge
- Astoria-Megler Bridge
- U.S. Grant Bridge
- Lowry Avenue Bridge
- Lewis and Clark Bridge
- The Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge
- Fort Knox
- Monument Rocks National Natural
- Coronado Heights Castle
- Ellis County Courthouse
- Monument Valley
- Yosemite El Capitan
- Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde, Colorado
- Shiprock, New Mexico
- Haystack Rock at Canon, Oregon
- Half Dome, Yosemite
- Dworshak Dam
- Hoover Dam
- Oroville Dam
- Alcatraz (water tower and lighthouse only)
- Fort McHenry, Baltimore
- Rainbow Bridge, Niagara Falls
- Glen Canyon Dam
- Las Vegas Strip (Night)
- Confederation Bridge
- Johnson Space Center Houston (visitor’s center)
- Kennedy Space Center Florida (visitors center)
- Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (memorial site)
- Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory
- Gulf of Mexico, Oil Rigs
- Airport Graveyard, Tucson
Microsoft Flight Simulator v1.11.5.0 General Update
PERFORMANCE AND STABILITY
- Several crashes were fixed to improve overall stability of the title
- Optimization on photogrammetry loading
- Offline air traffic aircraft are now properly removed at a long distance. This caused a performance degradation over time.
PLANES
- From handling and flight model improvements to auto-pilot fixes, a general review of all planes has been made for this update.
AIRLINERS
- Fixed: Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental fuel consumption issue
- Fixed: Airbus A320neo fuel consumption issue
- Reduced yaw oscillation on the Airbus A320neo by further reducing yaw gain
GENERAL AVIATION AIRCRAFT
- Pipistrel Virus SW121: Fixed – Cruise speed adjusted (previously too low) in the aircraft selection menu
- Cessna 152: 5% more elevator authority
- Cirrus SR22: Fixed – The mixture control is no longer set to Automixture
- Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX: Fixed – invisible spoiler removed
- EXTRA 330LT : Engine reactivity increased
- EXTRA 330LT : Fixed full castoring tail wheel animation and allowed up to 90° rotation
- Robin Cap10 : Allowed 90° range of motion for full castering rear wheel
Garmin glass cockpit equipped aircraft:
- Added visual notification on PFD when deactivating AP
- Flight director is now automatically turned on when AP is enabled and cannot be disabled
UI
- The data consumption value calculation has been fixed
- Fix input feedback on some devices
- The livery name should now be correctly displayed in the menus
- The weather image in the flight plan should now be correct in all cases
- Some accuracy for the live time have been fixed
- Fixed an issue that prevented the checklist eye button to be selected
- The bushtrip menu should no longer freeze
- Switching from online to offline in the menu should no longer freeze the title
- Fixed some behaviors that resulted in having the World map search not responding
INPUT
- Honeycomb Bravo Throttle Quadrant default preset has been added (GA Twin engines configuration)
- CH Throttle Quadrant default preset has been added
- CH Flightstick Pro default preset has been added
- CH Combatstick default preset has been added
ACTIVITY
- The logbook should now properly log unfinished flights (either via return to main menu or via landing and shutting down the engine and Master)
- The landing challenge target should now be properly displayed after restarting the activity
WORLD
- Streetlights of smaller streets and roads should now be displayed more randomly
- Workers on an airport should no longer randomly freeze and stop being animated
