The community survey for the Flight Sim Awards 2026 is now open!
This survey is part of the nomination phase and helps shape the shortlist for this year’s awards. Your input helps highlight projects, creators, and long-term contributors who have made a real impact across the flight simulation community, from aircraft and scenery to tools, content creation, and individual contributions.
You can suggest names or projects for any categories you feel confident about. If there are categories you are unsure about, it is perfectly fine to skip them.
All responses will be reviewed and passed on as part of the official nomination input to the Flight Sim Awards organising board and jury, alongside input from other invited content creators and media.
The survey is sent jointly by Threshold, FSElite, and Cruiselevel as the organisers of the Flight Sim Awards. You can read more about the Flight Sim Awards in our previous post.
Categories and Criteria
All entries are evaluated according to shared principles:
- Release Period: Products or projects must have been released or received a significant update within the previous calendar year.
- Availability: Entries must be publicly available to the community.
- Platform Relevance: Submissions should be intended for use within flight simulation software or hardware.
- Quality & Impact: The work should demonstrate excellence, usability, and meaningful contribution to the simulation experience.
- Fair Play: Only original work is eligible.
- Community Focus: Positive and lasting impact on the community is a key factor.
These are the categories for the Flight Sim Awards of 2026:
- Best Freeware Tool or Utility
- Best Freeware Aircraft (Per Sim)
- Best Freeware Scenery (Per Sim)
- Picassonissimo Award – Best Aircraft Painter
- Best Customer Support
- Best DIY Hardware
- Rising Star Award
- Innovation Award
- Community Contribution Award
- Outstanding Hardware
- Best Aircraft Add-on (Per Sim)
- Best Scenery Add-on (Per Sim)
- Best Tool or Utility
- Outstanding Product Update
- Hover Award – Best Helicopter
- Lifetime Achievement Award
Thank you for taking part and helping ensure the awards reflect the wider community. Remember, your input helps determine the final voting process, so this is your chance to speak up.
As a reminder, this award ceremony is designed to celebrate releases and developers who provided excellence in 2025. This is a collaborative approach between multiple organisations, community members, and a panel of experts to ensure that the process is fair and reasonable. That said, we’re in the early stages of the process and welcome constructive feedback to continue providing even more transparency on the vote.
