FS2020: Alpha 4

Patch 1.4.2.0 was a pre-release patch for Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) released on the 11th of June, 2020.

A Note From the Development Team

There are several fixes to our simulation of the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental in this update. Most notably, the glass cockpit displays should be more accurate now and the overall autopilot functionality has been improved. Further visual improvements were made to the cockpits, airframe exterior, and to the visual effects. The overall experience has also undergone a polish pass.

Transversal fixes to improve both commercial planes, Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental and Airbus A320neo, have been implemented. Updates include V-Speed improvements, which should noticeably improve the flight performance, controls, and overall predictability during flight. Improvements were added to better represent your flight plan with more accurate calculations and visual representation in the displays.

The Daher TBM 930 received a complete pass based on user feedback and improvements from our backlog.

Finally, the team has fixed lots and lots of bugs and added further polish across the entire experience. We still have room to improve, we look forward to your feedback.

Content

Flight Model

UNIVERSAL IMPROVEMENTS are ready to test!

With this update, we are happy to inform you that flight model updates have been applied to all our planes. We have made overall changes to the aerodynamics for the vertical and horizontal tail to make them behave more like wing surfaces and no longer like flat surfaces. This is a big change in that it completely changes the model behavior and required overall readjustment to all our planes. The expected result is that we now get more realistic elevator and rudder authority curves.

We also improved the weight and balance settings of all planes using better %MAC (Percent Mean Aerodynamic Chord) data.

General Summary of Improvements

• Improved elevator and rudder authority for all planes
• Improved pitch and yaw stability for all planes
• Improved weight and balance for all planes
• Improved stall behavior of all aircraft

Camera

A few improvements have been made to the cameras, let us know what you think:

• Added inputs to allow you to control the cockpit camera's backward and forward translations
  • 🠔 / 🠖 keys: move left/right
  • 🠕 / 🠗 keys: move forward/backward
  • Alt + 🠕 / Alt + 🠗: move up/down
• Right-click + Drag now allows you to control freelook

Community Feedback and Fixes

THANK YOU FOR YOUR FEEDBACK!

• Controls and Inputs: Some users were reporting issues with losing their control assignments, which would revert to default settings.
• Daher TBM 930: The speed and altitude trend line have been corrected from white from magenta
• TBM 930: Yoke vibration issues reported when using the copilot
• Peripherals: Corrected issues reported when using the Honeycomb Alpha yoke

Airport Issues Reported and Fixed

• AGY – planes started off center on runway 33 – now fixed
• YALF – testers were not able to find YALF in the sim – YALF no longer exists and has been replaced by YMUN
• YALM – was listed incorrectly and is now attributed to Allambie
• YALM – planes started off to the side of the runway – now fixed
• YALP – was listed incorrectly and is not attributed to Alpurrurlam
• YALR – coordinates now correctly correspond to Pine Hill Airport
• YALT – buildings were reported in the runway – now fixed
• YALZ – was listed incorrectly and is now attributes to Balma Airport

Plane Specific Changes/Improvements

All

• Overall focus in all areas to improve autopilot user experience and its effect on all the planes
• All airliners had transitions that were not loading in the MCDU when creating a flight plan from world map

A320neo

• Tuning of the trim – should be more realistic to the real-world experience and more balanced
• Auto Thrust/Auto Pitch issue fixed that was affecting the user's ability to maintain speed in strong head winds – this usually resulted in a stall
• A320 engines will now start when following the checklist "starting engines" procedure

B747-8i

• It was previously possible to have APU GEN and EXT POWER connected. Now they are exclusive.
• Engine #1 and Engine #2 were reversed – they are now set correctly
• User was unable to continue beyond page 2 of the route pages on the CDU
• Changing the selected altitude while in Vertical Speed mode was not updating the target altitude

Bonanza G36

• Activating the landing gear and/or flaps on approach no longer turns OFF the battery

C152

• Corrections to the altimeter

TBM 930

• Aircraft would rock when following a flight plane with the Auto Pilot ON
• FLC button now activates the FLC mode instead of the ALT mode
• The flight plan now better matches what the user sets on the world map screen
• The TBM930 engine no longer shuts down after a teleport

Airport Specific Changes

Airports

An additional improvement and completion passes have been made on the global airports to include missing content based on Bing Aerial imagery:

• Taxiway logic and visual markers added
• Surface types on airport runways, taxiways, and aprons updated
• Parking areas for aircraft updated
• Additional and improved ground markings on taxiways and aprons
• Other general visual improvements
• We have also run an additional pass on the ground texture colors of more than 12,000 airports to improve the integration with Bing data.

Bug Fixes and QOL Improvements

Stability

• Overall stability and framerate improvements

Airports

• Llanbedr Airport (
  • ICAO: EGOD
  ) tower size corrected
• Continue fixing issues with jetway placement – this is ongoing

Audio

• Voices now switch correctly in tutorials when changing in mid-flight

Cameras

• Overall camera improvements to improve FPS when moving around the inside of planes

Controls

• Objective would fail to show inputs when cleared, now fixed

Performance

• FPS improvements when loading sequences complete and during cutscenes

UI/UX

• UI stability improved overall – menu logic corrected, profile losses
• General attention to accessibility and user information – our ongoing objective here is to better inform your options when navigating the UI so your choices are more intuitive
• TTS voice mismatch corrected during Take Off Flight Training
• Autopilot had become inoperable when switching between Vertical Speed and Altitude in All Aircraft – this issue is now fixed

Weather

• The effect that live weather wind would have on the planes was too strong and now better matches real world behavior
• Unrealistic wind gusts were sometimes created when customizing settings – should be less frequent

World

• World tiles – black stripes on world tile edges fixed