Microsoft Flight Simulator March 19th Development Update

"Together."

It is with immense pride that we stand with our community duringthis very challenging time. We continue to prioritize the health andwell-being of our team, friends and families. We do so with anunwavering commitment to remain connected to the community as wecontinue to develop the next iteration of Microsoft FlightSimulator. Your feedback, support, and encouragement continues to bean invaluable inspiration to the team.

With guidance from our leadership, we have taken steps to establishremote work spaces that will minimize impact on our developmentefforts. We have prioritized team focus on key deliverables core tocompleting the project, while pausing work on deliverables that arenot. In the near term work will be focused on delivering an updatedAlpha build, followed by assessing our Alpha participation. Once we'vecompleted that process, we will turn our focus back to otherdeliverables we have in the pipeline (e.g. Feature Discovery SeriesEpisodes, DR Roadmap Updates, Partnership Series updates, etc.). Thisis a temporary measure, we will continue to monitor the situationwhile providing frequent updates to the community.

For now, expect that many of the deliverables we've been working onwill be delayed by a few weeks while we get the team working atoptimal efficiency remotely.

In moments like this we are mindful of the importance of takingcare of those that take care of us. From all of us, to all of you, wewish you good health and safety.

We are all in this together.

Sincerely,

- MSFS TEAM

The following deliverables have been postponed and the team willprovide an update during the next update.

• POSTPONED - EPISODE 8 (Multiplayer) will be released.
• POSTPONED - DR roadmap preview for April/May will be released. (potentially delayed)
• POSTPONED - EPISODE 7 (IFR) will be released.
• POSTPONED - Partnership Series update will be released.
• POSTPONED - Feedback Snapshot update.

Alpha Build Update

The team is currently focusing on releasing an updated Alpha buildwhich we are planning to release next week.

Build notes for the upcoming Alpha update:

Highlights

We've added Groups to multiplayer, and while still early indevelopment you should be able to Add Friends and find them on theworld map, and click to join them.

We've added Training Missions for those who are new to FlightSimulator. These missions will take you through the Basic Controls,Attitudes and Instruments, and Take-off, Level flight and Landing.

The Cessna 152 has been added and is now cleared for takeoff.

We've added Live Events which are time-limited activities that weplan to switch out with different events frequently.

Peripherals Support has been improved, and more devicesadded. Please note that due to these changes, previous mappings fromthe Alpha will no longer work with the current Alpha.

We are hard at work prepping the airliners for release in the nextAlpha update!

New Content

• Training missions
• Cessna 152
• Sedona Landing Challenge

Plane Specific Updates

• Cessna 172 Skyhawk (G1000) has been improved for flight controls and instruments
• DA40 TDI instrumentation improvements
• DA62 has improved pilot controls
• DA62 instrumentation improvements
• Beechcraft Bonanza G36 issues glass cockpits improvements
• TBM 930 flight controls improved
• TBM 930 instrumentation improved
• TBM 930 animations have been updated

Alpha Invitations

There have been a number of discussions in the community regardingAlpha build access recently. We are continuing to discuss our currentparticipation strategy and will finalize any changes/communicate tothe community, once we release the updated Alpha build. Our currenttop 3 tasks regarding Alpha participation are as follows:

• Ensure that everyone that received an acceptance email has access to the Alpha.
• Ensure that those that registered early for pre-release build testing, have access to the Alpha.
• Assess Alpha participation options for adding more people as quickly as possible.

Source