The built-in training is...lacking.

I completed the in-game training sessions and, while certainly useful and educational, they only cover just the bare basics of flying. That's all well and good, except I want to learn a bit more if I want to get the most out of the simulator and that includes learning the start-up, fuel mixtures (along with the whys and hows of it, that stuff is almost Greek to me), and even the radio/transponder. Why they don't include training for the more advanced stuff is beyond me, unless that's included in eventual updates (I hope so!).

It's my intention to pretty much learn everything I can about an easy single-prop plane and practice flying that and hopefully eventually move on to the twin-prop, then turboprop and finally jet. I can't really do that unless I learn everything about flying a plane and not just the basics. Guess what I'm looking for is the simulator version of ground school.

Any suggestions or recommendations? Thanks in advance!

As a simmer for decades who loves aviation but has never flown a plane, I might be very similar to you. What is addictive about MSFS and all good flight sims is that you begin to delve into real-world learning in order to figure out how this simulation properly works. The more you learn, the more crazy you realize the sim is in its attention to detail, and into the rabbithole you go.

So I think that MSFS intentionally created only cursory, skim-the-surface training simulations. Microsoft tries to meet the desires of at least two different audiences: (1) people who love aviation and/or sim-aviation, and (2) new consumers. If you try and teach VOR navigation to a new consumer who just clicked on a link on a screen saying "learn VOR navigation!", he or she would get overwhelmed and/or bored and that's the end of the game for that person. New consumers need just a little taste, and then once they start they might eventually become nutjobs like the rest of us. But it's a gradual process.

The real answer to your question: Short of signing up for professional aviation classes that real pilots take (which I am considering these days btw), you can figure out a ton of MSFS features by watching the hundreds of Youtube videos out there put out by simming experts, many of whom are real-world pilots. (A lot of the latter are unemployed or underemployed right now, sadly, so some are using Youtube to help get by). There are many, but here are a couple of good ones I watch now and then:

P Gatcomb:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGWd_NMbp7GxMg4bZO65heQ

Corporate Pilot Dad:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOTbYtdmGZfqxq0D0lsrYeQ

A lovely French-Canadian pilote who calls herself Pilot Emile:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgUEhJJU3XJVBb8V2nckN3Q

There are tons more, including real 747 pilots who also put up sim videos about airliners but I think your interest is in small planes. It's all out there though.

If you look through the Real Aviation Tutorials & FAQs section of the forum, below, some of that information will be answered. That section was taken from many questions/answers over the years since FS98, and also gives a few exercises you can do in the sim that can help you with your flying.

Of course you can also ask questions here about such things, since there are many long time simmers, real pilots and even some real world instructors here who are happy to answer questions about flying, real or sim.

Software programs aren't flexible enough to provide all of the info you'd get in a real ground school, or in real flight training, but do get you started. https://www.faa.gov/ has a lot of good information, too, and https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/ lets you access the same manuals that many pilots train with, official FAA publications with all manner of good information, such as the Airplane Flying Handbook, the Instrument Flying Handbook, the Instrument Procedures Handbook and many others. Sure it'll take some studying on your part, but that's what you seem to want, so be sure to explore all the above. In addition, of course, are the various videos that others have mentioned.

Lots of resources -- good luck.

Thanks everybody. I had tried some YouTube videos, but so many were difficult to follow for a guy who's deaf/Hard-of-Hearing like me. That's an unfortunate circumstance for me, but buying MSFS 2020 because the flight training was FINALLY subtitled was a big factor in buying it (something FS:X lacked). I had no idea it was so superficial, though.

The Squirrel videos look promising because it looks like he (or his team) actually took the time to not only subtitle the videos, but edit them a bit as well so they're accurate. So I'll give his a go. Hopefully they include advanced topics like fuel mixtures, talking to ATC, etc., for those getting into serious simming like myself (True-to-Life ONLY please! LOL!).

Thanks everybody. I had tried some YouTube videos, but so many were difficult to follow for a guy who's deaf/Hard-of-Hearing like me. That's an unfortunate circumstance for me, but buying MSFS 2020 because the flight training was FINALLY subtitled was a big factor in buying it (something FS:X lacked). I had no idea it was so superficial, though.

 

The Squirrel videos look promising because it looks like he (or his team) actually took the time to not only subtitle the videos, but edit them a bit as well so they're accurate. So I'll give his a go. Hopefully they include advanced topics like fuel mixtures, talking to ATC, etc., for those getting into serious simming like myself (True-to-Life ONLY please! LOL!).

Bummer so many are hard to follow for you, sorry to hear that. I had a college job as a relay operator for the hard of hearing, so I became familiar with a lot of the deaf community's issues. You're probably more of an expert on Youtube's caption feature compared to me, but I have noticed that captions work reasonably well when turned on for many of these videos. If I spot any especially good ones from now on I'll post them here.

Also, the friendly real-pilot folks here gave me some great reading suggestions for which you wouldn't need to rely on audio, on page 1 of this thread:

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?329364-Questions-about-ILS-for-real-or-sim-pilots

Many of us can go on youtube or twitch or other sites to get bits and pieces of information pertaining what we want to know but why? The fact still remains this was an integral part of what made flight simulator so great over the competition is that it provided this information within the game.

I do not want to have to go out searching for every thing I want to learn on the internet when the game itself should have the knowledge and tutorials built-in. It was said earlier they tried to balance between flight sim enthusiast and new consumers. I agree with that but what I do not agree on is the fact they dumbed it down to a point that is severely lacking for the flight simming enthusiast.

The fact that its not even offered is poor planning to me. They have every different level of assistance with flight aids if someone just wants to jump into a plane and fly. Someone looking for more should not have to rely on 3rd party sources for this information.