Taking your simulator to the next level
You’ve purchased a simulator, purchased hardware, done your research and bought software. And now you’re lost! “What’s next”, you ponder. Well, never fear, because in this article we are going to give you some tips and tricks on how to upgrade your experience with the help of third party products and add-ons. You’ll be back involved and your interests will be piqued in no time!
Aircraft add-ons:
There is something for everyone here! The range of different aircraft available from a whole host of fantastic developers is astonishing. From the Bleriot XI to the Airbus A380 I’m sure you’ll be able to acquire products to fit your needs. The two most popular add-ons products for civilian simulators are the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 lineups respectively. Inside of Microsoft’s offering there are many developers who have pumped time and resources into creating high-end products, Fenix Simulations (£49.99) and Flight Sim Labs ($69.95). These two developers
have totally changed the scene for the A320 family within the virtual space. Both offer, on top of excellent line flying simulation, the ability to use CPDLC when connected to VATSIM (something we’ll touch on in a later article), the ability for random failure events to occur, circuit breaker simulation, icing simulation and much, much more. For X-Plane you are left with two choices at two massively varied price points. The JARDesign family or the FlightFactor family of products. From personal experience I can tell you that the FlightFactor ($79.95) simulation blows JARDesign ($29.96) out of the water. However unfortunately there is a price to reflect that!
In terms of Boeing products there is two main developers for two of the major civilian simulations. For Microsoft Flight Simulator, PMDG reign supreme. Their 737 line has proven itself time after time as a staple for every simmer. They have simulated 4 variants of the NG family, -600 through to -900. Each of these variants costing around $70. I’d personally
recommend purchasing the -800 for the best value for money as this variant by far has the most real world operators and therefore has the most route potential if your goal was to simulate real line flight.
For X-Plane there is really one major freeare project which enhances the default 737-800 aircraft from a group called Zibomod. They have revolutionised the default aircraft with entirely overhauled systems, flight dynamics and EFB. I personally used this aircraft for many, many months and can say for a free option it’s incredibly detailed and well worth the few gigabytes of storage it takes! A relatively new development team called LevelUP have tried to compete with Zibomod for the 737 market, again entirely donationware it’s a great product with excellent potential and as of early 2025.
The world of aircraft simulations is varied and broad and I could write for hours on products to purchase and products to avoid, my advice to you is to do your own research. If there is an
aircraft you’d like to fly do a quick search online and I’m sure you’ll find something. Watch videos, read reviews and make purchases based on New aircraft are released every day for all types of simulator, wether that be military or civilian. Such delightful can be found from finding a really good simulation of a niche aircraft and I wish you that same delight as you embark on that journey for yourself.
