In case you missed it, we recently announced that the full release of Sim Update 15 (SU_15) will be slightly delayed from its earlier targeted release date of March 26. It's important that we take the time to get it right, and after careful consideration, the team concluded that SU_15 isn't quite ready yet. We're now targeting a release for some time in April (exact date TBD).


In other SU_15 news, we released a new pre-release test build to volunteer community beta testers earlier today. You can read the release notes for this build on our forums here. We want to once again thank everyone who has opted in to the SU_15 public test for your timely and detailed feedback and bug reports.

On the lighter side, there's an ongoing discussion on our forums where players are sharing their memories of their first flight simulator, either from the Microsoft Flight Simulator franchise or from another developer. Our Community Manager SeedyL responded thusly:

When I was a kid in the 1980s, my family had a Commodore VIC-20 and C64 with a variety of really primitive flight simulators. I was super young at the time and didn’t really know what I was doing in any of them.

The first memories I have of actually using a flight sim and feeling like it was a somewhat rough approximation of real flight came when I was a teenager in the 90s. By then, my family had swapped our C64 for an Intel 486-based Compaq Presario desktop running MS-DOS 6.0 and Windows 3.1. I had several popular flight sims from the era (both civilian and military) including:

• Microsoft Flight Simulator 5.0[/*]
• Chuck Yeager’s Air Combat[/*]
• Falcon 3.0[/*]
• Red Baron[/*]
• Aces Over Europe[/*]
• Aces of the Pacific[/*]
• Flight Unlimited[/*]
• Sierra Pro Pilot[/*]
• Fly![/*]

We also asked several other members of the team to share their earliest memories of participating in the flight simulation hobby. Here are their responses:

Khoi, Quality Engineer:

My first sim was Microsoft Flight Simulator 4 on a 386. Or at least that's the one I remember. It could have also been been Flight Simulator 1 (or 2). I have a fuzzy memory of playing it, but for sure Flight Simulator 4.

Tyler, Pilot Tester:

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 on a Dell laptop my dad gave me. I used to bring an E6B and take my laptop on roadtrips and try to "fly" our route while we drove it!

Scott, Customer Support Agent:

I dabbled in FSX on PC, but I learned how to fly (sorta) in WW2 Online, a 24-year old MMO. My OG flying game was "Blue Max" for the Commodore 64.



Many, many others in the team have their own stories and backgrounds with flight simulators and we've been enjoying reading everyone's responses. If you have anything share, check out the discussion and post your own story!

– MSFS Team

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