Today in Flight Simulation News – October 1, 2026

Flight Simulation developers shared news today, including airports, aircraft, and updates for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, MSFS 2020, and X-Plane 12.

Simulation Daily publishes a roundup every day of all the news across the flight simulation field, helping you keep up to date with the ins and outs of the industry.

Without further ado, I leave you with today’s flight simulation news.

Aircraft & Avionics Update 06 Released for MSFS 2024

Microsoft and Asobo released Aircraft & Avionics Update 06 for MSFS 2024. It updates a few payware aircraft to MSFS 2024 standards: Junkers F 13, Junkers Ju 52, Dornier Do X, Dornier Do J Wal, and the Dornier Do 31.

Here are the full patch notes.

Core Simulation Updates

• Updated the Junkers F 13, Junkers Ju 52, Dornier Do X, Dornier Do J Wal, and Dornier Do 31 to the native MSFS 2024 aircraft framework.
• Refined flight performance, control response and ground handling across the aircraft.
• Improved water handling for the Do X and Do J Wal, including taxi, take-off and landing behaviour.
• Updated engine, fuel, electrical and cockpit systems where required for MSFS 2024.
• Improved preflight and exterior interactions where applicable.

Career Mode Compatibility

• Updated eligible aircraft configurations to support appropriate MSFS 2024 Career Mode activities.

Art & Visual Updates

• Converted the aircraft to the MSFS 2024 modular aircraft system.
• Improved exterior and interior materials, textures and visual consistency.
• Refined aircraft detailing and addressed legacy visual issues, including material and draw-order problems where required.
• Optimised assets and levels of detail for MSFS 2024.

Junkers F 13

• Refined radial-engine performance and tailwheel handling.
• Updated the passenger cabin and exterior interactions for the MSFS 2024 experience.
• Added passenger career mode.

Junkers Ju 52

• Refined three-engine operation, flight performance and ground handling.
• Improved cockpit interactions and passenger aircraft integration.

Dornier Do X

• Refined twelve-engine operation and the aircraft’s distinctive flying-boat handling.
• Improved water operations and visual detailing throughout the aircraft.

Dornier Do J Wal

• Refined the push-pull engine configuration and water handling.
• Updated aircraft variants, cockpit interactions and exterior presentation.

Dornier Do 31

• Refined lift-engine operation, hover control and the transition between vertical and forward flight.
• Improved VTOL systems integration and aircraft handling within MSFS 2024.
• Updated the stability system to a more realistic experience.

Venice Marco Polo Airport Released for MSFS 2024 and MSFS 2020

Atelic released Venice Marco Polo Airport (LIPZ) for MSFS 2024 and MSFS 2020.

It’s available on Orbx Direct (for MSFS 2024 and MSFS 2020) and Simmarket (for MSFS 2024 and MSFS 2020) with the following features.

• Highly detailed, handcrafted recreation of Venice Marco Polo Airport with its 2026 layout, including the latest terminal extension
• Dedicated versions for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and 2024, each built using the latest SDK features available for its simulator
• Fully modeled terminal interior, including check-in areas, security checkpoints, duty-free shops, lounges, retail areas and boarding gates
• Animated boat traffic between the airport and the islands of Murano
• Detailed boat terminal with fully modeled interior
• Highly detailed ground poly by Jakub Łukaszewski, with accurate apron markings and stand layouts, realistic surface wear, rubber marks and weathering
• Animated airport vehicles and additional animated scenery elements
• Scenery configurator with a choice of static or animated passengers, adjustable people density and options to toggle selected scenery elements
• Carefully optimized performance, with configurable scenery detail to suit your system
• Custom satellite imagery covering the entire airport
• Realistic custom terrain extending across the airport and into the surrounding lagoon marshlands
• Custom roads, detailed landside infrastructure and custom vegetation
• Detailed control tower with modeled interior
• Detailed recreation of the surrounding canals and waterways, including Associazione Nautica Bubi and nearby boat yards
• Fully functional custom jetways
• High-quality PBR materials and textures with realistic night lighting
• Detailed Leonardo and SuperJet International hangars, with a modeled SuperJet hangar interior
• Ambient terminal sounds featuring recordings from Venice Marco Polo Airport
• Plenty of distinctive little details to discover throughout the terminal and surrounding airport areas
• Custom taxiway signs
• Option to configure 04L/22R for taxiway use to reflect real-world operations
• Optional walkable terminal interiors for exploration in avatar mode in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
• AI traffic compatibility
• Custom GSX profile included

Natakhtari Airfield Released for MSFS 2024 and MSFS 2020

Virtual Sim Solutions released Natakhtari Airfield (UGSA) in Georgia for MSFS 2024 and MSFS 2020.

You can find it on Orbx Direct with the following features.

• Accurate building models (including Vanilla Sky Hotel)
• PBR textures
• Custom satellite ground
• Static Traffic
• Static Aircrafts
• Custom dynamic lighting
• Realistic apron and runway
• Highly optimized

Addis Ababa Bole International Airport for MSFS 2024 Gets New Trailer

iniBuilds released a new trailer of Addis Ababa Bole (HAAB) International Airport in Ethiopia for MSFS 2024.

We don’t yet know when it’ll release, but it’s “coming soon.”

Skellefteå Airport Released for MSFS 2024 and MSFS 2020

Skymatrix Studios released Skellefteå Airport (ESNS) in Sweden for MSFS 2024 and MSFS 2020.

You can find it on iniBuilds for $14.6 with the following features.

• Meticulously crafted airport buildings
• Crisp, custom PBR ground textures
• Detailed terminal interior
• Realistic airport lighting
• Authentic airport signage & details
• Optimized performance with smart LODs

X-Plane 12 Version 12.4.4. Beta 3 Released

Laminar Research released the second beta version of version 12.4.4. of X-Plane 12.

You can find the full patch notes below.

General

• Fixed the broken installation for Steam users on macOS

Graphics Core Engine

• Fixed numerous errors to improve stability

Graphics

• Fixed trees behind the camera being drawn at full detail in the shadow pass, which cost GPU time for shadows the user couldn’t see

VR

• Fixed lights appearing in a different spot in each eye in VR. This affected the built-in flashlight and plugin lights placed with xplm_CoordSpace_Camera (XPD-18465)

SDK

• Breaking change: XPLMDrawCalls no longer applies a hidden window origin. Vertices and scissors are now plain panel coordinates under the current transform, like every other Panel Graphics primitive. Plugins must apply translate(left, top) and scale(1, -1) before drawing, the inverse of what their mouse handling already does. This also fixes retained ImGui drawings staying where the window was when they were recorded. XLua applies the transform itself in EndFrame, so XLua scripts need no changes. The SDK sample plugins have been updated

Panel Graphics and ImGui

• Nested scissors now work: an ImGui draw call’s scissor combines with any clip already in force, such as an enclosing XPLMScissorSet, instead of replacing it
• ImGui textures can now be created and destroyed at any time, including during a draw callback, and retained drawings can be recorded outside a draw callback
• Fixed a crash when drawing a retained drawing and destroying it with XPLMDestroyRetainedDrawing in the same callback
• Fixed ImGui windows ignoring all clicks after a click on empty space. ImGui windows now claim every click. This affected the SDK sample plugins and XLua ImGui windows, including avionics screens

Browser functions

• Fixed a crash when a browser callback returned its result other than through XPLMReturnString, for example as a string literal or NULL. The error is now reported to the plugin’s error callback and Log.txt, and the JavaScript Promise resolves to null
• Fixed valid results being rejected when a plugin reused a pointer from an earlier XPLMReturnString call. The result must now be returned during the current call
• Invalid JSON from a browser function is now reported to the plugin instead of silently becoming null. Parsing is stricter: trailing content, comments and trailing commas are rejected, while bare strings, numbers and booleans still work. Very deeply nested JSON resolves to null rather than failing the Promise
• Lua browser callbacks that raise an error now resolve to null instead of crashing. The error appears only in the Lua error log
• Corrected the docs: browser callback results must go through XPLMReturnString and must not be NULL. Registering an AddBrowserFunction name a second time is rejected and reported; the old docs said it replaced the earlier callback, which it never did

PA-38 Tomahawk Released for X-Plane 12

Just Flight and Thranda Design released the Piper PA-38 Tomahawk for X-Plane 12

You can find it on Just Flight and X-Plane.org for $42.99, including the following features.

Moel

• Our most detailed GA model yet, featuring numerous animations right down to a vibrating ignition key and fully adjustable cockpit air vents
• Accurately modelled PA-38 Tomahawk, built using real-world aircraft plans and comprehensive photography of the real aircraft
• Ground equipment including chocks and tie-downs
• New 8K textures are used to produce the highest possible texture clarity
• New PBR (Physically Based Rendering) materials with real-time environment reflections for superb quality and realism
• Detailed normal mapping for down-to-the-rivet precision of aircraft features and accurate simulation of waves in aluminium plates
• X-Plane 12 native rain effects included

 Cockpit

• A truly 3D virtual cockpit right down to accurately modelled seat belts and screw heads – every instrument is constructed fully in 3D with smooth animations
• Cockpit textures feature wear and tear based on reference photos taken in the real aircraft to produce an authentic environment
• Dimmable cockpit lighting
• Interactive engine start checklist that responds to user inputs and sim variables
• Interactive checklists for every stage of flight
• Panel state system which will automatically save the panel state whenever a flight is saved and reload the panel state whenever that flight is loaded
• Aircraft configuration system that will allow you to choose between ‘cold & dark’ or ‘ready for take-off’
• Fully functional and comprehensive IFR-capable avionics fit including:
   – GMA 340 audio selector
   – SL30 COM1/NAV1 radio
   – SL40 COM2 radio
   – GTX 328 transponder
   – Support for X-Plane 12 GTN 430 and 530 GNSS units
   – Support for TDS GTNXi (sold separately, Windows only
   – Optional KR 85 ADF unit
   – Optional VOR 2 CDI
• Option to remove window and instrument reflection effects
• Radio knob animations routed through plugin logic for optimum movement fidelity and sound synchronisation. All knobs, buttons and switches are configurable via the ‘Manifest.json’ preference file and have tooltip pop-up hints to make hooking up to hardware easier. (Just enable ‘View>Show Instrument Descriptions’ in X-Plane for tooltips).

ThrandaPad EFB

The ThrandaPad EFB provides a selection of apps full of useful tools and customisation options:

• Aircraft Options – open/close the aircraft’s doors, enable/disable glass reflection, enable/disable ground equipment, and more!
• Weight & Balance – adjust the aircraft’s weight and balance using the built-in Configuration app and centre of gravity table.
• Instrument Options – choose to have the cockpit avionics visible in the 3D cockpit, or have them pop out on 2D panels.
• Static Liveries – change aircraft liveries without exiting to the main menu.
• Dynamic Liveries – customise the aircraft’s paint scheme without leaving the aircraft. Features different templates whose colours can be fully customised in the aircraft, without the need for any complicated paint kits. 
• Engine Configuration – view the condition of the engines and enable enhanced simulation options such as spark plug fouling and vapour lock.
• DynaFeel – adjust the force required to move each of the control surfaces.
• Checklists – interactable checklists for every stage of flight.
• AviTab support
• And much more!

 Aircraft systems

• Custom-coded fuel system, including the option of automatic fuel tank switching for use on those long-distance cross-country flights (this option is remembered for future flights)
• Custom-coded electrical system with functional circuit breakers. Circuit breaker logic is linked to X-Plane’s internal failure logic, so if the plane is set to fail a certain electrical component after a certain number of hours, the circuit breaker for that element will pop out.
• Functioning carburettor and primer controls
• Dedicated interactive EFB apps displaying values such as fuel tank weights and imbalance, fuel pressure, oil pressure, oil temperature, battery charge (with quick charge option) and information about spark plug fouling and vapour lock condition
• Simulated vapour lock condition, with EFB warning pop-up and suggested actions
• Simulated spark plug fouling condition, with EFB indication of percentage of fouling
• Custom external light logic with custom strobe light pattern and custom light halos for added realism

Liveries

The PA-38 Tomahawk is supplied with fourteen liveries:

• D-EEQI (Germany)
• F-HVFA (France)
• G-BMVL (UK)
• G-BNKH (UK)
• G-BPES (UK)
• G-GTHM (UK)
• G-LFSN (UK)
• G-LFSU (UK)
• N2426N (USA)
• N2432G (USA)
• N874MH (USA)
• OO-IWA (Belgium)
• S5-DAZ (Slovenia)
• VH-UFA (Australia)

Other features

• Realistic and accurate flight dynamics based on real-world performance and handling data, and input from pilots
• New FMOD sound set derived from high-quality recordings from the real aircraft
• Comprehensive manual with panel guide and performance data
• Custom Weight & Balance Manager app

If you’d like to read more flight simulation news, you can find plenty in our previous roundup article from yesterday.

If you want to go further back, we have a handy overview video of the major flight simulation news in the past week. You can watch it below. As usual, leaving a like and a comment and subscribing to our growing YouTube channel is extremely helpful.

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