At least one new single-engine aircraft is taking off Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will be “fully customizable.” This is what Brandon Jaeger says from Have friendsone of several third-party developers working with Xbox Game Studios and Asobo Studio to bring the flagship product to market on November 19th. However, the complex function is about more than just fancy paintwork. Instead, it aims to support one of aviation’s fastest-growing sports: competitive short takeoffs and landings, also known as STOL.
Tom Wolf is co-founder of NATIONAL CHAIRthe largest organization currently running STOL competitions here in the United States. He said STOL capabilities had their origins in the early days of aviation when wild pilots used improvised airfields across the country to introduce air travel to the country. Later, these skills were also adopted by the military, which often had to control large, fast aircraft of short starting and runways, civil motorways or even in rough, impossible terrain. Nowadays, Stol skills are used to bring people and supplies into remote areas of the wilderness around the world, including hunting, fishing, hiking and skiing.
“It’s really big in Alaska, it’s really big in places like Idaho, Colorado — places where you have to fly somewhere because there are no roads,” Wolf said in a recent interview with Polygon. He explained how what began as necessary landings quickly became a competitive pastime with the first informal STOL competitions started in the 1970s. National CHAIRMAN, founded in 2020is just the natural extension of that. Today dozens of amateur and professional pilots take part National STOL competitions across the countrywith 10 qualifying games leading to this year’s 2024 finals on November 2nd in Sulfur Springs, Texas.
But STOL competitions don’t just happen in the real world, Wolf explained. They happen in Microsoft Flight Simulator as well as through a parallel competition series called National eSTOL.
“Everything we do in our real lives [events]we modeled the scenery Microsoft Flight Simulatorsaid Wolf. “So if you drive up to our real-life event in Texas or an event somewhere in Moses Lake, Washington, that landscape, that airport, looks exactly like it does in…” Microsoft Flight Simulator if you come to one of our events there.”
With the introduction of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024The planes will also look the same – including some of the wild modifications that real pilots often make to their planes to increase STOL performance. Take, for example, something as seemingly trivial as the metal paneling around an airplane’s engine.
“If you take the hood off, you cool wonderfully [the engine]said Wolf. “The cost of it [is lowering your overall] Cruising speed. There’s a hood on it because it makes you go faster. If you take that off, you’ll drive slower. But it increases cooling, which means you can put more strain on your engine. It also saves weight, and the lower weight means you can take off or land shorter.”
These are exactly the kind of compromises real participants must make before competing in national STOL events. Now virtual pilots can make some of those decisions on game day. Wolf, for his part, hopes to see the addition of such customization options Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is paying off by generating more interest in aviation in general, but also in its digital aspects.
“I started taking flying lessons when I was 12,” Wolf said. “Because of Flight simulatorI would go about a month or two between classes. My flight instructor looked at me and asked, “Why are you so good?” How do you maintain this level of consistency between classes? And I would say, “Look, I’ll do it.” Flight simulator.’ But he didn’t want to believe me because he was a middle-aged man and he wasn’t [into computers].”
Now, Wolf says, he has real, middle-aged pilots who are suddenly interested in computer-based simulations, all because participating in eSTOL allows them to practice the skills they need to succeed in regular STOL.
“We had people from eSTOL come to our real events [to volunteer]said Wolf. “The opposite happened to us [as well]. People came out, sat at our computers and used the Tobii eye tracking equipment […] and they say, ‘This is really fun.’ I’ve never done this before and I want to compete with you even more!’ That’s why they do more eSTOL stuff.
“It’s really like a never-ending machine that constantly feeds itself,” he added.
If you would like to get involved with National eSTOL, Wolf encourages you to stop by the official Discord for more information.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is scheduled to release on Windows PC and Xbox Series X on November 19th.
Disclosure: This article is based on a Microsoft Flight Simulator Global Preview Event took place on September 10th at the Grand Canyon. Xbox Game Studios provided Polygon’s travel and accommodation for the event. More information about Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.
