Microsoft Flight Simulator is taking its players to the great “Land Down Under” in the form of World Update 7. This latest update brings a laundry list of enhancements to the country that doubles as its own continent. This marks the first World Update for the sim in 2022, which is one of several other updates that will be rolled out throughout the rest of the year.
Four airports have been handcrafted by ORBX, a team of flight simulation add-on makers that have been churning out high-quality scenery enhancements and standalone aircraft for several years. Over 100 smaller airports across Australia have also received some high-res improvements by this team.
Huge swaths of new satellite and geographical data went into the creation of the update. There are 11 major settlements around Australia that have received a full photogrammetry upgrade, allowing for proper 3D cityscapes and buildings. Additionally, there are several dozens of new properly modeled points of interest, including famous Australian monuments like Twelve Apostles, Premier Tower, Infinity Tower, and the Sydney Opera House.
You can explore Australia with 16 new activities, including various bush trips, discovery flights and five new landing challenges.
A blast from the past
A new toy for simmers to try out is also now available: the Fokker F.VII. If you want to really capture the scenery of Australia under VFR conditions, then Asobo’s new-to-us-but-quite-old trimotor should do the trick. As the second entry to the Local Legends series for Microsoft Flight Simulator, the Fokker VII is an historical aircraft built before WWII in the 1920s.
Based in the Netherlands, Fokker designed the aircraft to handle all sorts of conditions. And it surely did, even managing to brave the journeys of being the first transatlantic airmail aircraft and also the first transpacific flight from the continental USA to Hawaii. Fittingly enough, the FVII also made history by making the first transpacific flight from the USA to Australia.
Indeed, this historical bird has a lot of tales to tell, and now it’s been fully recreated in rich detail for modern simmers to enjoy. It’s been outfitted with both wheel and float versions, so you can take it just about any and everywhere.
The Fokker FVII is available now via the in-game Marketplace for $14.99 USD.
