The RFS, Sydney Harbour and Charles Kingsford Smith - Bringing Down Under to Flight Sim
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is a marvel of tech and arguably one of the most important entertainment products on the market. I say that because of its huge impact on an industry that is crying out for more employees at all levels. From pilots to ground crew, Aviation needs people, and Flight Sim is one of the key recruitment tools. From Boeing using it for actual training to kids beginning a lifelong interest in flight, Flight Sim’s impact can’t be underestimated. It also helps that it is one of the best supported titles out there, with updates bringing new features, gameplay elements and locations coming on a regular basis. The latest update, World Update 21, is doubly important in my eyes. Not only does it bring the fair old land of Oz to the game in greater detail, but it brings one of our most important and well-revered volunteer organisations to the game, The Rural Fire Service, or as we all call it, The RFS.
As one of the thousands of Aussies who have been impacted by Bushfire at one point or another, I hold the RFS in the highest regard, so when I got the chance to chat to Jorg Neumann, Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, I had to ask him if he knew just how important the RFS was to many Australians before they began the task of adding the organisation to the game. “We have this approach that we want to highlight sections of the world, so when we do these world updates, we dig deeper into the specific region.” Said Jorg, “So when we did this with Australia, it was when we became aware. Prior to that, we had worked with firefighters in France, but once we really dug into Australia and talked to local teams, we became aware of how important it was. That was a great discovery, and we are really excited about its inclusion.”
Further to this, I wondered how the RFS became a focus; after all, there are a range of Australian-based aviation activities that could have been the focus for this expansion. Jorg was happy to explain. “I think, in general, firefighting is one of those things that saves lives in aviation and with a product like ours, where we can reach tens of millions of people, I think any awareness we can raise for how important something is a responsibility. In this particular case, considering that it is mostly volunteers, is also really interesting and important for awareness building. I think it is great when we have these connections between the real world because, unlike most games, our product is not really a game; it’s a simulation of the world. It is a very real thing, and we take that quite seriously, so with something like this, if we can inspire a few people in Australia to become volunteer firefighters, it would be awesome.”
Firefighting obviously brings unique challenges to flight. From bushfires creating their own weather systems to the need to communicate with ground crews, it is not as simple as flying in and dumping some water. So I asked Jorg, just how deep would the RFS experience be? “I would say it’s a beginning,” he said. “The most dramatic event we have is when you actually drop the liquid. Tonnes and tonnes of fluid suddenly leave your plane, and as a result, the plane jerks up. This is something we have fully simulated that works really well. We also lean into the fantasy with people talking to you, making it immersive, and we have turbulence when you approach the fire, and I would say those are the things we had to do. Then there are the things we couldn’t do, or couldn’t do yet. Firefighting is obviously a multi-functional operation. It’s a ground crew, it’s a lead plane, it’s the drop and a commander who organises all these things. At this stage, we are simulating careers in aviation, but in a single-player manner. So we don’t have this collaborative ability yet, but it is something we absolutely want to do. The other thing we don’t have is that the fire doesn’t propagate. NASA has seven satellites that just watch fires around the world, and we are taking that data, but we don’t have propagation or things like property damage.”
Diving into the mechanics a little further, Jorg was super excited about one of the included features. “We have the scoop,” he exclaimed. “There are two ways to fill up a plane with water. One is to sit at an airport and get it tanked up, the other one is you have to fly over the water and scoop it up. It is a really tricky operation, and you have to be careful how you do it. Our plan is in the future to add Airport operations, but for now, we are so happy with the ability to scoop the water.”
Of course, there is more than firefighting to this update. There are a host of new Australian-focused additions, and it all comes about because aviation is so important in Australia, in a way I wasn’t even aware of before talking to Jorg. “Did you know Australia has the third most airports in the world?” He asked me. “2180 official airports and over 4000 airstrips. That tells you something about aviation in the country. Australia also has the fifth-highest amount of private planes in the world; flight really is a part of the country. Australia is huge, and flight is hugely important.”
I wanted to know how the Flight Sim team picked which locations in Australia got the high-detail treatment that comes with the world update. “This is the second time we have come to Australia,” said Jorg “We did a world update in 2022 with 10 cities and 6000 square kilometres of high-detail capture. This time, we have added 30 more cities and expanded the existing cities to bring the total area to around 36000 square kilometres. It’s a lot. As for how we pick which points of interest to cover, we read every travel book there is, and we talk to local partners, so we really try to capture the points that matter to the nation. So with this update, we added 36 points of interest, but when you combine it with what we had already done in the 2022 update, we now have 130 points of interest for Australia.”
Finally, there was one Australian-specific activity that I feel is not only essential but probably should be offered to students in high school. That is Charles Kingford Smith’s crossing of the Pacific, which is fully simulated in this update. “We were going back to Australia, and obviously, there is a very, very famous plane that needs to be included, the Fokker F.VII Southern Cross,” Jorg excitedly proclaimed. “I am sure you know the story, Charles Kingsford Smith flew from California to Australia, and we are super excited to be able to give this plane away in-game to celebrate this world update.” The ability to recreate this flight is something pretty special, and to celebrate it, Microsoft released its very own trailer, which I have included below.
There is no doubt that Microsoft Flight Simulator is something special and it only continues to get better as time goes on. The fact that they have taken such time and care with Australian culture, locations, organisations and history only speaks to just how important the developers feel it is to represent not only flight, but the places you are flying to in an accurate manner.
The Aussie update, or more accurately, World Update 21, is available on Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 right now. If you would like to learn more about the RFS, or perhaps even sign up, you can head to their website here:
