​Sim Lab: Silence Can Be Golden in Microsoft Flight Simulator

If you’ve had concerns about electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, I’ll admit that I have too. Especially since we will soon be sharing the taxiways and airways with this new class of aircraft in the not-too-distant future. 

However, after recently spending a few hours with the Joby Aviation S4 in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (MSFS2024), it turns out that my preconceived notions about eVTOLs were mistaken. Flying the S4 completely changed my mind, and I plan on rotating the S4 into my regular sim flight missions on MSFS2024.

After flying it in-sim, I learned that it combines the best parts of a helicopter and airplane, and is worthy of a place in your sim hangar.

The Cockpit

On the ramp in MSFS2024, the Joby S4 looks somewhat alien amid the other high-wing singles, business jets, and helicopters. Its six articulating, electric-motor-powered rotors, aerodynamic fuselage, and graceful elevons give it a futuristic look but somewhat insect-like proportions in the air.

This Article First Appeared in FLYING Magazine

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But appearances can be deceiving. 

The rotors move in unison, from the upward 90-degree position for hovering and rotating forward back down to 0 degrees for cruise flight. Transitioning between the two flight modes takes approximately five seconds.

Powered by batteries alone, the S4 has a total range of 150 miles with a planned operational range of 100, leaving the additional 50 as a safety margin. This first
version in MSFS2024 is designed for VFR operations, mirroring its real-world
counterpart.

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After researching how to fly it in-sim, I sat in the pilot’s seat, getting familiar with the cockpit and controls. The checklist on the MSFS2024 EFB was useful, but don’t forget to remove the chocks and pitot covers while outside the airplane on the ramp or use developer mode if yours are stuck and don’t come off when you click them. Hopefully, this annoying Microsoft bug will finally be squashed with the next major service update. 

The Joby S4 has an appropriately modern cockpit to control an aircraft that can hover and cruise.

Gone from it are many familiar controls—rudder pedals and toe brakes, flaps and flap lever, elevator trim, rudder trim, and aileron trim, and no mixture or propeller levers. Joby Aviation has replaced these with two inceptors, essentially a flight stick in the right-hand position and a throttle in the left-hand position.

The pilot’s seat is centered in the front of the nose, and both inceptors are mounted ergonomically at the base of the armrests. The inceptors are the main inputs for the unified flight control system, which is all digital fly-by-wire. When the pilot moves the inceptors, a digital signal is sent to the flight control computer, which processes the commands and then sends instructions to the six rotors and the electrically driven actuators that move the ailerons and elevons—similar to an F-35 Lightning. Using both inceptors, you’ll control aircraft direction and power during all phases of flight. 

Behind are four passenger seats in a two-by-two configuration, each with its own door that serves each seat. Looking forward, a Garmin G3000 system and single left-mounted GTC touch controller keep the cockpit neat and tidy, with a superb view out the windscreen and down the sides of the footrests. As there are no rudder pedals, you use a twisting movement of the right inceptor to control yaw.

I found the adjustment to the new controls to be intuitive and relatively quick, and I didn’t miss the rudder pedals when flying. You can use your rudder pedals in your home sim cockpit if you don’t own a twisting flight stick. Most of us are used to the traditional cockpit organization and layout of today’s general aviation fleet. Sitting in the Joby S4’s pilot seat conveys a sense of movement into the future, with a cockpit purposefully designed to be approachable and as few tactile buttons as possible.

Preflight

Your flight can begin as soon as you’ve achieved the required battery charge and
confirmed the desired range needed to complete the flight. There’s no oil to be warmed or internal combustion engines to be coaxed into operation.

Getting the aircraft ready for flight was as easy as turning on the battery master switch, closing the doors (done electrically from the pilot’s seat on the G3000), turning on the exterior lights, and entering the flight plan if so desired. 

Specially built for the in-sim version, one disconnects from the portable battery charger with a click of a G3000 soft key. Then, click the aircraft mode soft key on the G3000 to “FLY.” Once in FLY mode, the S4 is ready to hover, so be careful not to move the inceptors until you’re ready to fly.

There are four critical instrument quadrants on the left G3000 display. The top left is a side view of the Joby S4 that shows the transition of the rotors as they move from hovering to cruise when flying. The rotors nearest the pilot can be spotted in your peripheral vision, but it was helpful to refer to the graphic. 

The most important digital instruments for flying the S4 are located on the upper-right side of the left G3000 display. 

They graphically depict the position of the left inceptor, indicating how much power you are using to propel the airplane forward or hover, and the other instruments give you information about the right inceptor, the flight stick, and how your movement of that control directs the aircraft to move up or down in a hover, or what direction it will move during cruise, including up, down, right, or left. These were intuitive instruments to understand once I began flying the S4.

Battery percentage remaining, energy use, range, and endurance information change dynamically depending on what phase of flight you’re in and cruise speed selected. It was interesting to experiment in the different flight regimes with power settings to see how efficiently the S4 cruises, and how cruise speed and hovering impact energy use and thus endurance. With no manifold or oil pressure to pay attention to, I spent a lot of time looking through the generously sized windscreen as the Joby S4 began to win me over.

Taxiing and Hovering

Taxiing the aircraft took a bit of getting used to. It was actually easier to hover, with generous assistance from the flight computer keeping it stable in-air. Taxiing is also done without rudder pedals or brakes, so there’s some knack required to manage the energy.

Putting the S4 into the FLY mode, and clicking the “DECL” button on the left inceptor selects “TRC,” or translational rate control flight (hover) mode. A movement of the left inceptor forward tilts the rotors to a roughly 45-degree position and begins them spinning, causing instant forward motion.

It’s surprising at first, but stopping is easy. Simply bring the left inceptor back to the center or neutral position, the rotors whoosh down to a halt, and the S4 stops. Twisting the right interceptor steers it on the ground. 

Since hovering or taxiing can begin immediately in FLY mode, having a plan before leaving your parking spot is essential.

In TRC mode, pulling the right inceptor gently aft tells the S4 to climb straight up in hover mode. You’ll max out at a leisurely 750 fpm climb, and it’s quite stable. Let your hands go from both controls, and the S4 will hover in place, gently dipping or raising a rotor-covered wing to keep the S4 in its position. To hover down for landing, pushing the right inceptor full forward brings you groundward, which you can arrest by bringing the right flight stick to neutral to touch down softly. 

In Hover/TRC, the flight stick controls climbing and descending, and the left inceptor moves the S4 forward or backward in the hover. Twisting the right inceptor while hovering slews the nose left or right. 

Helicopter traditionalists might be annoyed with how easy it is to master the hover. Personally, my one hour of helicopter instruction in the real world remains the most challenging of logbook time I have. Although I learned I was not a natural in a Schweizer S300, I was able to hover the S4 instantly, with a lot of help from the flight computer.

Nonetheless, it was fun to practice the hover, even though it uses the most energy in that flight regime.

Hover to Cruise

Transitioning to cruise from hovering couldn’t be easier. Simply roll the left inceptor full forward, and the S4 will engage the flight computer, gently lowering the six rotors to the forward position. 

Once in cruise, you’ll hear the wind noise increasing and see your indicated airspeed climb rapidly. Once out of hover, the right inceptor switches to control your roll, pitch, and yaw like a traditional airplane. You may climb, descend, or stay in level flight. Let go of the controls in cruise, and the aircraft stays where you have set the controls, and it feels extremely stable to fly in-sim. 

One of the S4’s most enjoyable flight characteristics is how fast it accelerates in cruise, making it exciting to fly in-sim. 

Because it can achieve its max cruise speed of roughly 170 knots quickly, cruise airspeed can be managed in two ways—use the left inceptor as a “throttle,” giving you full control over your airspeed; Or use the SPD hat switch on the left inceptor handle. Clicking it forward sets cruise speed as indicated by a flag on the top of the vertical airspeed tape on the right G3000 display. 

Although not yet official since the S4 is still in the FAA certification process, the Joby team gave the S4 in-sim a max cruise speed (VNE) of 180 knots, although the real-world aircraft is expected to cruise in the low-to-mid-160-knot range. Adjusting the left inceptor manually while in “SPEED” mode immediately turns off the cruise speed limit set by the SPD hat switch, giving the pilot immediate airspeed control. 

The SPD switch can also be used to lower the cruise speed by clicking it backward toward the pilot, which will lower it in 10-knot increments, immediately slowing the rotors. The S4 quickly and smoothly accelerated and decelerated as commanded when using the SPD switch, making arrivals into an airport traffic pattern a cinch.

The S4 adds and sheds speed fast, so I preferred managing airspeed with the hat switch and then pointing the aircraft where to go with the flight stick. With the flight computer backing you up, the S4 responds predictably to power lever and flight stick inputs, making coordinated turns achievable with a small twist of the right-hand inceptor, imitating a gentle press of a rudder pedal in a traditional airplane.

Managing the Transitions

One of the fun parts of flying the Joby S4 is deciding whether to slow it into a hover, required for a landing at a helipad-sized target or to land it more like a traditional high-wing airplane on a runway. The more I flew the aircraft, the more I opted to transition into a hover and practice my approach to increasingly smaller landing targets.

Moving from cruise flight to hovering is done by managing the airspeed. I found it easiest to back press the SPD hat switch, reducing the Joby’s airspeed in 10-knot increments until it reached roughly 70 knots. Then, clicking the DECL button below the hat switch moves the S4 from cruise flight to hover mode, indicated by the “TCR” light on the top info panel. At 50 knots, the S4 enters hover mode with the flight control stick reverting to up/down/side-to-side commands, and forward and backward movement controlled by the left interceptor. 

Upon touchdown, the pilot brings the left inceptor to the neutral/middle position, and the rotors wind down together with one final whoosh. The pilot then presses the flight mode button soft key on the left G3000 display to “LOAD” mode, allowing door operations and the portable charger to be plugged into the ports under the wings. LOAD is a safety mode, and any inputs to the inceptors are null. 

One of the joys of flying the Joby S4 in-sim is having complete freedom to decide when to operate it like a helicopter, hovering and landing at will, or to cruise deftly along like an airplane at 170 knots. I recommend you try flying the Joby S4 in MSFS2024, and you’ll find it in your digital hangar available in all editions of the title.

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SimLab Flight Gear Update 

I wanted to replicate the Joby S4’s controls as close as possible to the real aircraft, so I got in touch with the Honeycomb Flight Controls team as I was eager to test out the new Foxtrot Flight Stick.

The Honeycomb Bravo throttle quadrant is one of my favorite pieces of flight sim cockpit gear, and I was keen to fly with the company’s latest entrant, the Foxtrot. Since a twisting flight stick replicates the S4’s right-hand inceptor, the Honeycomb Foxtrot was just right in terms of form and function.

In flight, the flight stick was precise and adequately sprung for those fine inputs that helped to increase overall immersion. Importantly, the Foxtrot is ambidextrous, allowing you to grip the stick with either the left or right hand, providing maximum flexibility for flying left-handed cockpits like a Cirrus Vision Jet or Airbus airliner, a right-handed stick position like the Joby S4 or an F-16, or a center-positioned flight stick like a Spitfire, P-51 Mustang, or Carbon Cub.

Honeycomb engineers packed the base of the stick with high-quality lighting switches and programmable multiposition encoder knobs, one for the APU and start-engine duties and another for the autopilot. Providing these extra switches and knobs is part of their design philosophy, giving the flight sim pilot a lot of extra value.

You can also program the buttons and switches as you see fit. I used the switches on top of the flight stick to control the S4’s few switches.  

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This column first appeared in the July Issue 972 of the FLYING print edition.