Microsoft Flight Simulator
43 Achievements
1,000
1000+h
PC
Xbox Series
Instrumental
Accumulate 50 hours of IFR flight time, including at least one take-off and landing.
30
0.64%
How to unlock the Instrumental achievement in Microsoft Flight Simulator - Definitive Guide
Bobo daMunkee
TrueAchievements
TrueAchievements
We're going to spam multiple achievements all at once here.
The Pilot Program achievement in Microsoft Flight Simulator worth 126 pointsAccumulate 50 hours of flight time in a single pilot profile.
The Instrumental achievement in Microsoft Flight Simulator worth 253 pointsAccumulate 50 hours of IFR flight time, including at least one take-off and landing.
The Hydroplaning achievement in Microsoft Flight Simulator worth 278 pointsAccumulate 50 hours of flight time in rainy weather.
The Night Owl achievement in Microsoft Flight Simulator worth 301 pointsAccumulate 50 hours of flight time at night.
It will add progress towards these as well, but you don't need to do all the extra stuff for these.
The Century Club achievement in Microsoft Flight Simulator worth 207 pointsAccumulate 100 hours of flight time in a single pilot profile.
The Journeyman achievement in Microsoft Flight Simulator worth 725 pointsAccumulate 500 hours of flight time in a single pilot profile.
The Wing Commander achievement in Microsoft Flight Simulator worth 1857 pointsAccumulate 1,000 hours of flight time in a single pilot profile.
Select your plane. I used the Extra 330LT because it flies low and slowish. Rain isn't constantly falling so you want one that won't fly through it too quick when it does rain, and if you get to high you will see less rain.
Select a departure and an arrival airport that are far apart. I used EIDL Donegal in Ireland to KJFK Kennedy Int'l in New York USA. It's almost completely over water so their are no unexpected obstructions to fly into. Now under the airplane thumbnail you can change from VFR, to IFR (Low-altitude airways). (VFR stands for Visual Flight Rules, IFR stands for Instrument Flight Rules. The more you know...)
Set Flight conditions to Rain, and time to night. You will have to periodically adjust the time so it stays night during the flight.
You may want to save the setup at this point so you can easily get back to it.
Now you can go to the runway and get ready to fly.
Go to Assistance and Airplane Systems then turn Unlimited Fuel on.
As soon as you are on the runway, pull up the weather window and select the lowest cloud level. Raise the slider for "Altitude (Top)" up to 20,000 or so, this will keep you from flying above the rain level. Now slide the Coverage slider to 100 so there are no clear areas for you fly through. It won't rain all the time, but it will rain a lot. There is an upper limit for getting rain, but I rarely went above it using this method.
NOTE: If you are flying out of far northern airports (like Canada), you may need to manually raise the temperature in the Weather panel or your plane will ice up and crash. On the Weather Settings look for the 'Temparature MSL' slider and increase it to around 25 or higher.
Close the Weather window and pull up the AI Control window. Turn all 3 of these on and go do something while the AI does the work.
User KawiNinjaRider7 commented that progress is only saved when you land for this achievement. I had an issue where I lost hours of progress for all time based achievements when the game crashed after 8 hours of flying. So to be safe, land or exit to main menu periodically to keep from losing progress.
The Pilot Program achievement in Microsoft Flight Simulator worth 126 pointsAccumulate 50 hours of flight time in a single pilot profile.
The Instrumental achievement in Microsoft Flight Simulator worth 253 pointsAccumulate 50 hours of IFR flight time, including at least one take-off and landing.
The Hydroplaning achievement in Microsoft Flight Simulator worth 278 pointsAccumulate 50 hours of flight time in rainy weather.
The Night Owl achievement in Microsoft Flight Simulator worth 301 pointsAccumulate 50 hours of flight time at night.
It will add progress towards these as well, but you don't need to do all the extra stuff for these.
The Century Club achievement in Microsoft Flight Simulator worth 207 pointsAccumulate 100 hours of flight time in a single pilot profile.
The Journeyman achievement in Microsoft Flight Simulator worth 725 pointsAccumulate 500 hours of flight time in a single pilot profile.
The Wing Commander achievement in Microsoft Flight Simulator worth 1857 pointsAccumulate 1,000 hours of flight time in a single pilot profile.
Select your plane. I used the Extra 330LT because it flies low and slowish. Rain isn't constantly falling so you want one that won't fly through it too quick when it does rain, and if you get to high you will see less rain.
Select a departure and an arrival airport that are far apart. I used EIDL Donegal in Ireland to KJFK Kennedy Int'l in New York USA. It's almost completely over water so their are no unexpected obstructions to fly into. Now under the airplane thumbnail you can change from VFR, to IFR (Low-altitude airways). (VFR stands for Visual Flight Rules, IFR stands for Instrument Flight Rules. The more you know...)
Set Flight conditions to Rain, and time to night. You will have to periodically adjust the time so it stays night during the flight.
You may want to save the setup at this point so you can easily get back to it.
Now you can go to the runway and get ready to fly.
Go to Assistance and Airplane Systems then turn Unlimited Fuel on.
As soon as you are on the runway, pull up the weather window and select the lowest cloud level. Raise the slider for "Altitude (Top)" up to 20,000 or so, this will keep you from flying above the rain level. Now slide the Coverage slider to 100 so there are no clear areas for you fly through. It won't rain all the time, but it will rain a lot. There is an upper limit for getting rain, but I rarely went above it using this method.
NOTE: If you are flying out of far northern airports (like Canada), you may need to manually raise the temperature in the Weather panel or your plane will ice up and crash. On the Weather Settings look for the 'Temparature MSL' slider and increase it to around 25 or higher.
Close the Weather window and pull up the AI Control window. Turn all 3 of these on and go do something while the AI does the work.
User KawiNinjaRider7 commented that progress is only saved when you land for this achievement. I had an issue where I lost hours of progress for all time based achievements when the game crashed after 8 hours of flying. So to be safe, land or exit to main menu periodically to keep from losing progress.
16 Comments
Just a note on this one, the achievement tracker (for me at least) didn't move up at all until I had landed and was back on the ground after each flight (even after satisfying the requirements of at least 1 take off and landing). Same for when it finally unlocked as well, my last 1% I flew for half an hour then was able to simply travel to "taxi" and the achievement popped immediately. This was specific to the IFR achievement though, all other time related ones have been tracking/unlocking mid flight.
Thanks, I'll update the solution. However, I just lost hours of time on all of the trackers when the game crashed mid-flight. I'm going to add a caution to land or drop to main menu periodically to all the solutions just to be safe. +1 for telling what IFR even means. That's really all you need to know for this achievement so I don't know why people are being dicks about you not having it yet.
Eh, doesn't matter really. I understand the down votes because I don't have it yet. My main reason for posting was to let people know how to get it in IFR mode, and how to make rain more plentiful. Other than that the solutions are fairly common sense. That said, I've seen a lot of people try to do achievements like this one at a time without thinking "If I fly at night in the rain under IFR rules, I can do them all at once" so why not put them all together.
By Bobo daMunkee on 24 Aug 2020 18:37
On series x it looks like it counts the time if the game is in resume mode. I paused halfway through a flight and popped 3 of these the next day
HI there! You mean Quick Resume? What you did? Just simply switched games in the middle of the flight and resumed the game in the next day?
By DoctorActionRio on 11 May 2022 14:06
