Can I fly over my house in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

Yes. In Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 or 2024, enter your house’s latitude and longitude on the World Map or Free Flight map, create a custom point, and approach it in a slow aircraft. The street should be recognisable, but streamed imagery may show a generic, distorted or outdated version of the house.

Is my house actually in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

Almost every address has a corresponding location in Microsoft Flight Simulator, but not every property has a faithful three-dimensional model.

MSFS combines aerial imagery, generated buildings and photogrammetry in supported areas. Roads and surrounding landmarks may be accurate even when the house itself has the wrong roof, height or colour. The globe is represented at approximately real-world scale, so nearly any valid coordinate is reachable; our guide to where you can fly in Microsoft Flight Simulator explains the practical limits.

How do I fly to my house’s exact coordinates?

Decimal latitude and longitude are more reliable than entering a residential address, which the simulator may not recognise.

1. Copy the coordinates. Drop a pin on the house in a mapping application and copy the decimal coordinates in latitude, longitude order. West and south coordinates require minus signs.
2. Enable streamed scenery. Turn on online functionality and world-data streaming before loading the flight. In MSFS 2020, check settings such as Bing Data World Graphics and Photogrammetry; names and menu positions can differ in MSFS 2024.
3. Open the flight map. Use the World Map in MSFS 2020 or the Free Flight map in MSFS 2024. Paste the coordinate pair into search. If it fails, remove degree symbols and other text, or centre the map manually and place a custom point.
4. Build a short route. Choose an airport about 5–15 nautical miles away and use the house pin as a destination or waypoint. For a quicker flight, create an airborne departure several miles away rather than directly above the roof.
5. Track the point. Follow the route line, waypoint marker or cockpit GPS. In MSFS 2020, you can also use the in-sim VFR map to track your aircraft, although it will not show house numbers or every residential street.
6. Work from large landmarks. Find a motorway junction, river, railway, park, school or sports ground first, then match the smaller streets around the pin.

A mistake we see constantly is entering a full postal address and assuming the location is unavailable when no result appears. The search database is geared towards airports, coordinates and recognised points of interest, so coordinates are the dependable choice.

Can I start directly over my house?

You can usually select the custom point as an airborne departure, but the aircraft may load above or just beyond the property. By the time the scenery appears, the house can already be underneath or behind you.

Using the house as the destination gives you time to establish your heading, reduce speed and compare landmarks. If you do start directly above it, be ready to pause, circle or turn back.

Which aircraft and settings work best?

A slow, high-wing aircraft gives the clearest view and leaves enough time for streamed scenery to resolve.

• Aircraft: Choose a Cessna 152, Cessna 172 or light bush aircraft rather than a fast jet. New pilots can use our beginner setup for an MSFS 2024 sightseeing flight.
• Altitude: Try roughly 1,000–2,500 feet above ground level. Too low hides the street pattern; too high makes individual buildings difficult to distinguish.
• Weather: Use daylight, good visibility, limited cloud and light winds for the first attempt.
• Speed: Reduce power before reaching the neighbourhood. A slower approach also gives textures and buildings more time to load.

Why does my house look wrong or appear to be missing?

Correct coordinates do not guarantee that the displayed building will match the real property.

• You are in the wrong district. Check whether latitude and longitude were reversed, and confirm the minus sign for locations west of Greenwich or south of the equator.
• The building is generated. Outside detailed photogrammetry areas, MSFS may infer a generic structure from a footprint. The road can be correct while the house is not.
• The imagery is old. The view is not live and may pre-date an extension, new development, roof replacement or demolition.
• Online data is disabled. Offline scenery is less detailed and can replace the neighbourhood with generic textures and buildings. Check online options and any in-sim data limit.
• Scenery is still streaming. Slow down or circle once if the district is blurry or flat. Fast aircraft can outrun the connection or cache.
• Photogrammetry is distorted. Buildings and trees can look melted while data loads. Disabling photogrammetry may produce cleaner generated buildings, but they will usually be less faithful.
• A cache or add-on is interfering. If an area that once looked clear remains blurred, test without local scenery modifications and refresh the rolling cache where that option is available.

Higher terrain and object detail settings can improve presentation, but they cannot restore building information missing from the source data.

How can I confirm that I found the correct house?

Match the coordinate pin against several large, stable features instead of relying on one roof. Compare the road shape, nearby junctions, railway lines, waterways, sports fields and groups of larger buildings. If those align with the pin, you have probably found the correct property even when its generated model looks unfamiliar.