How do I practise carrier landings in MSFS 2024?

The best way to practise aircraft-carrier landings in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is to use the F/A-18E and either a carrier landing activity or a genuinely functional carrier in Free Flight. Begin with repeated daylight straight-in approaches, learn on-speed angle of attack, then add the carrier circuit, wind, darkness and deck movement.

Which carrier-landing setup is best for practice?

Use a carrier activity for rapid repetitions, or Free Flight with a functional carrier when you want control over weather, fuel and the circuit.

If no carrier activity is available, use our guide to finding carriers and setting up a nearby Free Flight session. Before spending an hour blaming your approach technique, check which carrier and aircraft combinations support genuine arrested landings.

How should I set up the first practice approach?

1. Select the F/A-18E. It provides the proper carrier configuration, HUD angle-of-attack references and a working tailhook. Another aircraft is suitable only if its hook and the chosen carrier are explicitly compatible.
2. Check the controls. Search the control bindings for the tailhook command and assign it somewhere accessible. Also confirm reliable inputs for landing gear, flaps, trim and throttle; default bindings vary between platforms and controllers.
3. Use a sensible landing weight. Begin with moderate fuel and no unnecessary load. A heavily loaded aircraft requires a higher approach speed and leaves less margin for correcting a poor glidepath.
4. Make the conditions easy. Choose daylight, good visibility, light steady wind and limited turbulence. Disable any assistance that takes control of the throttle or flight controls, but retain visual aids if they help you learn the sight picture.
5. Start on the angled-deck centreline. Position the aircraft roughly three to five nautical miles astern, aligned with the landing area rather than the ship's bow. Give yourself enough height to intercept a shallow carrier glidepath without diving.
6. Verify the hardware once. Use an external view to confirm that the hook actually lowers, then return to the cockpit. Repeating the final approach from the cockpit builds useful visual references; flying every attempt externally does not.

What carrier-landing technique should I practise?

A repeatable carrier approach depends on angle of attack, glidepath and line-up rather than chasing one fixed airspeed.

1. Configure early. Lower the landing gear, select full landing flaps and extend the tailhook before the final approach becomes busy.
2. Trim for on-speed angle of attack. In the F/A-18E, place the flight-path marker in the HUD's angle-of-attack bracket and use the indexer as confirmation. The exact indicated airspeed changes with aircraft weight, so a memorised speed is less useful than the on-speed indication.
3. Track the angled deck. The landing centreline points slightly away from the ship's longitudinal centreline. A common mistake is aiming towards the bow, which produces a persistent line-up error as the aircraft closes.
4. Hold the glidepath with small power changes. Follow the optical landing aid when the carrier models one. Without it, a glidepath of roughly 3.5 degrees is a useful starting reference. Once trimmed on-speed, use throttle for most glidepath corrections and small control inputs for line-up.
5. Do not flare. Fly the aircraft onto the deck in the landing attitude. Flaring can carry the hook over the arrestor-wire area or make the aircraft skip across it.
6. Prepare for a bolter. Advance to military power at touchdown, meaning maximum dry thrust short of afterburner. Close the throttles only after the aircraft is positively arrested. If the hook misses, keep the gear, flaps and hook down, climb away and fly another circuit.

For the cockpit indications, touchdown sequence and bolter recovery in more detail, use our step-by-step F/A-18 carrier-approach procedure.

What practice sequence builds consistency?

Master one variable at a time instead of combining the circuit, poor visibility and a moving deck on the first attempt.

1. Repeat straight-in approaches. Keep the weather and starting position unchanged until you can arrive on-speed, on the centreline and on a stable glidepath.
2. Practise the bolter deliberately. Treat every touchdown as a possible missed wire. The correct reaction should become automatic rather than a last-second attempt to brake on the remaining deck.
3. Add the daylight carrier circuit. For a basic Case I-style pattern, use approximately 800 feet for the initial pass and 600 feet on downwind, then turn towards the angled deck. Carrier add-ons vary, so use these as training references rather than rigid activity requirements.
4. Add difficulty gradually. Introduce stronger wind, turbulence, reduced visibility, darkness and deck movement separately. This makes the cause of each error much easier to identify.

Why does the tailhook keep missing the wires?

If several apparently good touchdowns fail in exactly the same way, the carrier setup is more likely at fault than the pilot.

• The carrier is decorative. A detailed deck model does not guarantee working arrestor wires. Static scenery may only provide a solid collision surface.
• The hook command did not operate. Check the cockpit indication and confirm visually that the hook is down. Controller profiles can contain an unassigned command or a switch that immediately reverses the input.
• The aircraft is incompatible. Some aircraft have a visible hook but no arrestment interaction recognised by that carrier package.
• The touchdown is beyond the wire area. Excess speed, a late flare or aiming too far along the deck lets the hook pass the arresting zone. Aim for the landing area just beyond the ramp, not the middle of the flight deck.
• The approach is not on-speed. Too fast produces floating and a shallow hook angle; excessive sink can cause a bounce. Re-establish the F/A-18's on-speed indication before correcting the glidepath.
• Two carrier packages overlap. Duplicate scenery can place separate deck and collision models at the same coordinates. Disable one package and test the carrier again.
• An assistance option is intervening. Assisted landing, AI control or automatic throttle input can fight the corrections needed during the final seconds. Disable the specific control assistance and retry the same approach.

Some carrier add-ons model individual wires, while others use one broader arrestment zone. Judge the approach first by stable configuration, correct touchdown position and successful arrestment rather than trying to force a particular numbered wire on every carrier model.