Still on the fence about attending FlightSimExpo this year? To help you decide, we are taking a look back at our time at last year’s event.
Our team hit the show floor at FSExpo 2025 in Providence, Rhode Island, to bring you the latest breaking news, hands-on product impressions, and unforgettable community connections. Read through our team’s in-person and online experiences below. We hope it inspires you to join us this year when FSExpo takes over the Saint Paul RiverCentre in Minneapolis from June 12–14, 2026.
If you already know you will attend but have no plans for the area yet, the organisers have prepared some activities you can do with other flight simmers, including a bus tour to the airport or a visit to Delta’s technical operations facilities.
Liam
Editor – based in the United Kingdom, attended in person
Attending FSExpo has been on my mind for the past couple of years, especially after seeing videos from other creators who have attended. It looked like a great place to discover new developers, or less well-known ones, and get hands-on with different products. This year’s FSExpo was a first for me and also gave me a fantastic chance to see parts of the US.
I didn’t stay at one of the hotels near the convention centre, but instead chose to stay in an Airbnb. It was about a 15-minute walk or a 5-minute drive away. As it was my first FSExpo, my first impressions were amazing. I arrived late on Thursday as I had booked an airside tour with FSExpo on Friday morning.
That tour was especially something I was looking forward to, and it turned out great. We were driven around Providence Airport in a coach and allowed to take as many pictures as we wanted. The tour guide also allowed us to be out on the apron for 15 minutes, which was an amazing experience.
Saturday consisted of walking around the convention floor with some of the FSNews team. We tried out some hardware, talked to lots of developers, and took many photos. As a first-time attendee, I enjoyed the open layout all in one room.
I found myself at the Winwing booth several times during the FSExpo. After their many announcements on Friday, getting a closer look at some of the new hardware was really great. I also had the opportunity to try out the Winwing URSA Minor Airliner, which I ended up purchasing upon returning home.
Getting that hands-on with a product can really sway your decision on whether it’s worth your money or not. I found that replacing the Thrustmaster Airbus joystick with the URSA would be a good choice. It’s something I probably wouldn’t have done if I had not attended FSExpo.
Although I couldn’t get my hands on the Synaptic A220, I got a glimpse of how the aircraft is shaping up so far. Some of the other booths I quite liked were Wingflex, Meridian GMT, and Flitesim.com. Overall, attending FSExpo was a truly amazing opportunity, and I had a great time, as well as the time I spent exploring the US afterwards. The whole event was nicely planned out, and the convention centre had a nice, clean layout. It made my first experience easy and simple.
Asa
Content Manager – based in the Colorado, United States, attended in person
This was the second time I had attended FSExpo in person, following my visit to Vegas in 2024. I really enjoyed the Providence location – despite staying in the Marriott down the block and not the on-site Omni Hotel, it took significantly less time to get to the convention floor than it did at the Rio last year. It was great to have all the convention stages and events in the same massive room as well, and Providence is a wonderful small New England town to spend a weekend in.
With the other FSNews staff, I spent Saturday running around the convention floor, trying out hardware, talking to developers, and making connections. I had Sunday all to myself – the rest of the FSNews staff had moved on – so I spent the day primarily attending some interesting seminars.
FSExpo is the best place to put your hands on a ton of sim hardware in a very short period of time. This year, I was particularly intrigued by the variety of controllers on offer, to the extent that I had to write an entire article about it.
Force Feedback peripherals also had a strong showing. MOZA’s FFB line expanded dramatically with the addition of a new FFB stick base to their lineup that includes the well-received AB9 and AY210 yoke base. FliteSim, who stole the show last year with their FFB yokes, demonstrated new and revised hardware as well as an incredible remote synchronization feature. WinWing showed off their exciting new Cyber Taurus stick as well as an early prototype of their full-size Boeing FFB yoke.
I think it’s a challenge to demonstrate complex add-ons on a convention floor, since there isn’t enough time to really dig your hands into the product on offer. However, that didn’t stop developers from showing off their add-ons. The Bluebird 757 is probably the most anticipated airliner release of 2025, and we finally got to get our hands on it at FSExpo 2025. Or rather, hundreds of other lucky people did – the booth was so full that I couldn’t sneak in a session! iniBuilds and Synaptic also showed off the upcoming A220, and that booth was similarly mobbed. PMDG also showed off early renders of the upcoming 747-400.
FSExpo is an excellent venue for panel discussions and hands-on demonstrations. On Saturday, I attended Mobiflight’s DIY Radio Panel workshop. This was a lot of fun, taking me back to my college days of hardware prototyping! Mobiflight, however, made it a lot easier than it was in college – I am planning a full writeup on that as well!
On Sunday, I attended a seminar and a panel discussion on using home flight simulators for flight training. Both of these were very interesting and informative, as I study to be a flight instructor myself. FlyInside’s Rick Miller presented a detailed path toward getting your own home simulator certified for logging time toward pilot certificates. A few hours later, he was joined by Fabian Lim (Flitesim) and Mike Catalfamo (Flight Sim Coach) for a panel discussion on practical ways to utilize your home sim for flight training – even if it isn’t loggable.
George
Project Manager – based in the Czech Republic, attended in person
Third time’s the charm, as they say. My case was no different. While I had planned to attend FSExpo in 2023 and 2024, it was unfortunately not a feasible option at the time. However, the third time was a charm, and in 2025, I finally had the opportunity to attend the event in person, not just from the comfort of my sofa at home in Europe.
I stayed in the nearby Marriott hotel, which offered event attendees a discounted rate. Having the venue just across the block was a great comfort. I preferred that over staying in the same building since I was “forced” to get some fresh air when I wanted to return to my room. It also created a mental barrier between the event and a place to relax. Providence itself was nice, but it wasn’t a city I would necessarily be a huge fan of given the lack of landmarks and places to visit nearby, which previous event locations had plenty of. It was decent and calm, but not something I would look for when travelling across the ocean to the United States.
Speaking of the event, however, I was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting a lot, but reality exceeded all my previous expectations.
I had a great time gaining hands-on experience with all the hardware. The event is definitely a great place to test all sorts of new and existing hardware, whether it is too make sure it is something you want to buy and just check that it doesn’t have any major functional flaws, or to explore what’s new to the market and see if that wouldn’t be a great addition to your setup.
Exhibitors also showcased new software at the venue. I must admit that, apart from some exceptions, I wasn’t a huge fan of the software showcased at this year’s event. However, this is most likely due to me being a huge hardware nerd, especially when it comes to flight simulation and connecting it with real-world aviation, and the fact that showcasing software is a very challenging task.
What I would consider the best part of FSExpo in general, however, are the countless opportunities to connect with other flight simmers and companies. It was awesome to finally meet the people I’ve been chatting with through emails and Discord in person, and connect faces with names. It was just as awesome to meet new people and open new communication channels.
Jean
Trial Period Supervisor – based in Panama, attended online
Despite wanting to go to FSExpo in person this year, for various circumstances, I wasn’t able to. Once again, I was left to participate in the event virtually, which does feel like you’re missing around 70% of what there is to offer. However, don’t let this make you think that it’s all or nothing with FSExpo; I’m still really glad that I was able to attend virtually. The excitement of FSExpo Friday, which is perhaps the only part you may be familiar with if you haven’t attended the expo, virtually or otherwise, is just the tip of it.
By attending virtually through FSA’s website, you get access to all of the event’s seminars, including the ones on Saturday and Sunday. These seminars have a ton of really interesting and useful information. For example, in one of the seminars, I got to learn how a seemingly invisible part of our community, blind flight simmers, are able to fly airliners just like any of us, which I didn’t even think was possible!
There was another seminar by X-Crafts where they talked about why so many flight sim businesses, specifically aircraft developers, fail. It was extremely interesting to understand why it’s so incredibly difficult to not only program and develop your own recreation of an aircraft that took hundreds of engineers years to design, but also have to deal with bugs you had never seen until release, the financial difficulties of developing a product for years with no real income, and a community that demands nothing short of perfection.
There were so many other interesting seminars, from product presentations by companies like Motozolo and Meridian GMT to information sessions about how to build your own FAA-approved flight simulator that you can log hours on, and so much more. This makes the virtual attendance, in my opinion, well worth paying for if you aren’t able to attend the event in-person.
The perspective and knowledge you gain from presentations by some of the hobby’s most talented and knowledgeable individuals can really change the way you think about flight simming, and above all, make you really want to go and meet them in-person at the next event!
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