GeoFS: The True Free Flight Simulator
- Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza
- 50 minutes ago
- 7 min read
Sidestep Google, spend time with a free simulator worth your time and effort
On June 13th, 2026, the mostly forgotten "flight simulator" from Google received an update that somewhat took social media by storm for a time. I believe it was the Saturday of FlightSimExpo 2026 where I went from seriously considering purchasing an Octavi IFR-1 the moment I saw it to being somewhat vexed over the sudden social media flurry about the Google Earth Flight Simulator. I vividly recall watching the video in the X.com post, reading comments and thinking "why would you do this when GeoFS exists?"
The tone of this article is a bit pointed, but I am not going to judge anyone for enjoying the latest update from Google. However, as someone that appreciates flight simulation I cannot help but point out that a genuine, free to play, easily accessible flight sim has been available for many, many years. I'm going in on this one. Form up and follow me.
Table of Contents
Accessibility, Consistency
GeoFS (2010) is a free to play online flight simulator created by Xavier Tassin. This sim is easiest to access using a web browser on its website or by using its mobile app options, which include a mobile web browser version or a native app.
For over 15 years the solo developer has been supporting, refining and expanding this flight simulator alongside its dedicated player base. As of the time this article was written, Geo FS 4.0 Beta is currently live and the community around this simulator is putting it through its paces, providing the developer with feedback.
That is an impressive track record of development towards new features and support. Over 16 years of development and support also means that the flight simulation beneath its visuals has been refined and iterated time and time again.
Getting Airborne
Getting into the air in GeoFS is fast. Selecting locations to takeoff is done in three ways.
Selecting from a list of pre-selected notable locations.
Searching for specific airport codes or locations.
Bringing up the Live Map, right clicking and selecting a starting altitude.
Once loaded into the desired location it takes one or two clicks to select an aircraft, then it is time to fly.
Aircraft Selection
The aircraft selection of GeoFS is something you would expect from Microsoft Flight Simulator, XPlane or Prepar3D. There are 34 official aircraft in total. They are accessible from the moment you access the simulator and can be swapped to at any time during your session. From hot air ballons and gliders to airliners and Mach 2 capable military aircraft. Single engine light aircraft, utility helicopters and World War aircraft too.
This does not include the many aircraft created by the community which are of equal or greater quality than those in the base simulator. See the Geo FS Fandom Wiki for more detailed information, but the official aircraft list is below:
Official Vehicle List
Piper Cub ● Cessna 172 ● Alphajet PAF ● Boeing 737-700 ● Embraer Phenom 100 ● de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter ● F-16 Fighting Falcon ● Pitts Special S1 ● Eurocopter EC135 ● Airbus A380-800 ● Alisport Silent 2 Electro ● Pilatus PC-7 Mk-I ● de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver ● Colomban MC-15 Cri-cri ● Lockheed P-38 Lightning F-5B ● Douglas DC-3 ● McDonnell Douglas DC-10-40 ● Sukhoi Su-35 ● Concorde ● Zlin Z-50 ● Cessna 152 ● Piper PA-28 161 Warrior II ● Airbus A350 ● Boeing 777-300ER ● Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet ● Beechcraft Baron B55 ● Dassault Rafale ● Potez 25 ● Northtrop T-38 Talon ● Evektor Sportstar ● szd-48-3 Jantar ● Gliders ● Major Tom ● Hughes 269a/TH-55 Osage ● Goat Airchair ● Wingsuit
True Flight Dynamics
Since day one GeoFS was built as a true flight simulator with a realistic engine based on the laws of physics at its core. Its flight models simulate lift, stall and drag across all aircraft surfaces per aircraft. These flight models are then further tweaked by hand to match the real-world performance of the aircraft being simulated as closely as possible.
A specific example to demonstrate the finer details of the flight model is that it is detailed enough to have thermals and simulate ridge lift. This is wind that blows onto mountains and other elevated geographic features that follows their vertical faces. This wind generates lift as it travels up slopes and off of peaks. Ridge lift is one of the most well-known phenomena utilized by glider pilots to remain airborne. In GeoFS it is possible to practice real soaring techniques and for light aircraft to experience adverse wind conditions in certain situations.
Flight Operations
GeoFS provides a representation of flight accurate enough to be used by educational organizations to introduce students to basic concepts of General Aviation and Visual Flight Rules (VFR) experience.
16 years ago this simulator used a Google Earth plugin for terrain, but that changed when the plugin was no longer supported and depreciated. The developer instead switched to CesiumJS 3D geospatial data to render global landscapes and continued development of the simulator.
Today GeoFS can render the entire world using various levels of satellite imagery. Two are free and accurate up to 1 meter/pixel, one being a part of a paid subscription which adds more visual quality and sub-meter resolution. OpenStreetMap data can also generate up to 500 million buildings.
There are navigation charts with over 40,000 runways refenced with PAPI lights and runway lights supported by radio navigation methods including ADF, DME, GPS, NDB and VOR. Even SimBrief by Navigraph can be used in GeoFS. Depending on the avionics available per aircraft, GeoFS can support VFR cross country flight while utilizing navigational aids.
Day and night cycles incorporate weather that can be manually configured by the player to suit their needs or utilize METAR real time weather data for the region of the world they are flying in. Players can also take control of time of day and weather if they would like to as well. Wind, rain, turbulence, fog, snow and everything in between.
All of this is exactly the type of thing academic organizations and business entities are interested in when they purchase licenses for GeoFS Pro.
Multiplayer
The live map shows player air traffic consisting of hundreds of human players. Air traffic can be further increased by turning on ADS-B commercial traffic data to show real world aircraft in flight. Multiplayer communications are optional with voice chat options in the official GeoFS Discord or a built-in text chat in the simulator itself. The community does have players that act as dedicated air traffic controllers, air demo teams, airliner companies and other organizations. So, there is a deeper level of interaction if desired. With collisions between aircraft and objects being an optional setting, multiplayer in this simulator is very casual.
For those that want to fly solo, multiplayer can be disabled in the options menu.
Controls
All aircraft can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, but flight controls are not overly simplified. There are enough controls within GeoFS to manage a four-engine wide body airliner while being able to use independent throttle controls, trim wheel, thrust reversers - even smaller items like windshield wipers, deploying passenger doors and opening maintenance panels.
While the official aircraft in GeoFS do not have cockpits full of 100+ clickable buttons, between cockpit avionics and the instrument user interface overlay, there is a good amount of flight data given to the players.
GeoFS Beta 4.0 has an in-development feature which pops out a separate window as an instrument panel. Depending on how it is implemented, this could be used with the already existing multi-display functionality to let players have a small screen displaying avionics.
Supported Devices
USB device support is plug and play for the most part if using a GamePad API compliant browser; Chrome, Opera, Firefox, and many others. There are community made plugins for edge case uses and some general simulator improvements.
A high-profile example of hardware support comes from the GeoFS booth each year at FlightSimExpo. Developer Xavier Tassin shows compatibility with traditional hands-on throttle and stick configurations and newer handheld flight controllers like the Honeycomb Aeronautical Echo and Yawman Arrow.
The mobile app can use touch screen joysticks, sliders for control and finger gestures for control. An option to control pitch and roll with a device's gyroscope is also an option. Mobile devices that can support Bluetooth controllers and USB-C devices can also be used.
Performance, Settings
While in the simulator there are extensive settings for web browser and mobile versions.
Most of the settings that directly impact frames per second performance are related to Graphics. As GeoFS is web browser based simulator, using a WebGL 2.0 compatible web browser that has options for 'hardware acceleration' or 'graphics acceleration' which utilizes a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is a deciding factor in how the simulator performs.
In my experience, using Microsoft Edge causes performance to be significantly throttled with there being many extra steps to try and correct it. Alternatively, using Chrome or OperaGX, it was as simple as turning on hardware acceleration to maintain over 60 FPS at all times. While there is a general slider for Performance vs Quality, opening advanced options brings up sub-options for vegetation, night lights, volumetric clouds, etc.
Environment is another important set of options. By default, GeoFS is using real world METAR data corresponding to the location of the player in the simulator. Switching to manual lets players adjust weather details down to the level of turbulence, cloud ceiling and thickness and thermal strengths. These values are applied in real time without having to pause or restart the simulator.
Closing Statement
Hailing the revived sub-feature of the Google Earth Pro Desktop App (now available on web browser) as anything close to a flight simulator definitely "jammed my flaps" a bit. I cannot deny that my feeling a bit upset was a major part of me wanting to write this article.
Keeping it real, that so-called flight simulator really isn't simulating much. It offers an 'SR22' and 'F-16' with flight characteristics that seem like the aircraft handle differently, but in reality, the choice is a rather binary. The SR22 flies slower with slower control inputs for easier flying, and the F-16 flies much faster with touchy controls but more exciting high energy performance. Anecdotes from those that tried the older versions of this app state that the new "flight model" has more notable weight behind its controls, but that is not something I can confirm with personal experience.
With GeoFS by Xavier Tassin having been available and highly capable for so many years, my need to stand on a virtual soap box and let everyone know there is a much better option out there went through the roof. Thanks for listening and go flying!
About the Writer
Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. [Read Staff Profile]
