Flight Panels has been developing loads of panels for Stream Decks as of late in order to help simmers easily access controls in their overly complicated flight decks. Their latest release focused on the 777 by PMDG, so we thought this was a great chance in order to speak to Richard at Flight Panels about the company, their products and the future.

Established in 2023, we’re a small company based in Northern Ireland who develop Stream Deck profiles for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, that transforms a user’s Stream Deck into an intuitive control interface for their aircraft’s cockpit. This allows users to easily operate the buttons, dials, and knobs inside their virtual cockpit without needing to touch their keyboard or mouse, resulting in more immersive and realistic flight experiences.

Our Stream Deck Profiles come pre-loaded with hundreds of pre-programmed buttons that match the look and feel of each individual aircraft and give instant control over a wide range of systems including autopilot, communications, navigation, lighting and overhead systems.

When we created our first profile for the FlyByWire A32NX and started sharing it between friends and colleagues, we collectively realised that it had become an integral part of our Flight Simulator experience. It dramatically changed how we interacted with the sim and made the overall experience feel more realistic and enjoyable.

When we looked at free alternatives we identified several issues, but those that stood out the most were update rot – profiles that had been released but not updated (or on an infrequent basis) and a lack of end-user support.

As aircraft developers are constantly improving their products, regular updates and developer communication is essential, because no one wants to wake up one day to find that one of their most useful tools is no longer working as expected – and without an understanding of when/if those issues will be addressed.

Through a commercial offering we’re able to address some of these issues by offering free product updates for the life of our products and professional support (Helpdesk, Live Chat & Discord) to provide our customers with confidence that a key part of their Flight Simulator setup will work first time, every time – whilst benefiting from regular bug fixes and general improvements – such as the addition of new functionality.

Obviously it doesn’t stop there, we focus heavily on user experience and design so that our profiles match the look and feel of each individual aircraft, whilst achieving that ultime sleek desk aesthetic.

In the last year we’ve released over 60+ Stream Deck profiles, so as you can imagine, we’ve amassed quite a collection of aircraft! Personally, the FlyByWire A32NX remains in the number 1 spot – it was the first Stream Deck profile that we created and it’s probably safe to say that I know it inside and out. Unfortunately that doesn’t mean I can butter it!

We primarily created our range of AeroLens profiles to provide quick and simple access to drone controls and cockpit, instrumentation, showcase, custom and quick view cameras, without having to interact with the on-screen menus, which is especially important for streamers.

However, camera views are typically a second thought, and we found that some of the most popular aircraft for Microsoft Flight Simulator have a very limited number of views available, and in some cases, some of those views are slightly bugged.

To address this, we launched AeroLens Pro Enhanced, a range of profiles that ship with any necessary bug fixes and a range of custom views that we’ve created, to enhance the user experience, immersion and enjoyment that these aircraft bring. In some cases, we’ve added up to 20 additional custom views!

Recently, we launched AeroLens Lite which whilst similar to our Pro and Enhanced offerings, is our non-aircraft specific profile that allows users to benefit from quick access to default camera views.

It’s incredibly tempting to branch out to other areas but as a small team, we don’t want to overstretch ourselves as it’s exceptionally important that we continue to deliver exceptional support to our existing customers and continue to release regular updates for our existing portfolio.

But, who knows what opportunities Flight Simulator 2024 may bring!

Our recent PMDG 777-300ER product launch has been incredibly successful so it’s probably safe to say that most of them are flying the 777! In general, the top 5 most popular aircraft (“since records began”) are: Fenix A319-A321, PMDG 777-300ER, PMDG 737-800, Flybywire A32NX and the iniBuilds A300-600.