How to use Aerotto

Everything from installing to parking at the gate, and on to flight jobs, helicopters and the water. New here? Read Setting up, then the one button.

Kept up to date with each release. Aerotto updates itself as it opens, so you are most likely on the latest version; the Fly tab says if a newer one is waiting. See what’s new for what each release changed.

1. Setting up

You need Windows 10 or 11 and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. Aerotto is free.

1. Create a free account at aerotto.com/account and confirm your email. Your account page shows your Aerotto key (it looks like AERO-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX).
2. Download and install from the download section: the installer (.msi) is easiest and updates itself; the portable ZIP runs from any folder and only tells you when a new version is out. If Windows says it “protected your PC”, choose More info → Run anyway. On Windows 10, Aerotto offers to install Microsoft’s free WebView2 component if it’s missing.
3. Start Aerotto and paste your key into the box on the Fly tab, then press Activate. You only do this once on each PC. Sign out in Settings switches to another account.
4. Start MSFS 2024 and load into a flight. Aerotto connects by itself; the top of the Fly tab shows your aircraft, whether its profile is flight-tested, and the runway or airport you’re at. You can start Aerotto before or after the sim.
5. Press Ready to fly in the sim. Until you do, the sim’s own AI holds the controls and Aerotto refuses to start, and says so.

2. The one button

The big button at the bottom of Aerotto is the only one you need. Its label changes with where you are.

While Aerotto is flying, the blue button reads Take Control; on the ground it reads Stop here. After you take control in the air, the big button becomes Re-engage: one press plans back to your destination from where you are and takes over again. More in Taking control.

Not every aircraft can fly every way. The supported aircraft table shows what each one has been flight-tested on, column by column: circuits, airport to airport, mountains, flight-plan routes, its own autopilot, the walk-around and start, gate to gate, water. “In testing” should work but hasn’t been proven; an aircraft with no profile flies on the Cessna 172’s numbers and the Fly tab warns you.

Aerotto is still changing fast. Watch your first flights in a new aircraft, and keep a hand near Take Control.

3. Setting up the flight in MSFS

• Where to start: at a gate or parking spot for Fly it all, on the runway for Take off. A taxiway works too: Aerotto taxis to the runway from wherever you are. A flight loaded on a runway takes off from that runway.
• Ready to fly: press it. Aerotto checks that the sim’s AI has let go of the controls before it does anything.
• Fuel: the plan checks the tanks against the trip plus a reserve (30 minutes, 45 in jets). Too little and the plan card shows Add fuel, which fills the tanks to what the trip needs, never past full. With the sim’s Unlimited Fuel on, Aerotto counts the burn from the engines instead of reading the tank.
• Covers, chocks, tie-downs: MSFS 2024 can start you with engine, pitot and static covers on and chocks under the wheels. Aerotto takes them off before it boards, on every aircraft that has them. Leave them to Aerotto: the sim doesn’t tell it whether they’re on, so one you removed yourself would go back on. If the engine won’t fire or the airspeed stays at zero on the takeoff roll, Aerotto stops and removes the cause.
• Walking around outside: if the flight starts with you outside the aircraft, Aerotto gets you in by pressing the sim’s walk-around key (Shift+C) as soon as you click into the sim window. It can only press keys while the sim window is in front.
• Cold and dark, engines running, lights on or off: all fine. Aerotto powers up and starts what needs starting.
• Your controls: a throttle, flap lever or axis on a joystick that is plugged in can fight Aerotto (flaps that won’t follow, power that creeps back). If the aircraft does odd things, unplug or recentre them.
• Sim rate: keep it at 1×. If the sim is sped up in the air, Aerotto hands the controls back to you.

4. Choosing where to go

On the Fly tab, under Where to:

Direct — straight to an airport

Type the airport code (for example KDEN) and press Plan, or click an airport on the map. Aerotto picks the landing runway by the wind, plans a cruise altitude that clears the terrain, a descent, and the arrival. Helicopters can take a heliport or helipad code too.

World map — your MSFS flight plan

Plan the route on the MSFS world map (or in the aircraft’s flight computer), then press Load my MSFS flight plan. Aerotto flies its waypoints, its departure runway, and its arrival (STAR) and approach with their published altitudes when the plan has them. A plan that starts where you are loads by itself.

SimBrief — your latest SimBrief flight plan

Enter your SimBrief username and press Load. Without a named approach, Aerotto flies the arrival runway’s ILS (or RNAV) approach straight in.

Pattern — one circuit and land

Takeoff, one traffic pattern, and a landing back on the same runway. Good for a first try.

Water / Spot — a place you pick on the map

Floatplanes get Water: click the map where you want to land and press Land here. Helicopters get Spot: any flat ground. See water and helicopters.

Taken a job on aerotto.com? It shows at the top of the Fly tab with its own Plan this job button, which does all of this for you.

5. The plan card

The Plan card shows what Aerotto will do: the runways, distance, cruise altitude, the route and any warnings. Details opens the full list of waypoints and altitudes, and the map draws the route. If you’re not on a runway yet, Aerotto plans from the runway it will taxi to; ⟳ Runway re-detects the runway you’re on, for example after moving the aircraft.

• Arrival: when your plan doesn’t name one, the card offers the choices: the landing runway’s ILS or RNAV approach straight in, the published arrivals (STARs) best first, or a visual circuit. If the runway has an ILS, Aerotto flies it by default; a plan that names its own arrival keeps it.
• Fuel: a warning and an Add fuel button when the tanks won’t cover the trip and reserve.
• Runway length: Take off and Fly it all check that the runway ahead is long enough for your aircraft. If you know better, Take off anyway goes; a 737 that can’t is offered Taxi to a gate instead.
• Terrain and circuits: airports where no circuit clears the hills are refused, or Aerotto plans a straight-in final instead (see mountains). The card says so.
• Safe-landing figure: aerotto.com counts how many Aerotto flights landed safely. A flight with a terrain warning, an overridden refusal, your own heading, altitude or speed, or your own aircraft settings isn’t counted either way, and the card tells you.

6. Gate to gate, step by step

After Fly it all, the Gate to landing checklist on the Fly tab opens by itself and shows each step as it happens, with a short explanation. Steps that don’t apply to your aircraft are skipped.

Board the aircraft

Gets you in from the walk-around (see above), retrying while the sim fades in.

Walk-around

Engine, pitot and static covers off, chocks and tie-downs away, gear pins and canopy covers where the aircraft has them.

Power

Battery and ground power where the aircraft needs them before anything else works (airliners, the SkyCourier).

Pushback

At a gate: calls the sim’s tug, which pushes back and turns the nose onto the first taxiway. Small aircraft skip it and taxi out forward.

Engine start

The aircraft’s own start procedure where it has one (an airliner starts its APU first and takes about 3–4 minutes), otherwise the sim’s auto-start.

Taxi clearance

Only with Follow ATC clearances on.

Taxi

Follows the airport’s taxiways to the runway into the wind (or your flight plan’s runway) at realistic speeds, slower in turns. The map shows the taxi route. A taxi that hasn’t moved for a minute stops and tells you.

Hold short and line up

Stops at the hold-short line, then lines up on the centreline.

Fly the plan

Takeoff, route and landing (see in the air).

Taxi to a gate

Rolls on to a proper runway exit, then to the nearest free stand that fits: an airline gate for airliners, GA parking for small aircraft (a tie-down that nearly fits at a small field, with a note to watch the wingtips). It checks for other aircraft already parked there. After a flight that ended on the runway, the Taxi to a gate button does this on its own.

Park and shut down

Parking brake, engines off, beacon off. Airliners keep their electrics on, ready for the next flight.

While it’s working on the ground, the button reads Stop here: it stops where it is and sets the parking brake. Press Fly it all again to carry on. Prefer to do it a piece at a time? The folded Step by step section (Plan taxi with a choice of runway, Push back, Taxi, Line up) does each part on its own.

7. What it does in the air

• Takeoff: full power, wings held level, tracks the centreline, rotates at the aircraft’s speed, gear up on a positive climb. A roll that heads off the runway heading is stopped.
• Climb and cruise: the aircraft’s climb speed and power, flaps up on schedule, 250 knots below 10,000 feet. Jets cruise at their real altitudes (up to 45,000 ft in the Citations and the C-17); shorter trips get a lower cruise so the climb and descent fit.
• Descent: one continuous path from the top of descent, planned backwards from the runway so it meets the arrival’s altitude limits, with the speed brakes when a jet is fast. Flying straight to an approach, it gets down to the approach’s height first and slows on a level stretch over the last 15 nm.
• Arrival and landing: the ILS straight in, the published arrival, or a 45° entry to the downwind. Flaps and gear in stages, a stable 3° final, a flare, and braking on the runway. An approach that isn’t stable goes around and comes back; after three go-arounds Aerotto holds over the airport and asks you to take over.
• Its own autopilot: on aircraft set up for it (the airliners, the Citations, the King Air, TBM, SkyCourier, Optica, 172 and L-39, among others), Aerotto sets the aircraft’s autopilot and lets it fly the cruise, like a crew does, with Aerotto on the thrust. If the autopilot doesn’t do what it was told, Aerotto takes over and tries it again. Aircraft without one (the An-2, the AT-802) are flown by hand all the way.
• Stall recovery: too slow or stalled, Aerotto drops what it was doing, turns the autopilot off, goes to full power, wings level and nose down until the speed is back, then carries on. Close to the ground, too slow or too much bank means wings level, full power and a go-around.
• Engine failure: if the engines stop, Aerotto lowers the nose and glides at a safe speed, tries a restart on aircraft where that’s set up, and asks you to take the controls and pick a place to land.
• Lights (if turned on in Settings): nav, beacon, taxi, strobes and landing lights at the right moments.

Your own heading, altitude or speed

En route, the folded Heading · Altitude · Speed line under the buttons opens three sliders, each kept within what your aircraft can do. Set one and press its tick: Aerotto flies your heading instead of the route, holds your altitude (it still climbs over high ground), or cruises at your speed (it still slows for the arrival). Resume route hands it back to the plan; your altitude also ends by itself at the destination, where Aerotto descends to the pattern.

The Fly tab shows the stage, the next waypoint, altitude, speed, height above the ground and miles to go, plus a Fuel & cost fold with fuel used, fuel left, its cost at today’s price and the economy. The Dashboard button over the map shows every gauge: instruments, engine, fuel, weather, autopilot and radios.

8. Mountains and terrain

Aerotto can’t look out the window, so it plans with a terrain map. It downloads the heights along your route the first time and keeps them on your PC.

• Cruise altitude at least 1,000 feet above the highest ground near the route, or 2,000 feet over mountains. Aircraft that can’t reach the height a trip needs (a 152 over the Rockies) won’t plan it.
• Valley departures: if the aircraft can’t out-climb the ridges ahead, it climbs in a racetrack over the airport first, then sets course.
• Mountain arrivals: it stays high until past the high ground, then descends in a racetrack over the field before joining the circuit. Arriving too high anywhere, it circles down over the airport rather than diving.
• Circuits checked against the ground: before planning a visual circuit Aerotto checks the ground under it. If one side is too high it flies the other side, then tries the other runway, then a straight-in final down the valley (Telluride). If nothing is safe, it won’t plan the trip and tells you to pick another airport. A go-around at a mountain airport climbs in a racetrack over the field and flies the approach again.
• In flight it checks the ground along the next minute of flight and climbs if it would pass too close.

Offline? The plan says the terrain map is unavailable and falls back to 3,000 feet above the airports. Fly somewhere flat.

9. Helicopters

Aerotto flies the Airbus H125, Bell 407, Eurocopter EC-135, Bell UH-1H Huey and CH-47D Chinook. A helicopter trip has its own stages on the Fly tab: Lift off, Fly, Approach, Hover, Set down. There is no taxi or pushback: it lifts off from wherever it sits.

1. Start the engine yourself and get the rotor up to speed. Press Ready to fly.
2. Choose where to: Direct with an airport, heliport or helipad code (hospital, rooftop and company pads included), a job, or Spot: click any flat, open ground on the map.
3. Press Take off. It lifts into a hover, turns on the spot to face where it’s going, flies direct at the aircraft’s cruising speed (500 ft up on short hops, 1,000 ft on longer ones), slows, hovers high over the pad, checks by radar that the ground under it is flat, and comes straight down. If it isn’t flat it moves a little; if nothing near is, it flies back.

• Mountains: it reads the terrain along the whole trip and stays 700–800 ft above the high ground of the next few minutes, slowing down (to 25 kt if it must) to climb over a ridge that rises faster than it can.
• Already flying? Press Take off in the air and it takes over from there: holds the height, turns toward the destination, and lands on the pad.
• If something goes wrong in flight it levels off, slows to a hover and carries on; a second time it flies back to where it lifted off. A problem in the low hover sets it down where it is. It never just lets go in the air.

10. Floatplanes and water

The Cessna 172 and DHC-2 Beaver on floats, the Cessna 208B Caravan on floats, the Icon A5 and the AT-802 Fire Boss take off from and land on water: the sim’s seaplane lanes, a spot you click on the map, or open sea. Fly it all works from the water too.

• On a lane: plan the seaplane base by its code, or let a water job plan it. Aerotto aims for the near end of the lane so it stops on the water, and a few of the sim’s small boats appear beside the lane as you turn final.
• A spot: choose Water, click the map, press Land here. Aerotto lands there into the wind on your word that it’s water, long enough and clear ahead: it can’t check that itself. A crash there isn’t held against its safety rating.
• Amphibians: wheels up for water, down for a runway. Aerotto sets them; make sure the aircraft is really afloat (not on the beach) before you press Take off. It shuts the engine down once stopped on the water.
• Drifting: a floatplane at idle drifts with the wind and can beach itself within a couple of minutes. Plan and press Take off soon after loading.

11. Jobs, your hangar and your airline

Aerotto has a job board at aerotto.com/account/jobs: passengers, cargo and surveys from airports, heliports and seaplane bases, 8 to a few hundred nautical miles, each with a story, a load and a pay. Fly it with Aerotto or by hand and you’re paid when you land. Money is virtual, for the game only.

1. Pick a job on the board. It starts from the airport you last flew to (or type one under From; tick Worldwide for jobs all over the world). The Map tab draws every job; pick one in the list or on the map and press Accept. One job at a time.
2. Load the sim at the job’s departure, in the job’s aircraft. Aerotto looks for your job every 20 seconds (Check for a job looks now), and it appears at the top of the Fly tab with its route and load.
3. Press Plan this job, then Fly it all or Take off. Plan this job checks you’re in the right aircraft at the right airport, then plans the flight, with the destination’s published arrival where it has one.
4. Land at the destination. The job pays about a minute after you stop, no taxi to a stand needed. A trip that doesn’t end with a safe landing never pays.

• What you keep: the pay less the fuel you burned, 5% upkeep, and a landing fee by the airport’s size (nothing offshore). One job in four is a premium job paying extra, and now and then there’s a jackpot.
• Your hangar (aerotto.com/account/hangar): jobs are flown only in aircraft you own. The Cessna 152 is free; buy the rest with what you earn, from the 172 at $2,000 to the 747-8F at $5,000,000, and fit floats to the 172, the Beaver, the Caravan and the AT-802 as upgrades. The hangar shows what each aircraft earns an hour, so a step up pays for itself.
• Ranks: Student, Private, Commercial, First Officer, Captain, Senior Captain and Chief Pilot, by lifetime job pay. A star per rank shows next to your callsign on the board, the home page and the live map.
• Your airline: found one for $50,000, name it and pick its colour. Hire up to ten pilots at $20,000 each; each brings in $400 a day, building up for two weeks between your visits.
• Jobs Aerotto cancels: if the sim has no such airport, or the destination has no safe circuit, Aerotto tells aerotto.com; the job is cancelled with no penalty and that airport isn’t offered for that aircraft again.

12. Taking control

In flight the blue button reads Take Control. Press it and you’re flying the aircraft straight away. To hand it back, press Re-engage: Aerotto plans back to the destination from where you are and takes over again. Or choose where to again and press Engage.

If Aerotto ever won’t let go, press the red Failure button beside it. It stops everything Aerotto is doing, in any state (flying, holding, pushback, taxi, Fly it all), switches off the aircraft’s own autopilot and autothrottle, and centres the stick and rudder.

With Follow ATC clearances on, Aerotto may hold on the runway waiting for takeoff clearance. The button then reads Stop waiting for clearance. Going back to the sim’s menus, loading another aircraft or another flight stops Aerotto too, and it picks up the new aircraft.

13. Settings

Follow ATC clearances

At airports with a tower: tunes the tower and waits on the runway for takeoff clearance. You (or the sim’s automatic radio) talk to ATC. Off: Aerotto just goes.

Use my Aerotto callsign and flight number in the sim

ATC and other pilots see your Aerotto callsign instead of the aircraft’s tail number. Your flight number is yours alone on Aerotto; set both on your account page.

Share flight logs

Sends Aerotto’s log of each flight (what it did, and the aircraft’s position and controls every second) to aerotto.com so problems can be looked into and fixed. Nothing else on your PC is sent. Off keeps the log on your PC only.

Handle the lights

Switches the lights like a crew: nav when powered, beacon for pushback and engines, taxi lights while taxiing, strobes and landing lights from line-up (landing lights off above 10,000 feet), logo and wing lights at night.

Board the aircraft for me at the gate

Presses Shift+C to get you in when a flight starts on the walk-around.

Hide my achievements on Discord

The Aerotto Discord announces finished jobs, milestones and records. Tick this to keep yours out of it.

The Settings tab also shows your callsign, your Aerotto key, how many other Aerotto flights are up, and the loaded aircraft with the profile Aerotto uses for it, with buttons to your account and My flights. The Log tab lists everything Aerotto does, step by step. It’s the first thing to look at when something seems off.

Saved locations, folded at the bottom of the Fly tab, saves the aircraft where it is now (position, altitude, speed, fuel) as a flight you can load again later, on the ground only.

14. Live map, your flights and Discord

• Live map: every Aerotto flight in progress, with its callsign, aircraft, version and route, and the path flown coloured by altitude, at aerotto.com/live and on the map in the app. Parked flights drop off after ten minutes. Prefer not to be seen? Hide your flight in your account settings.
• My flights: each flight is saved to your account with its number, airports, runways, gates, fuel burned and cost, the weather, and the path flown.
• Rate your flight: after landing, the Fly tab asks for 1–5 stars and a comment. It’s optional, and the quickest way to tell us what went wrong. Your rating shows on the flight’s page.
• Discord: finished jobs, milestones (first flight, distance, new countries…) and records are announced on the Aerotto Discord. It’s also where to ask questions and report problems.

15. Which aircraft work

Aerotto has tuned settings, a profile, for each supported aircraft: 30 or so airplanes, helicopters and floatplanes, from the Cessna 152 to the 747-8F. The supported aircraft table on the home page shows what each one has been flight-tested on. The Fly tab says tested or untested next to the aircraft name, and names the pilot who made the profile when it wasn’t us.

• Profiles update themselves: Aerotto downloads the latest aircraft settings from aerotto.com, so a fix to one aircraft reaches you within half an hour, from your next aircraft load, without an app update. They’re signed, so only Aerotto’s own can be used.
• Aircraft without a profile fly on the Cessna 172’s numbers, which works for light aircraft and poorly for anything much bigger or faster. Aerotto warns you, and won’t start a borrowed-profile jet or anything over 12,500 lb.
• Want yours added? Fly it, rate the flight, and tell us on Discord how it went; your saved flight and shared log help. Aircraft profiles shows the structure of a profile if you want to make one yourself.

16. Troubleshooting

“Waiting for MSFS…” and nothing happens

Load into a flight in MSFS 2024 (not just the main menu). Aerotto connects on its own within a few seconds, and reconnects by itself after a menu. If the Sim chip turns amber (“Sim not answering”), the sim has stopped talking: close and reopen Aerotto on the ground.

“The sim’s AI is flying this aircraft”

You haven’t pressed Ready to fly (or Fly it now) in the sim. Until you do, the sim’s own pilot holds the controls. Press it, then Fly it all or Take off again.

“Not on a known runway”

That’s normal at a gate or on a taxiway: Aerotto plans from the runway it will taxi to. If you are on a runway, press ⟳ Runway.

It refuses to take off

The message says why: not enough fuel (press Add fuel), a runway too short (Take off anyway if you know better), the engine off, not lined up, an aircraft with no profile that’s too big to fly on borrowed numbers, or a destination with no safe circuit (pick another).

The engine won’t start

Check the tanks aren’t empty. If the radio or screens stay dark with the battery on, switch the battery/master off and on once. Then press Fly it all again. Helicopters and the A320 (Legacy): start the engine yourself.

The pushback tug doesn’t move

The sim’s tug waits if ATC has already been contacted. Aerotto pushes back before calling ATC; if you called ground yourself first, finish the pushback through the ATC window.

It didn’t get me into the aircraft

Click into the sim window: Aerotto can only press keys while the sim is in front. If your walk-around key isn’t Shift+C, board by hand.

The flaps or throttle don’t do what Aerotto asks

A flap lever, throttle or axis on your controls can hold them. Unplug the controller or move the lever to match, and try again.

It arrived high and is circling

That’s on purpose: it circles down over the airport to lose height rather than diving at the runway. It joins the circuit once low enough. If you took control in the cruise and pressed Re-engage near the destination, it can arrive very high; press Re-engage earlier next time.

It went around, again

An approach that isn’t stable (off the centreline, too fast, too high) goes around and tries again. After three, Aerotto holds over the airport and asks you to land it. Gusty wind and a short runway are the usual causes.

My job doesn’t show in the app

Press Check for a job. Make sure you accepted it on aerotto.com, you’re signed in to the same account in the app, and you’re in the job’s aircraft at (or within a few miles of) its departure. A job you can’t fly shows a notice saying why.

The job didn’t pay

It pays about a minute after you stop at the destination, and only after a safe landing. A landing elsewhere, a crash, or a flight that ended before the destination doesn’t pay. If it was a safe landing at the right airport and nothing came, tell us on Discord with the flight number.

The helicopter won’t land on my spot

It hovers over the spot and checks by radar that the ground is flat. On a slope or near trees and buildings it moves a little, and flies back if nothing near is flat. Pick open, level ground, and keep the engine and rotor running yourself before Take off.

Windows “protected your PC”

Aerotto is new and not yet widely downloaded. Choose More info → Run anyway. The checksums let you verify the download.

Something else

Look at the Log tab, rate the flight with a comment, then tell us on Discord what happened, which aircraft and where. The saved flight on your account and a shared log help us see it.