Patch Notes: October 8, 2026

Big updates: MD-11 persistence, a redesigned hangar and live aircraft page, an updated plugin, and many fixes.

Everything that landed in the app since the start of October.

Live flights

• The live flight panel on an aircraft page has been redesigned, with live Mach and IAS, flaps, gear and squawk readouts, and the transponder mode.
• Listen in on VATSIM. When a pilot is connected to VATSIM and tuned to a controller's frequency, a speaker button on their COM1 lets you listen to that frequency live.
• The live map now follows the aircraft, zooming in close on the ground and out at cruise.
• Nearby VATSIM traffic shows on the aircraft's live map.
• Airports on the live map are hoverable and clickable, and route ICAOs link to airport pages.
• Pre-departure VATSIM sessions with wrong flight plan info no longer show on public live pages.
• Fixed some aircraft reporting departed and flight completed while still taxiing. Departure is now detected only on real movement.

Profiles and hangars

• UI updates to the pilot hangar, the flight network map and recent flights.
• Supporters can pick which of their aircraft sits behind their profile hero.
• Flight log and registry filters now survive navigation.

Aircraft and leases

• The TFDi Design MD-11's full 1:1 High Fidelity state is now the headline of Lived in, and the aircraft's state is saved after every flight.
• Aircraft with a saved High Fidelity (1:1) state are now indicated on the aircraft page and registry.
• Lease buttons show a Reserved state, and the registry has a High Fidelity filter.
• New walkthroughs for the "Lived In" button and lease options.
• The in-flight plan and the mission description now show on the lease page, and Dispatch and SimBrief planning stay available until departure.
• An ended lease no longer shows in telemetry, and the plugin track resets correctly when you reposition via the plugin.
• Fixed the "Complete lease" dialog popping up again after ending a lease.

Missions

• Declaring a mission on your lease for the first time joins you to the mission automatically.
• Community missions conclude when their window ends.
• You get a bell notification confirming credit for a positioning flight.

Patronage and Supporter

• Patrons can now choose who can fly their general aviation tail: locked to just you, you and specified friends, or unlocked for everyone. The patron page lists the reservation.
• TFDi Design customers can redeem their MD-11 product key for a free month of Tailstrike Supporter features.
• The Subscribe plans and patron page have new copy and layout.

Notifications and feed

• Notifications are reduced: the bell only rings for social activity, your aircraft and real missions, and no longer for aircraft you follow. Clicking a notification no longer reloads the page.
• First landings no longer clutter the dashboard feed.
• The dashboard now counts active pilots and controllers.
• The "long leg" feed threshold moved from 3 to 6 hours.

Account

• Settings has a new "Redeem a code" section for redeeming codes.
• Link your Discord account from Settings, under Integrations, so the Tailstrike bot can recognize you in the community server. It is a link only, not a way to sign in.
• Signing in with VATSIM now links to the account you're signed in to.

Plugin

• The Tailstrike plugin is now signed with a Microsoft-issued certificate. Windows will show the publisher as Drop Economics LLC.
• If you're on the current beta plugin, switch back to stable: download the latest version.
• Redesigned to be simpler: the map, flight plan and aircraft list tabs are gone.
• One-click account connection, so you no longer need to enter a code.
• Launch into X-Plane directly from the plugin, with the aircraft loading straight into its proper stand and airport. Pick the aircraft and livery in the plugin; your choice is remembered (X-Plane).
• Sync state lets you sync fuel, universal state, universal and fuel, or the 1:1 state (MD-11 only). A reposition option moves the aircraft to its proper stand.
• The plugin warns if your 1:1 state hasn't saved yet, and shows a countdown to the next 1:1 save (every 30 seconds).
• The MD-11's 1:1 state is only saved back to the server if it was synced at the start of the flight.
• The plugin can now be minimized to the system tray.
• The flight block now includes the arrival airport once you land.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the MD-11's 1:1 state was not saving for some users.
• Fixed stale cache hiding the "Redeem a code" section in Settings.
• Controller CIDs without a Tailstrike account link out on the flight page.
• Improved mobile views across multiple pages, including the live flight panel, profiles, the lease page and map icons.

More coming soon. Happy flying!