Recently, Xiaomi in Japan has been running a sale, so I picked up a 42-inch monitor for 29,800 yen to put in the bedroom. Usually, I just use it to watch YouTube or Amazon Prime videos, but then I wondered if flight simulation would look better on a big screen, so I connected it via HDMI to give it a try.

In the X-Plane 12 graphics settings, I set Monitor 1 (the Xiaomi display) to full-screen simulator mode, and designated the main display (the MacBook Pro screen) as the Instructor Operating Station. I plugged in the Yawman Arrow Handheld Controller, started up the Cessna 172, and took to the skies immediately.

I grabbed my phone and shot a few short videos so you can see how it looks.

After a brief flight of 30 to 40 minutes to complete takeoff and landing, I felt the big-screen simulation experience was actually quite good. The main benefit is being able to sit 2 or 3 meters away from the screen, comfortably on the sofa, and fully enjoy the outside scenery from the Cessna 172. The downside is that the glass cockpit instruments are hard to read, since the font size for many numbers is just too small. Perhaps choosing the more traditional analog instrument panel would be better suited for a large screen.