Setup guide

Set up Right Seat

Four steps, about ten minutes. You need a Windows PC with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, and an iPad or iPhone on the same network.

Download Right Seat Bridge

In beta on TestFlight. Coming soon to the App Store.

Free, for Windows 10 and 11. Updates itself.

  1. Install Right Seat Bridge on the PC

    On the PC with MSFS 2024, download Right Seat Bridge and run the installer. It installs for your Windows account without asking for admin rights, and starts the bridge: an amber seat in the tray, by the clock. It updates itself from then on, never in the middle of a flight.

    Windows may warn about a new download; see below. When Windows asks whether to allow the bridge on the network, allow private networks. It also asks once whether to start with MSFS. Say yes, and the sim starts the bridge and closes it again from then on.

  2. Open Right Seat on your iPad or iPhone

    Get Right Seat from the App Store, on the same network as the PC, and open it. Allow Local Network when it asks: that's how it finds the PC. After a few seconds the PC shows up by name on the connect screen. Tap Connect.

  3. Pair with the code from the PC

    The first time, Right Seat asks for a code. On the PC, click the bridge's icon in the tray and choose Pair a device…. A window shows a 6-digit code: enter it on the iPad or iPhone. That's once for each device.

    The code works for 5 minutes while the window is open, and stops after 5 wrong tries; New code makes another. Paired devices in the tray menu lists the devices, and forgets one.

  4. Fly

    Start MSFS 2024 and load a flight. The bridge connects to the sim by itself, whether it started first or second. Tap the link status at the top of Right Seat for the readiness summary: the bridge, the simulator, flight data, the ATC panels and alerts, each with its status.

    Then choose real time or a cruise rate under Governor, and the alerts you want under Alerts. For ATC in career mode, see ATC calls.

No PC to hand? Tap Try a demo flight on Right Seat's first screen to see every tab with a made-up flight.

Troubleshooting

If something doesn't work

Edge or Windows warns about the download

Edge can say RightSeatBridge-win-Setup.exe isn't commonly downloaded. Choose Keep, then Keep anyway. Running it, Windows SmartScreen can say Windows protected your PC: choose More info, then Run anyway.

The bridge is signed, with Eirik Rude as the publisher. The warnings are for a new file that few people have downloaded yet, and go away as more do.

The iPad can't connect, or the bridge says the firewall blocks it

Windows Firewall is the usual cause. Each time it starts, the bridge checks that the firewall lets the iPad in on the network the PC is on now. If it doesn't, the bridge asks whether to fix it, and its tray menu shows Firewall blocks the iPad: Fix… until it's fixed. Choose it, and say yes to Windows' prompt. If the iPad can connect by address but never finds the PC by itself, the item says Firewall stops the iPad finding the PC: Fix… instead.

This often happens after saying no to Windows' question on the first run, or after changing the network from Public to Private: Windows doesn't ask again.

One setting no fix can get past: Block all incoming connections. If the tray says the firewall blocks all incoming connections, open Windows Security, then Firewall & network protection, choose the network marked active, and untick it.

The PC never shows up on the connect screen

The iPad or iPhone has to be on the same network as the PC. The bridge's tray menu lists each network the PC is on, with its address there, such as Wi-Fi: HomeNet · 192.168.1.20. Compare it with the network in the iPad's Settings, under Wi-Fi.

Mesh systems, a second router, and guest Wi-Fi can put the two on different subnets, even when the Wi-Fi name looks right. Discovery doesn't cross from one to the other, but a connection often does. On the connect screen, open Advanced: enter the PC's address and type the address from the tray menu. Right Seat remembers it.

To check the path, open http://192.168.1.20:8765/ in Safari on the iPad, with the PC's address and http:// written out in full. If the bridge answers with its name, the network is fine.

Entering the address doesn't work either

Some routers keep wireless devices from reaching each other, with a setting called AP isolation or client isolation. Guest networks do it on purpose. Then no address gets through, and the Safari check above fails too.

Put the iPad on the main network rather than the guest one, or turn isolation off in the router's settings. A VPN on the iPad or the PC can do the same; turn it off to try.

The address works, but the PC is never found by itself

On a Wi-Fi 7 network with multi-link operation (MLO), the PC may not get the multicast that discovery runs on. Neither device finds the bridge, though typing its address works. Entering the address is enough, and Right Seat remembers it. If your router offers a network without MLO, the PC is found there by itself.

The Screens tab stutters or lags

Each popped-out screen streams to the iPad as pictures over your network, so it's the busiest thing Right Seat does on it. Connect the PC to the router with an Ethernet cable, and keep the iPad on the router's 5 GHz Wi-Fi. If the PC then shows a different network in the tray menu than the iPad, see above.

Don't minimize a pop-out: Windows doesn't draw minimized windows, so there's nothing to stream.

ATC calls don't show in career mode

Right Seat reads ATC from the sim's Communication and Mission Steps panels.

  1. In the bridge's tray menu, tick Read ATC panels, and let it restart. The iPad reconnects by itself.
  2. In the sim, pop out the Communication and Mission Steps panels: hold right Alt and click each one.
  3. Keep them open, and don't minimize them. The bridge moves them just past the right edge of the desktop, so they don't cover the sim. Bring back pop-outs in the tray menu puts them back.

The sim sometimes closes Mission Steps, such as going from Before Taxi to Taxi. Right Seat tells you, and the readiness summary says Panel closed: pop it out again. Free flights have no Mission Steps panel; there, the sim's AI Radio Communications assistance can handle ATC for you. Reading the panels works in English so far.

Still stuck?

Use Contact the developer in Right Seat, on the Help screen or the bug in the top bar. It can attach the recent activity from the bridge and the app, which usually shows what went wrong. Or email support@fjell.tech.

Either way, a screenshot of the readiness summary helps: tap the link status at the top of Right Seat. More answers are in Support.