How to Set Up a Kneeboard in MSFS (And Why Paper Still Has a Place)

If you've searched "how to set up a kneeboard in MSFS", you've probably already found the built-in EFB and wondered why it still doesn't feel like enough. It's a genuinely useful tool, but it wasn't built to be your only one. Here's what it does well, where it runs out of road, and how a paper backup fills the gap.

What a kneeboard actually needs to do

Real pilots strap a kneeboard to their leg for one reason: information you need mid-flight, available without taking your hands off the controls or your eyes off the panel for more than a second. In a simulator that job splits into two things people often lump together: a checklist that tells you what to do next, and a scratchpad for the numbers you've written down yourself (frequencies, clearances, runway notes). A good kneeboard setup covers both without breaking your flow to get at either.

Using the built-in EFB and kneeboard

MSFS ships with an Electronic Flight Bag you open from a tablet icon in the cockpit, and it's worth using properly before you add anything else. The Checklist tab walks supported aircraft through normal procedures step by step, ticking items off as you complete them. The Kneeboard tab is yours to fill: you can pin notes, load images, and keep them a click away without alt-tabbing out of the sim.

For a lot of flying, that's genuinely enough. It costs nothing, it's already installed, and for the default and many payware aircraft the checklist flows are accurate to the type.

Where the built-in checklist runs out of road

It starts to strain in a few predictable places. Third-party and freeware aircraft don't always ship with a matching checklist, so the EFB either shows nothing useful or a generic flow that doesn't match the real procedure. It needs a mouse click to open, which is one click too many if you're flying in VR with your hands on a yoke and throttle. And a crash to desktop, which still happens, takes your checklist with it exactly when you least want a distraction.

None of that makes the EFB bad. It makes it one tool that's strong at some jobs and weak at others, same as anything in a sim rig.

The case for a paper backup

This is where a printed kneeboard earns its keep, and not for nostalgia. A sheet clipped to your leg or taped beside the panel survives a CTD and works exactly the same whether you're in VR or out of it, without a menu to open or a mouse to find. It also does something the in-game version can't: it forces you to run the flow in order, out loud, the way an actual pilot does, rather than glancing at a screen and clicking items as an afterthought. That habit tends to change how carefully you fly more than any single piece of hardware does.

The trade-off is currency. A printed sheet doesn't tick items off for you and won't update itself if a procedure changes, so it suits aircraft and flows you already know well rather than ones you're still learning cold.

Building your own kneeboard pack

If you're putting one together, keep it to what you'd actually reach for mid-flight: normal checklist flow, the emergency and memory items you don't want to be searching for under pressure, V-speeds, and a blank space for frequencies and clearances you'll fill in yourself. A5 prints well, clips to a real kneeboard or just sits on the desk, and costs nothing to reprint when a page gets a coffee ring on it.

That's exactly the gap our checklist and kneeboard packs are built for: normal and emergency flows, V-speeds and a fill-in notes page, dual-sim for MSFS and X-Plane. We've got them for the Cessna 152 and 172 together, the Piper PA-28, and the Piper PA-18 Super Cub. Print one at home and it's in the cockpit in minutes, and you don't need the EFB open at all.

Have a browse of the CockpitForge shop if you fly one of those types and fancy a proper paper backup.