The Elytra HUD mod brings the cockpit heads-up display from Microsoft Flight Simulator straight into Minecraft Java Edition. It is a clientside Fabric mod that layers six flight instruments over your screen while you glide, turning a bare wings-and-firework dash into something that feels closer to piloting an aircraft. If you fly long distances with elytra, the readouts give you real data to fly against instead of guessing your pitch or altitude.

What the HUD shows while flying

Six instruments can render on screen at once, and you choose where each one sits. You can move them, hide the ones you do not want, and tune how they are drawn.

Airspeed reports how fast you are moving through the air with elytra equipped.
Artificial horizon mirrors an aircraft gyro horizon, covered in detail below.
Elytra durability tracks the remaining health of your wings.
Vertical speed tells you how quickly you are climbing or sinking.
Altitude reads your height relative to sea level.
Compass gives a quick cardinal reference while you are moving.

Each indicator recreates the Flight Simulator 2020 aesthetic, and the layout is fully adjustable.

Vertical speed and altitude together let you hold a steady glide slope instead of porpoising up and down. The compass keeps you oriented on long flights where the world blurs past underneath.

How the artificial horizon works

The artificial horizon is the standout instrument. On its own it displays your current pitch, so you can see whether you are nose-up or nose-down without reading the terrain. Pair it with the Do a Barrel Roll mod and the horizon combines pitch and roll into a true gyro display, the kind a real pilot watches in a banked turn. That pairing is what turns casual gliding into something that feels like actual flight.

Advanced flight settings

Beyond the six instruments, the mod ships a few quality-of-life toggles that fire automatically during flight. They are switched off by default, so turn on the ones you want in the config screen. These options need Mod Menu and Cloth Config API installed to show up.

Carved pumpkin auto-equip, handy if you run CIT resource packs that reskin the pumpkin as an aircraft model.
Auto-switch to third-person camera when you start gliding.
Auto FOV change to a wider 110 degree view during flight.
Riptide spin disable, which suppresses the spinning animation to reduce motion sickness.

Installing Elytra HUD

Because this is a Fabric mod, the setup is short. If you have not set up a modded instance before, the general mod install guide walks through the basics.

Install Fabric and drop the Fabric API jar into your mods folder. Fabric API is the one hard requirement.
Add Mod Menu and Cloth Config API so the config screen for the advanced settings is available.
Drop the Elytra HUD jar into the same mods folder and launch the game.
(Optional) Install Do a Barrel Roll if you want the full pitch-and-roll artificial horizon.

Everything runs clientside, so you can use it on servers without needing any changes on the server end.

Frequently asked questions

Does it work without any other mods?

Yes. Elytra HUD runs with just Fabric API installed. Mod Menu and Cloth Config API are only needed if you want to toggle the advanced settings, and Do a Barrel Roll is optional for the combined pitch and roll horizon.

Will it get me banned on a server?

No. This is purely a clientside display mod that reads your own flight data and draws it on your screen. It does not change movement, send packets, or give an advantage a server could object to, but server owners can still set their own rules.

Is the project still being updated?

The original Elytra HUD release is from mid-2024 and has not had a new version since. It still works on the Minecraft builds it targets, and a community rework exists for newer builds, but check the project page for current status before relying on it.