In the latest SDK, there are the following libs:
SimConnect SDK\lib\SimConnect.lib
SimConnect SDK\lib\static\SimConnect.lib
They are the same size, only 24K, while the static Debug version is much bigger at 765K, and in previous versions the release static was also about 500K if I recall correctly.
Can you confirm the current 24K lib in the static folder is correct and, by linking with it, there's no need to distribute the Simconnect.dll as well ?