Flightplan 2005

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Livia Dossantos

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Aug 3, 2024, 5:39:58 PM8/3/24

to waspribhopang

This was an issue raised a while ago and I thought I saw it had been fixed, but it seems that there is still a problem with Pre-File "locking" a flightplan from edit by the pilot. By this, I mean that if I pre-file a flightplan and then sign on, pull the flightplan, submit it, and then afterward need to edit it before departure (or even enroute while outside ATC coverage) those changes will show fine on my end and even "fetch from server" in vPilot will pull the edited FP, but everywhere else (ATC, VATSpy, VATAWARE, etc) will still show the old FP. The only way I've ever been able to clear this issue is signing off and back on again at least once. This is kinda frustrating since there are plenty of times where you do flight planning, the weather changes, and you need to file a new STAR or SID because of the runway change and you can't without having to break your connection because of this. I had this happen again today when SimBrief gave me one STAR into KDFW, but the winds picked up enroute more than forecast, so I went ahead and changed the STAR to the appropriate one. However, hours later when I came into range of ATC, they said my FP still showed the old STAR.

This feature has not been working predictably over the past sim updates due to how the sim interface has been changing. We are planning to investigate this again now that the panel update has been released and hopefully we can add the feature back.

After some investigations, there was no reliable way for us to keep using the same method and still support the default Garmin instruments. Due to support issues about this, we simply hid away this feature for the moment until we have the necessary resources available to completely rewrite the related code.

What we did not realize is that this might still be working for 3rd party aircraft like the FBW Airbus or PMDG. Thank you for bringing this to our attention! We will reintroduce the simulator export option, making sure to add a disclaimer pointing out the incompatibility with the default instruments.

All the above said, we will issue an update to the panel that enables the export feature again. I will let you all know when this is published so that you can try it out! Nothing has changed, it is still the exact same code - so it should work exactly the same as the old panel in this regard.

As already mentioned, we would happily add this button back given that there are addons that do support this. So far, I have not been able to find one that does - and I am exporting the flight the exact same way that the old panel did it. I can also confirm that the simulator successfully loads the flightplan:

Could you try this again at any gate ? For example: Spawn your 737 at any gate at then load your flightplan as an active MSFS Flightplan. You should be able to request your IFR-Clearance with the default MSFS-ATC.

Hmmm, or do you mean that only ATC is available after the export? That would make a bit more sense of course. According to PMDG forums, the FMC does not have any connection at all with the MSFS flightplan

A first iteration of the export support has now been released. Behind the scenes, we are doing the exact same thing that the old panel did. You can find the option under the Export tab in the flight menu:

I have a couple Flightplan discontinuities in my flightplan. After watching some YouTube tutorials, its is suggested to remove these. It's demonstrated that they do this in the video, but don't really say how. (Me thinks therefore it is really simple)

Normally, I had been clearing both, but as you said, that resulted in an inaccurate application of the SID by allowing the autopilot to navigate without fulfilling the manual obligations (vectoring) of the SID.

When I was experimenting, part of the learning process, I had started to do that, but found it awkward to resume (get the AP to pick up the route) the flight plan after the manual portion. Using DIR and the waypoint was the info I was looking for!

There is alot of information in the MCDU's representation of the flight plan. Does anyone know of any documentation that can explain the meanings of different colours, terms (like MANUAL), symbols etc?

Also, I know that the managed flightplan altitudes and speeds are based largely on the procedure information (SIDS, STARS etc) and cost index, but is it possible to edit the values of these in the flight plan? Or is it common practice to just manually override them at that point in the flight?

I don't think the SID and START restrictions (speed and altitudes) are overridden by pilots because that could probably cause a penalty in real live. the only reason would be a command of an ATCO (speed 300 below FL100) and so on. so you would pull the speed knob an set 300 even when you are below 10'000ft.

To change flightplan restrictions you can use the line select keys on the right hand side to pick a waypoint, and enter different altitudes and/or speeds on the page that opens up after your LSK click.

Whether to either manually override (selected heading, open descent) or to edit - my preferred method is to leave the FMGS data as it is and to override manually: It gives me a bit more of awareness as to where my aircraft is, compared to the "default" approach defined by the STAR (the constraints can be displayed on the ND using the EFIS control panel) .

I'm planning a flight for the Quest Kodiak towards LGAT. I usually do the planning using Little Navmap, then export the flight plan using the .fms format which I then load from the G1000. However with this specific flight plan I get an error message while attempting to load the .fms file :

I'm flying in FSEconomy which has a lot of outdated airports and a while ago I made a user_fix.dat file containing all the FSE airports database as user waypoints. That means most airports ICAOs have a double entry, one being a proper airport from the X-Plane database and the other being a user fix. That works without issue with the GNS530/430 but not with the G1000. If I enter it manually then it'll ask me to choose between the airport and the user fix. Using an .fms flightplan, I suspect it is sometimes trying to load the user fix and does not allow it as a destination.

That'd be nice if the G1000 prioritized the X-Plane database over the user_fix although I'm not sure if it's an X-Plane thing or a Kodiak thing, and if it would have unintended side consequences. The proper fix would probably be for me to turn my user_fix file into a proper FSE airport database, which I have given up on for now. That would be a task for the FSEconomy crowd. If anyone's in the same boat, feel free to reach out.

Ahh, good detective work. Yeah, this is an X-Plane thing, since our Kodiak is simply using X-Plane's G1000 (with some custom overlays for things like the annunciators, but we're not doing anything with the navigation databases).

If so, the airport (LGAT) would not appear in X-Plane's default apt.dat found under the Resources folder. It is this apt.dat that the FMCs (eg: G1000 etc) exclusively relies on to identify airports. Since LGAT does not appear in this file, for all intents and purposes, the airport does not exist. The G1000 can't see it. Little Navmap, however, can see it.

Logic would dictate that when a user adds a custom airport in the Custom Scenery folder that the G1000 should look here first, but for whatever reason, this does not occur. So this is why you're getting the error message. It's not specific to the Kodiak, it will happen in any aircraft; even the default X-Plane aircraft.

Adding LGAT to user_fix just adds a fix and doesn't add information about runways, the most critical component of apt.dat. So, yes, it may appear in the FMC and can prevent the error message, but it can't be selected as a destination. You can also get errors where runways change numbers due to magnetic variation or where airports add new runways. Unless the corresponding change is made in the default apt.dat, you won't be able to select the runway, because the custom scenery folder has the updated data, but the default folder does not.

Yes, I use the "x_Prefab_FSE_Airports" scenery from there. It does include an apt.dat file but I think I had looked into the issue about a year ago and found out that it is a deprecated way of adding airports. The issue was way above my willingness to understand back then which is why I settled for a user_fix file. I'd still love to learn what would be the proper way to add navigation data for new airports apart from editing X-Plane's apt.dat which sounds like a wonky solution since you'd have to modify it after each new update. You seem to imply that's the only way though.

Any custom scenery containing an airport or airports has an apt.dat file. That's how it works. The problem occurs if an included custom scenery airport is not found in the default apt.dat, which is what is happening in your case.

I'm not implying. I'm stating it as fact. Unless an airport is found in the default data, it cannot be selected in an FMC, regardless of whether you have custom scenery for an airport. The only workaround is to add the missing airport to the default apt.dat (I won't go into details of how it's done).

I took a quick look at the file you provided a link to. It is quite old, dating back to 2015, so it's a fair bet LGAT is included as part of the package. LGAT no longer exists, so it's not part of the default airport database. To be honest, back in 2015, this would have been a great addition to have, but the Global Airports scenery provided as standard in X-Plane is based on the much more up-to-date Scenery Gateway. I would not be surprised, that in many cases, you're just overwriting better looking airport scenery. I would suggest you remove this package completely. After all, if using FSEconomy, you'd want the latest scenery based on real-world data. And LGAT no longer exists.