I can’t see anything in the forum that quite quite matches what I’m after, which is…
I fly a helicopter in real life, the Cabri G2 which Asobo have kindly modelled. I’d like to use it to do something that would be possible in real life, if only I could afford it - fly along Hadrian’s Wall. I could start my flightplan at Newcastle airport and I know how to set that up as my departure point in MSFS. I’ve got Little Navmap on my PC and I feel sure that I could find the Newcastle end of Hadrian’s Wall using it. I know that you can select a position on Little Navmap’s map and that you can export it into MSFS. But I don’t know how to use the exported waypoint in MSFS to set that point up as my flightplan’s destination.
And after I land there, I don’t know how to save that position in MSFS so that I can use it later as my departure point in my next flightplan to continue my journey along Hadrian’s wall.
Oh I’m so looking forward to the flights!
Can anyone help?
You can use google maps to do this. Find Hadrian’s wall in google maps. Once there, right click and copy the coordinates to the clipboard. Open MSFS and paste the coordinates from the clipboard to the search box on the world map screen. Click on that and choose it as your destination. MSFS will create a destination for you. Now select a departure point, click fly and you’ll get a direct path to the spot on Hadrian’s wall you’ve chosen. Hope this works for you.
Nice tip from NonstopOyster0 . An alternative could be to do a flight plan on LittlenavMap from Newcastle to Carlisle and add the waypoints you decide to choose. Export the flight plan as MSFS 2020 PLN on a flight plans folder of your choice,then ,from Worldmap,you load this saved PLN and fly the first leg to WP1 and land.Esc and Save the flight on a flights folder. Aftwewards,when you decide to fly the second leg ,again ,from WorldMap, you load the saved flight and your heli will be at the same point you left it before .Then you can fly your second leg .Repeat the procedure for every leg you fly.
This procedure has 2 important problems (didn’t test it after SU13 to see if there are improvements) :
1) When you load a saved flight the drop-down menu bar don’t function properly.
2) The cockpit clock don’t reset at every leg but keeps adding the flight times.
Hope it works for you.
I have done a few low, slow sightseeing plans and have learned some tips that may be useful for you.
You can create an MSFS route in Little Navmap that does not require an airport to takeoff or land. Add your waypoints to create a route, and export it as a MSFS 2020 Plan. Little Navmap will display a warning about the lack of airports, but ignore it and export the plan.
When you load the plan in MSFS, your departure will be displayed in the World Map as “Custom departure” and the runway will be “Airborne” with a MSFS-defined altitude. Ignore the altitude setting; regardless of what it displays you will start high in the air, at full throttle.
The destination will be displayed as “Custom arrival” in the World Map and the visual waypoint marker at the end of the flight will display the same label.
The height of the labels of visual waypoint markers is loosely based on the flight plan’s cruising altitude and the terrain. I do test flights with various cruise altitudes to get the marker labels so that they aren’t too high and also aren’t buried in mountains. Placement of the waypoints (e.g. in a valley versus on a mountain top) also affects how they are actually displayed.
Also, waypoint behavior is optimized for fast, high-level flights, where it is important to anticipate turns. Unfortunately, the result is that for low, slow flights the waypoint markers disappear way too early, sometimes miles before reaching the waypoint. I’ve learned that if I place two waypoints close together, e.g. just 0.5 mile apart or so, the first waypoint will disappear early, but the second waypoint will persist, often until I am on top of it. Thus, to make a waypoint persist, I put a dummy waypoint directly in front of it. How close I place it varies, based on the circumstances. I do test flights until I get the desired result.
Finally, there is what I call “the bungee cord effect” that often happens in low, slow flight plans. I pass a waypoint and it seems like a bungee cord hanging from my plane catches the waypoint. No matter how far I fly or the direction I go, MSFS continues to point me back to that waypoint. Sometimes it can be resolved by adding another interim waypoint or changing distances between waypoints, but if all else fails I have found that reversing the route often resolves the issue.
Edit to my original post: For low, slow flight plans, turn off AI Radio Communications (ATC). AI ATC will dynamically determine which waypoints are displayed and when, even if you are not actually using ATC functions. It is especially disruptive if you are anywhere near an airport where it displays the Pattern Entry marker. Once that happens, all remaining waypoints are disabled. Note that using copilot automatically turns on AI ATC, so don’t use it. To turn off AI ATC: Options > Assistance Options > Piloting > AI Radio Communications (ATC) = Off
NonstopOyster0Well that looks so easy. I’ve just given it a try but can’t persuade it to work. I found the place OK in Google Maps, L clicked on the spot to select it, R clicked on the drop-down lat and long co-ordinates and got the response “Cpied to clipboard”. Pasted the clipboard into Notepad and confirmed the co-ords are now on the clipboard - so far so good. But I can’t find any way to paste the clipboard into the MSFS WorldMap. I found the Search field in the top left corner but when I R clicked there I didn’t see the expected drop-down inviting me to past. I can’t see how to paste into the search field and I can’t see anywhere else on the WorldMap window where I might be able to paste.
crazyhorsejesol and
FederFlyer, Thanks for your valuable tips. I’ll be trying these after looking a bit more at
NonstopOyster0’s idea which will get me started for the first leg of the flight.
World Map search field: If you have Windows, try using Ctrl-V to paste the coordinates.
If you are able to paste the coordinates, and MSFS does not display a result, then remove any commas and redundant spaces from the pasted coordinates.
Sorry, I should have said you can’t right click and the choose past in the world map. Instead, you have to use Cntrl-V. Also, when I tried this to find my home a year or so ago, MSFS created a visible way point marker so you could fly to it; it seems to create a flight plan but doesn’t create a marker now.
You’ve got me there. That worked, thanks both. The more frustrated I get with MSFS the more impressed I feel about the massive complexity and versatility of it. But blimey I’m still nowhere near understanding it all and there’s no sign of an instruction book - just unsigned doors to open and so many hidden corridors behind. Thank heaven for you lot in the forum. Let me play with all your ideas tomorrow. Thanks for showing me how to lift off at Walls End. I hope there’s a way for me to register more than one solution to my query.
Give GTFP a try. You can make the flight plan directly by putting Hadrian’s Wall into the waypoint search box. You can then click the ‘add nearest airport’ button. You can make a flight plan in this way for most any famous site.
@LankyCape030052 ref your ambition to be able to fly along Hadrian’s Wall, we have something in the works that you might be interested in…watch this space…
Hmm, I wonder 
Haha, it might be more than you are expecting…
@LankyCape030052 - you might be interested in this new addon in development…