I wanted a new programming project since I haven’t coded for a while and came up with an idea to help with the fact that currently FS2020 doesn’t have a replay option. I wanted the ability to get better at my traffic patterns so Pilot Path Recorder (PPR) was born.
PPR records your key flight data and allows you to export it to a kml file and load it into Google Earth and see your true flight path in 3 dimensions. From there you can turn on and off the flight line, data pushpins, and flight plan waypoint information layers. Each pushpin in the data pushpins layer has about 20 pieces of flight information from that moment in time. There is even a layer that allows you to review your flight in a first-person view.
I have added some nice features such as recording once a second below a threshold and letting the user set the threshold and frequency to log above that threshold to their liking. That way hopefully people can get data more frequently low to the ground where it probably matters more and not build up big files flying higher up. Also, the data is stored in a database so you can export it to kml whenever you want.
The project is open-source and can be found on Github at https://github.com/SAHorowitz/MSFS2020-PilotPathRecorder . Please feel free to review and let me know how it is working for you or if you have any problems and leave comments in this thread. I am also open to adding features or additional flight information. I will check and update this thread as I add features to the application.
Thanks to all who try it out. One thing I just noticed and will fix in the next day or so - if you use the mobile Google Earth app (at least android) to view the kml output please choose Google Earth Web as your output type. It fixes the fact that it banks opposite of what it should for first person view and it allows you to view pushpins without having to select each one individually.
Please let me know what you think of the application and what can be done to improve it.
Only open improvement on my radar is more options for the output like line color, thickness, pushpin and waypoint colors, title and description card choices.
Great app, am having difficulties getting it to run, however.
I couldn’t install the .net framework as it said I already had this version and a later version already installed.
I run the FS2020PlanePath.exe fine and configure it - run MSFS and it connects to the sim. As soon as I click start logging it says it immediately loses the connection with MSFS. It’s such a great, simple tool to use, I can’t think what I am doing wrong!!
Hi StockierWharf88. Sorry you are having trouble using the app. Please let me know what version of the .net framework you are using and I can try to troubleshoot it.
The issue that StockierWharf88 had with v1.2.1 was a bug in the application. I suggest that everyone upgrade to 1.2.2 or later. Thanks to StockierWharf88 for helping me diagnose and test the fix.
