It turns out with FSUIPC7 for MSFS, you can still use old (like really old) programs designed for earlier FS versions that can connect to FSUIPC. Hopefully someone in the future can write a FSUIPC7 Lua script that can do exactly this for MSFS - there’s currently a “pause at X time elapsed” Lua script, but I don’t find that as useful as this method.
Here’s how it works - with this method you can Pause at X nm radius from XYZ airport, navaid or waypoint. For jets I use 150nm from the destination airport, and I use time compression for the rest of the way. If you fly props you can set a smaller radius. This makes long haul flying much more convenient.
First you need FSUIPC7 downloaded, installed, started and connected to MSFS.
Method:
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Download XPause by Patrick Fabre (Avsim download) and IWillBeBack.zip/FS2002 Flight Distance Alarm by Jose Oliveira (Yes it’s an 18 year old program) (Avsim download). They’re also available on Flightsim.com. You need both programs so you’ll need to register with Avsim or Flightsim.com if you don’t already have an account.
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When in flight with FSUIPC connected, open XPause and go to File > Connect to FS. The program will then show your lat/long, altitude and speed.
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Check the Pause checkbox, enter your destination airport ICAO letters, click on the “3 dots” button next to it, and the airport lat/long will be displayed in the big white box. click on the lat/long entry to select it. Enter the desired waypoint distance condition (e.g. 150) and click the big red activate button.
Alternately you can select both the pause and alarm checkboxes, or just check the alarm box only. This will give you an alarm but not pause the game, which may be useful for some as this will be the last step for them.
- Now XPause WILL pause the sim once it gets to that radius, but you cannot unpause it using MSFS keyboard commands as Asobo changed how pause works. This is where you need the 2nd program by Jose Oliveira. Once paused, go to XPause and click Deactivate (very important), and then open iwillbeback.exe, click on the pause checkbox to select it, and then click on the pause checkbox again to unselect it. And Voila! your sim is unpaused.
This can take as little as 5 seconds if you decide to set up quick launch/start menu shortcuts.
- Make sure you quit the XPause program once you’re done with it, via File > Exit if the close program button don’t work. If you don’t and close MSFS or FSUIPC7 with XPause still connected, it will cause a barrage of error messages, and you may need to open Task Manager.
Please note I have not tested how long the pause can last while you’re away, so don’t leave it paused for hours. As this is an online-only game you may be kicked offline at any moment, including before you reach your designated pause point. This is where FSUIPC7’s autosave feature comes in handy, but it’s currently broken as of Feb 2021.