The helipad feature in MSFS2024 is amazing, but the high number of helipads in a region very often pollutes the ATC nearest airports list. When you are flying a plane and needs to communicate any intention to an airport you barely get the communication easily on the list due to the high number of helipads polluting that list.
We need an option in the configuration menu to disable helipads of showing in the ATC window.
Couldnt agree more. Especially when it LOVES to take points from you for not communicating but you cant communicate because all the menus are a bloody tiny mess. xD
This is desperately needed when flying in Japan. There are so many disused / never-used helipads built in the bubble days of the 80s/90s in major cities, it’s impossible to get an option to contact the airport until you’re on final.
I agree, this would be the obvious solution when flying a fixed-wing aircraft, though care would be needed in how the system handles aircraft like the Joby & Midnight that could land on a helipad if the pilot wanted to (irrespective of whether it is allowed in real-life - that’s another discussion).
In addition, even when flying a helicopter, this concern would still be valid w.r.t too many heliports / helipads in the vicinity. I’d suggest that the “option in the configuration menu to disable helipads of showing in the ATC window” as mentioned by the OP could be implemented as a slider in the ATC window, allowing one to set the radius for available (i.e. displayed) heliports / helipads. In this scenario, when there are few heliports in the vicinity, the slider can be set to a large radius. When there are many, the slider can be reduced to a lower radius that helps the target heliports / helipad rise to the top of the list more quickly.
Was thinking this as well. In larger cities it seems every building downtown has a heli pad so when you’re trying to find an airport like KLAX in the ATC Nearest Airport list it becomes quite a challenge even when you’re more or less flying over it. It’d be great if could select from a set of filter choices to focus the process.
Take this and also apply it to the pins - if I pop on the visual assistances for a quick reference to nearby airfields it can instead just activate a dense field of helipad pins, especially in urban areas. This is entirely irrelevant information when in fixed wing.
If we are in a fixed wing there is virtually no reason for helipads to populate regardless. Obviously they would still be in the world, but why would they be showing up in flight plans, maps, etc. No point.