Loading or saving flight plans AFTER entering FLY

Discussion Hub General Discussion
1

When MSFS was launched, it was an option to ESC from FLY, and then Load or save both FLT & PLN files.

More recently the option to load or save the pln file was removed, the reason not being technically very clear.

So now, and changes to the ,pln done once in the plane, cannot be saved through the MSFS menu system although the PMS50 GTN750 still successfully CAN save the pln to the Datastore, and at any time after retrieve it,.

(but strangely one can save the more complex FLT file, that contains the flight plan.)

SO

  1. What was the technical reason for the change to prevent the .pln from being save once FLY had been evoked. ?

  2. Is that reason is not now strictly valid now, can the saving of .pln file be restored at the same time that ,FLT files can be loaded or saved. ?

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3

I think there are a couple of different issues here. Looking back three years the original design purpose of FLT files was to give pilots the ability to restart a flight from the beginning from when the flight had been completed or during the flight itself. During a flight being able to save and resume a flight didn’t work very well at least for me. Also, flight plans were tightly linked to MSFS ATC. (different issue) The numerous 3rd-party developed aircraft including study-level aircraft add to the complexity and issues of both flight planning and FLT files.

The current FLT files contain flight plan and waypoint information at the start of each flight in three different sections in different formats. Two things complicated the purpose of flight planning and save/restore flights. First, some 3rd-party aircraft don’t use MSFS flight planning or PLN files. This makes FLT files pretty much useless for them. Second, many aircraft with various FMCs allow manual input of or changes to flight plans. As far as I can tell, new or changed FMC information is not “uploaded” to MSFS; therefore, it isn’t saved to a FLT file created during a flight. Currently, if one of these FLT files is restored to resume a flight, the FMC changes would need to be manually re-entered. This includes non-flight plan info such as VNAV info, winds, etc.

There needs to be a way to save and restore at any point in the all flight information including whatever is in the FMC and EFB for the equipment any aircraft has. I don’t know if there are APIs for developers to send all the FMC info to MSFS or to receive FMS info from MSFS.

Individual systems like the Garmin that can offload to their own data store are helpful but lack full extension and integration into the full MSFS ecosystem.

I think there have been significant improvements delivered in the AAU updates. This shows Asobo’s focus on improving overall flight planning and ATC integration. Hopefully future updates will have better save/restore capability including FMC uploads.

EDIT: After writing the above, I wanted to verify what I wrote since AAU2 was a significant update.

Using MSFS World Map flight planner, I created and flew a short flight to a non-tower airport. After landing and stopping but not exiting the flight, I decided to fly a return trip, creating the flight plan “on the fly”. I manually entered departure, destination, and waypoints into the FMC. I took off as a VFR flight and after takeoff, I asked ATC for an IFR flight plan.

Surprisingly ATC gave me clearance as filed for the flight plan I entered into the FMC. This means the FMC is uploading the manually entered flight plan to MSFS ATC. In addition, the flight plan was correctly displayed on the VFR Map and after a short delay in the Navlog. I then added a couple of additional waypoints. These waypoints were sent to MSFS ATC and were displayed correctly on the VFR Map. I tried this only on one FMC, the stock A320neo.

The next test was saving this return trip as a FLT file to see if the save/restore feature captured my manually entered flight plan. The answer is: it saved the FLT file BUT there was no PLN file created. There was some waypoint info captured in the FLT file but not enough to have the restore work correctly. The flight plan would have to be manually re-entered.

AAU2 update significantly improved flight planning, FMC operation, and ATC interaction. The save/restore feature works correctly only to restart a flight. Full save/restore functionality, if it is planned, does not work.

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World Map:
'- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
You can only Load or Save a Flight Plan ( *.pln) from the World Map.
A Flight Plan must have a FROM and TO airport to save it as a .pln.

We used to be able to load a *.pln after “FLY”.
I don’t remember which SU stopped this.

After “FLY”: (You’re flying.)
'- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The programming logic seems strange.
FS2020 has no knowledge of a “Flight Plan”.
(The plane’s FMS does).

Now you can still enter a*.* or *.pln) and select the .pln file
but nothing happens.

You’re flying.
Press “ESC”.
Option displays to “Load/Save”. Click it.
Click “Load From This PC”.
In File Name enter *.pln and .pln files are displayed.
Click a .pln file.
You are returned to your flight.
Not the .pln flight you selected.

5

@ MSFSRonS

Exactly, or to put it another way

“gâté au-delà de la reconnaissance”

but it’s going to be like trying to move a mountain, to even get it recognized as being a problem, let alone have anyone provide a solution.

Who is going to fix it ?

  • Asobo
  • Working Title
  • or maybe both working together

It goes back to a basic flaw in the way MSFS has mixed up what is a
“Filed Flight Plan”
“ATC Clearance”
“Route in the GPS”

Having ATC “magically” be able to read whats in your GPS, and even be aware of any changes you may make in the GPS while flying, is at the route of the problem.

A problem that does occur with ATC services like Vatsim or Pilot Edge, that have a way for the pilot to “File a flight plan”, that may or may not be what is programed in the GPS at any given time.

No easy solution, so probably not solution will be offered… at least till 2024 (Maybe) ?

The way it currently works (or did work), is that ATC was able to read your Flight Plan from your GPS, and if you changed it, and asked for a new clearance, you got one for that amended GPS flight plan.

Better than nothing, but even that seems to have broken down in recent SUs.

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6

This was a hack to get around the restriction of only loading a FLT file. It was never officially supported so it cannot be “fixed”. If this was supported it would have been easy to change the dropdown box to include PLN files and FLT files.

7

I don’t consider something that the app displays and allows
a user to do as being a “hack”.

It was fixed when the app changed it to not allow a .pln file to be entered.

Interesting that it was never supported.
But it did work.

8

And that’s the Frustration … It did Work, but instead of making the drop down include .pln files, they prevented .pln files from being accessed at all – and then called it “BY DESIGN”.

Its almost as ridiculous as saying that CTD are not a bug , but since they are present, we will call them BY DESIGN, (Forced “Rest Break” ) and then move on . BUG solved.

ie “Its not a BUG, its by Design - because that’s the way it ended up running”

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9

I really love that feature on the PMS50 GTN750. It blew my mind that it was there and it worked. It seemed like a super advanced, futuristic feature after being used to flight plan handling in the sim.

It saved me the other day after a bug required a flight restart.

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10

Sky4Sim will load new flight plans too.

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