Agreed! FYI since subscribing to navigraph last month and loving it, I’ve also been hoping for integration with VR, which I guess by definition means integration into FS2020’s in-flight menu as a window. I found this link promising in terms of them working towards that:
Also I was thinking how great it would be to get live weather integrated into the navigraph app, which it also turns out they have on their roadmap:
So all in all, it seems they are aiming high.
I haven’t actually used simbrief’s in-depth features very often, so not sure if or how it implements weather? I wonder if there are several tools they plan on merging across both platforms… perhaps I’ll have a go with simbrief today.
I notice Simbrief is browser based and don’t have an app, and that is something navigraph could bring to simbrief. I guess there could likely be moves to encourage people towards a subscription where they get it all in one app maybe? Time will tell, but it sounds exciting!
Imagine if there was a navigraph icon in the FS2020 toolbar that provided a window where you could create or load a saved simbrief flightplan, load it into the sim, check weather for your flight, and of course track your position on a map, view and overlay charts and maybe even have a function as a kneeboard for typing notes for vatsim etc in vr (so a clickable keyboard!)
It’s actually not that difficult to imagine if you are using SimToolkitPro, a free app that attempts to integrate the tools that you need for flight simming in one place.
Welk I donated 5 bucks to SB and they removed the ads.. forever ! Big improvement !
I also subscribed to Navigraph, so flightplans could be up to date with latest AIRAC.
Also, my VA automatically linked to SB on dispatch, and SB imported the details, including airframe, and it was all done automatically.
The desktop app then downloaded the flightplan and exported it to various folders… P3D plans, Flight1 GTN, PMDG etc.
But I had to manually import it into Navigraph. At least that stage could be automated.
Also, you could access Sinbrief directly from within the Navigrapgh client instead of logging into the web browser Simbrief site.
More integration can only be a good thing..
So instead of 3 steps to get plan into your Navigraph desktop app, it could all be done in one go, from inside the Navigraph app.
Add aircraft, route…and it looks at weather and generates it, opening it in the Navigraph app. You can then fine tune Sids and Stars using the amazing visualisation that the NG app gives you.
And of course, the guy who did SB, deserves a bit of a payout !?
Never heard of simtoolkitpro before, thanks for the tip! But sadly I don’t think it does what I’m looking for (yet) simply because it doesn’t integrate with the FS2020 in-flight toolbar so doesn’t work for me in VR. (I could pull the window in with Oculus but it affects the stability of my quest 2 link)
But yes generally speaking an all in one app, with direct integration into FS2020 UI, would be awesome. I wonder who will be first to get there with a comprehensive offering!
I’m very excited about this. I’m hoping it’ll help Simbrief to grow some more. It has a rather medium selection of aircraft at the moment, and there’s not been much development in several years.
This is not shocking at all about the acquisition , Simbrief and Navigraph were in bed together as partners from the start! Simbrief was pushing users to subscribe to Navigraph if you wanted detail flight planning with current Nav data. Free, sure, using old outdated Nav data that was useless for a perfect flight plan. Oh, you want a flawless flightplan with new Nav data you say?..insert “Paid” Nav sub code here buddy or get lost!
The problem I have is with planning bush flights. It’s one thing not to have the charts. It’s another to not have the airport in your database at all.
Set up a Coyote flight in Skypark last night, and Navigraph didn’t have either of the airports in it’s database. BOTH didn’t exist in Navigraph! Couldn’t make a plan. If Navigraph is made just for simming, why would they not have the EXACT airport database used in the sims?
I’m pretty disappointed. Makes me wonder if this app will be useful at all to me, despite recommendations saying that it’s superior to ForeFlight for VFR pilots.
Yeah there’s trade-offs in both still… My main limitation using ForeFlight is I only have the US region charts subscription, so if I land in Canada it doesn’t show me my detailed charts and instead pops up a thing saying I need a Canada subscription.
So you can either eat the extra cost of another region if you go somewhere frequently, or you switch to Navigraph for your approach & taxi charts.
Navigraph did recently run a survey asking folks about interest in a VFR-focused product, so they may make something that better integrates VFR sectionals, more local airports, etc… but it’s still vaporware for now.
If you have a subscription I think you will find that the folks there are great. Wonderful customer service. I would drop them a note and ask them about the airports you are missing. If they are not in the database, there is a reason. It is possible they are not ICAO recognized. I flew in the bush for a long time in my my career. I flew in and out of a couple airstrips in a 737-200 w/gravel kit that were not even on a chart, let alone having plates published. The vast majority of the strips we used with the DH-6 and B-56TC were never published. (Not relevant but, I even remember touching down on a strip that the dozers had just carved out of the scrub. One was still shutting down as I taxied in. Fun stuff)
Hmm, my understanding is they pull from the same underlying database, so they may well have the same limitations.
I recommend just giving it a try – plug in your favorite small airfields into the from & to boxes and see what Simbrief makes of it. If it comes up, then it might be a useful flight planning tool, if not you may need to do things some other way.
Nope. Navigraph uses the Jeppeson Charts. WAY more comprehensive than NavBlu. In 50 years of using Jeppeson, real world, I don’t ever remember there being a plate out of place. The biggest thing you will notice is that at each cycle, you may find that a deactivation has occurred and a field in the sim is no longer in the DB. That’s accurate. It’s the sim that is not.
EDIT
Unless by “they” you meant SimBrief. Then I’ll shut up. I took that to mean MSFS/NavBlu.
If it comes up, then it might be a useful flight planning tool, if not you may need to do things some other way.