Navigraph acquires Simbrief

Many VA‘s do that. They autofeed simbrief with the required information and dispatch the flight on the VA website. In my case it‘s Premier VA.

It would have been a desaster for many VAs and addons if Simbrief had become payware.

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Skydemon is even better for VFR only.

Used by real pilots with up to the minute notams etc

It also shows vertical profile with all obstacles, airspaces etc. Warnings can be set when you approach airspace to remibd you to contact ATC etc etc.

For me Navigraph on a 2nd PC is superb for IFR, Skydemon on a Tablet for VFR and LittleNavMap is good for airport movements as it imports data from installed scenery.

Will your database replace the data in MSFS ?

I remember using FSAero in P3D as the magvars were so far out on many aiports as the internal database was 20 years out of date !

FkyUK. Although I retired a while ago.

Superb outfit.

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Still in place and available … more details on our webpage:

Cheers,
Richard

simbrief is a flight dispatcher

navigraph is a charts and nav data provider

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Ah, nice to know!

Hello All,

I am using the HP Reverb Pro Edition; I have been able to successfully view charts inside the VR space of MSFS 2020 by doing the following:

  1. When in the Cliff House, open up the desktop view.
  2. Click on the button directly left of the close window button, which is the “follow me” option, the screen will then “follow” you, not only around when you go other places in the cliff house, but also into the VR space after you click ctrl+tab to go into VR in MSFS 2020.
  3. Because you now have the desktop screen as a window “inside” the VR space of MSFS 2020, you can open the Navigraph Charts window. The only caveat is that in order to get your mouse back into the flight simulator VR mode, you need to alt+tab back to your MSFS 2020 screen, which will show the two views your eyeballs are seeing in pure VR; click on the screen, and voila, your mouse is back into the VR MSFS 2020 space.

It’s a crude workaround, but believe me, it’s made me soooooooooo happy!

Sincerely,
a flight simmer looking for solutions :slight_smile:

Thanks for telling me what I knew / what I didn’t know. Did you read what you quoted from my post or did you just want to post something (else)?

I used Simbrief and not Navigraph to generate a flight plan because I found the Simbrief flight plan to be better and more comprehensive and free-of-charge.
I did not need this Navigraph service:
"In all Charts apps you can easily create a flight, which documents your origin, destination and alternate airports and your planned route, including SID, STAR and approach. In this way, all information necessary for your flight is quickly accessible. From the flight panel, in the top center of the interface, it is easy to manage the flight (change routing, change SID, STAR, and approach), access charts, and get information about every segment of the route. "

“Route calculation
A pilot can plan a flight between two airports and ask Navigraph Charts to calculate a route. Optimized for shortest distance the suggested route will use the closest transition points near the airports. The calculator supports NAT and FRA routing. The route calculator has been designed to be very easy to use and doesn’t have very many settings. More features may be added as we receive user feedback.”

How did that not make Navigraph’s service partially superfluous for my flight plan? What pilot mistakes did I make?
Please don’t infer anything from my post that I did not say.

Why do Navigraph want to acquire an organisation that, unlike Navigraph, provided a free of charge service that partially made Navigraph’s service superfluous?

Because that makes the combined service better and confirms that SimBrief will continue to operate.

If it makes the combines service better - for you because you already have a subscription - good for you. Hope they won’t charge you more in the future.

I disagree. You can of course always believe what someone tells you. I will retain the right to disbelief even a sworn statement by a business representative. Just put that down to old age.
Time will tell.

Always nice to meet someone who agrees to disagree.

Cool, have fun being angry all the time.

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Oh hells yes – I just popped over to SimBrief to set up a flight and I no longer see banner ads. This acquisition is bearing fruit already, perhaps?

Here’s the old donation page, which now indicates that donation support is not required anymore - SimBrief.com - Virtual Flight Planning Solutions

Annual operating costs for SimBrief were listed as being about $6000, covered by ad banners (annoying) and individual donations. This income is now supplied by Navigraph.

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Simbrief makes Navigraph superfluous to you.

Your post reads as though you are suggesting Simbrief makes Navigraph superfluous to everyone, which is not the case. For many people their services complement each other very well, and you are right, it is for those people the acquisition makes most sense. Just the way it goes.

[edit: Richard from Navigraph has explicitly said again below that simbrief will continue to be free. To suggest anything else is baseless conjecture and is down to people’s own mistrust, not any real facts].

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Fundamentally, if you’re not supporting a service you use and love with cash money, you’re letting it rot on the vine until the author runs out of money and has to do something you don’t like. If everyone demands that a service be without cost, it’s gonna have trouble meeting its costs if its costs are not zero.

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Now, it’s most likely that Navigraph sees the $6000/yr operating cost of SimBrief as a drop in the bucket and a loss-leader on upselling you a charts subscription. So they have little incentive to charge for SimBrief itself, knowing that you might want the charts once you have a flight plan.

Some folks will take advantage and expend their own effort to scrounge up “free” charts elsewhere. Others will pay for the charts subscription, and those are the people who will continue to make SimBrief available for you all.

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And to continue the conversation and give my thoughts on an answer to your actual question, they have acquired simbrief because they were already collaborating with some overlap, not competing against each other, so this means they can work more closely together.

And in that way, they both offer different things with some overlap, so for some people navigraph is superfluous when simbrief does everything they need for flight planning, and for others they are a brilliant combination with all the up-to-date airac data and charts that navigraph can inject into FS2020, aircraft FMS, simtoolitpro, etc etc.

Asobo are working with another partner on nav data so navigraph don’t have that option.

So for me as a navigraph subscriber it is very exciting, and for sim brief users I hope it brings things for them too. Of course it works well for them both - simbrief gets financing, navigraph get another platform to advertise their services. I think for that reason, as @Vibstronium says, they will keep simbrief free for the medium term at least, as it’s a good way to bring into the “navigraph ecosystem” if you will.

So no danger of spoiling my excitement yet! And no need to spoil your own either @VeryOldPilot as until you hear any news on charging you for simbrief, you can continue to use it free of charge! Win win?

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That is not what I said. Note the word ‘partially’.

Try reading my post again without inferring. It can be easy to misread or infer if the wanted/expected like-mindeness or praise is not evident.

I agree that it might change in the future. Time will tell. But it doesn’t need to remain unchanged for me or my family members because of the still current Navigraph subscriptions.
I try not to be selfish and prefer to think about the millions of Xboxers and kids that will join our community soon. I want the Simbrief services to be free for them.

I have not seen a single post in this thread that give consideration to young simmers who can’t afford the Navigraph subscription charges.

Those people can already use SimBrief for free without charge and scrounge up free charts. That literally already happens, and will continue to happen. Or they can just save their pennies, because the subscription fee is not very large compared to other entertainment costs.

Please stop saying the same thing over and over again pretending that we don’t understand you.

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VFR charts is a planned feature for Navigraph. It was mentioned in one of their videos.

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