I swear when I create a flight plan I had to create an airframe first since the A320neo wasn’t there to begin with. Then every flight plan I have to enter Departure Time, Arrival time, weight, fuel, number of passengers. Not to mention I have to know the ICAO airport code, which I have an extra step that I have to search. All of which I don’t want to enter it every time.
Then by the time I had everything done, and save .PLN file and load into the sim. I still have to pick the gate that I’m departing from, and to avoid being directed to a parking ramp by the ATC, I had to pick the arriving gate as well. As soon as I do that, the entire flight plan changes anyway. Then I also get a weird SID and STAR. Even if I get everything done, by the time I look at how long my flight would take, if I don’t like it. I have to do the whole process all over again. I tried simbrief for a couple of flights and I don’t like it. It’s too much of a hassle.
With the sim’s world map, I just look at the map and decide which area I’m in the mood for. Zoom in, pick a gate at a departing airport. Then zoom out, look at the aircraft range ring pick the gate at the arriving airport, then zoom out, if I don’t like the flight duration, I pick a different destination or even a different departing airport. Once I’m happy with the duration, I just pick a SID and STAR based on the weather that is also visible on the world map and I’m good to go. There’s no need to do it externally since everything is done within the sim.
I’m not saying SimBrief is bad… I’m saying it’s a powerful tool with a lot of great things to have, and I can see the appeal for much more serious simmer who wants proper flight planning that’s close to realistic as possible. But for me, it’s like cutting an apple with a chainsaw. The tool is just too powerful for me who just wants a point and click flight planning and using visual cues rather than text-based. So SimBrief is not for me.