Hey folks,
New player here I have gotten myself bogged down in apps for the game from watching youtube videos and reading posts and what not.
I ended up downloading in no particular order:
Sim Brief
Navigraph
Sim Tool Kit Pro
Volanta
VFR maps
MSFS Mobile Companion App
Little Nav Map
Possibly a few more I lost track of…
I have heard about:
Pilot2ATC
VatSim
Plus a few others.
I’m sure there is more. Anyways I seem to spend more time with my plane on auto pilot managing apps on my second screen and Ipad then I do actual flying…
It seems Sim Brief and Navigraph are a requirement for realistic flight planning. The airport overlays on the Navigraph chart is pretty nice, even though I don’t fully understand all the information it gives yet or at least how to utilize it.
Sim Tool kit pro and Volanta are pretty cool. Haven’t quite figured out why you would use one over the other yet though. Insight would be appreciated on that.
Pilot2ATC is a wee bit too advanced right now lol.
Is there anything I can do stream line this system a bit? Besides just getting rid of everything and playing the game. I am looking for some core programs to use.
Thanks in advance.
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Hi @Concentric4675,
I’ve moved your topic into a discussion area of the forum related to 3rd Party apps: #third-party-addon-discussion:tools-utilities
Thank you.
Wow yeah, First thing first what do you enjoy flying…you a GA or Airline IFR VFR or all the above…start from basic then work up on it
Hey concentric4675,
In a way, you answered your own question. Despite what you might read on these forums sometimes, vanilla MSFS actually works pretty well and is complete. You can choose an airplane, place to fly and even the type of flight (visual or based on instruments - IFR, weather etc.) and just go fly!
My suggestion is to start exactly there. When you start to find that the experience is lacking in some way and you want more … then start looking into the myriad of add on options that are available to add to the experience.
There’s a huge community of talented people adding enhancements in every aspect (paid and free); but there’s not a single set that you need (you don’t actually need any of them) - it all depends what kind of flying you want to do (and how much you’re prepared to spend). And lots of them overlap.
Just go fly, enjoy the ‘world’ and build on that 
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Hello, I have been flying IFR and VFR and Mainly light aircraft, King Air 350i, X Cub, Cessna 208 B and of course the TBM930. So I guess General Aviation. I was trying to do a long haul flight in stages from Miami to Ibeza. Island hopping my way there in the either the TBM930 or King Air.
So I found I was spending more time in the apps then actually flying. So yeah back to basics I guess. With maybe a chart running to see the place names of cities, towns lakes rivers etc. which I enjoy. Being able to zoom in and see airport runways and taxi ways would be nice.
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Cheers thanks. Think I just got caught up in the cool mods and apps that the community has to offer, from watching too many Youtube videos, lol.
I would still be interested in the differences between Sim Tool Kit Pro and Volanta for a having a chart to follow along with, from more experienced users.
Cool because you never explained experience you could have a PPL liscence know more about flying…yet not adverse with sim APPS. Last thing I would want todo is to teach to suck eggs…and make myself look stupid 
which is not hard
I have heard Little Navmap is an excellent tool, for VFR with GA…just start with that…then you on topics of VR…so many tangents
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as a new player, you should learn how to fly before adding in all sorts of mods and tools to use, especially If you haven’t played flight sims before.
Simbrief is good if you fly tubeliners to set up your flight plans which can then be directly imported to the game. these can also be sent to VATSIM if you decide to get into it (which requires filed flight plans for most situations. I don’t use it, don’t quote me 
). Several of the applications you listed and even the FBW A320 and Salty 747 has a simbrief integration to import your most recent plan into the planes flight computer without having to alt tab
I haven’t heard of Volanta, but SimToolKitPro is very useful for tracking all your flights. They sound similar and between the major 3 flight trackers available (STKP, Volanta and one other i’m thinking of i can’t recall the name of in this moment) and they all look and function similarly. Useful if you join a Virtual Airline and need to keep an accurate log of your flights. It’s personal preference which one you’d like, but they all function relatively the same way. The added benefit is these maps have a map that lets you watch your little plane fly across the screen and search for airports, SIDs and STARs. I believe STKP has a simbrief integration.
Navigraph and the like is useful when you need to see what ATC is actually talking about when they say “Cleared 6 Left via GUNN Approach.” There’s plenty of guides on the internet to reading airport charts and utilizing these apps.
If you’d like to streamline, it’s possible to run all these apps on a separate computer on your network. SimConnect/FSPUIC allows for these capabilities (Depending on app compability) as these apps allow the sim to “talk” to these applications.
In my opinion, the ultimate “Core” set of apps would include:
- A Navigation app (STKP)
- Simbrief
- Airport Charts reference (Navigraph, i just use google)
- Self Loading Cargo or PACX (these simulate passengers if you fly tubeliners)
- Live ATC (VATSIM, IVAO etc)
Anything else just becomes redundant
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yeah good luck in VR. on the subject of, i don’t even bother in VR until i can get decent frames without having to hack half my oculus headset…
well you mentioned it so…
Just a side note. You can run Volanta, Navigraph, and Simbrief in your browser in case you don’t want to have so many separate apps running.
Yes like I said it will go off on a tangent
Thanks for the responses folks. As for some of the questions. I am not a real pilot, nor will I ever have the chance to be one at this time. I have come over from and still play DCS (Digital Combat Simulator) Mainly came for the experience of flying anywhere in the World. Plus to see if I could talk some friends into flying with me.
DCS I think was a little to intimidating I think. Having said that I just don’t think any of them are interested in flight sims. That will be one of my next steps trying to find a flight sim community I guess.
I keep on imagining DCS’ planes, helicopters, air craft carrier and game play taking place within Microsoft’s digital global world, to fly in and it blows my mind, lol. Whoever can figure out how to code a game like that will be gaming heroes.
As far as apps I think I will continue with:
Sim Brief for planning longer flights.
STKP or Volanta which ever gives me a better view of place names and zoomed in Airports
Navigraph I am not sure yet I just paid for 1 month to check it out. Not sure if I am ready to pay monthly/yearly fees long-term yet. I did enjoy having it on my Ipad though. It is defiantly a Professional product.
SLC and PACX actually looks pretty cool just too add another dimension to the game. I’m not really much into the big airliners though. Can you haul say just cargo if you want to with those programs or is it worth it flying small planes like the King Air, 208B or TBM to fly passengers around in. To get to smaller airports tucked into the mountain ranges and what not?
Again, thanks for the reply folks. Maybe this will help other people new to the Sim out as well.
Little Nav Map will give you everything you need to begin with particularly in ga planes and maybe a decent weather app
Learn how to use Vors, NDB’s, practice holding patterns then approaches and plates. Use checklists for aircrafts, try and fly by the numbers, look for airport diversions in bad weather
Try and do an Ifr or vfr flight without a map just using dead reckoning, it’s all part of the fun.
One app worth considering on flight sim.to also simulates failures which is quite interesting.
no, SLC does passengers only (and their luggage) and doesn’t have too much support for GA airplanes at the moment. While you can find and download a community made pax layout that supports a smaller plane, the app doesn’t support it too well(the next version will however) PACX is a very similar program, but i’m not sure it’s GA capabilities.
The best benefit i’d say of Navigraph (as someone who’s just looked into it) is that you get current airport data. But it’s a program you pay for if you’re super serious about it (no judgement if thats your goal, just my assessment)
Eventually, there will be some more quality military-style content in MSFS. There’s already an Aircraft Carrier, a couple trainer jets and an F15 somewhere available. DCS focuses on the flight model whereas FS2020’s focus is accessibility. It’s part of the decision why Asobo did not include “study-level” aircraft as part of the base game (which is consistent throughout the series). The mass majority of people want to just get in, take off and shoot other players down (or fly around aimlessly), not learn the proper steps to start a plane everything at the risk of “breaking” the plane or a failure later as a result of improper startup process.
Right on thanks for the information folks. Happy flying.
I’ve seen mentioned that there is a ‘free’ version of Navigraph. Is that right?
All I can find is a subscription model.
Thanks.
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There’s a freeware aircraft carrier pack on flightsim.to, pretty good, you can take off and land and a variety of carrier groups dotted about on the world map