[Official] Community Fly-In Friday: Indonesia Bush Flying

[SeedyL3205]

We will be hosting an Official Fly-in alongside a group of community members (you!) on Twitch. This is an open event, free to all who would like to fly along with us and available to pilots of all skill levels. The goal is to have a great time, explore new locations of the world, and make new friends. This event is open to pilots on both sim versions (MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024) and both the PC and Xbox platforms.

Hosted by @SeedyL3205, @Pieter2427, AvAngel
When: Friday, January 17 @ 1900Z for two hours.
2025-01-17T19:00:00Z
Where: The Official Twitch Channel of MSFS

There will also be a Discord event channel open for those who want to voice chat with other members of the community.

Please see below for details on the upcoming Fly-In Event:

FLIGHT DETAILS

This week, we’re leaving the world of prepared runways behind us as we head into the jungles of Western New Guinea (part of Indonesia ) for some adventurous bush flying!

Start in your Draco X, CubCrafter X or NX Cub, De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver, Pilatus PC-6 Porter, or any other bush plane of your liking for some challenging landings in this tropical climate, including one of the most iconic landings in the world at the Bugalaga Airstrip!

MSFS (2020) Pilots on PC can download the .pln file here:
2025-01-17 Indonesia Bush Flying.PLN (2.3 KB)

MSFS 2024 Pilots on both PC and Xbox can import the flight plan from the new Flight Planner tool by clicking this link:

You can find instructions on how to load a flight plan from the Flight Planner website to your in-sim EFB on your PC or Xbox console on our forums here.

We will be starting at WAVV. Please load your aircraft 10 minutes prior to take off and taxi over to the runway in preparation for departure.

AIRCRAFT

Recommended aircraft: Draco X, CubCrafter X or NX Cub, De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver, Pilatus PC-6 Porter, or any aircraft of your choice with a cruise speed of ~110 knots.

MULTIPLAYER SETTINGS

Please adhere to the following settings so you can see everyone / be seen by everyone.

Variable	Setting
Server	SE Asia
Multiplayer	All Players
Live traffic	As preferred
Weather	Few Clouds
Time of Day	Daytime

COMMUNICATION

To communicate with others, a voice channel on the "Official Microsoft Flight Simulator Discord” at https://discord.gg/msfs will be available to join.

LET’S FLY

This is meant to be a fun and informal flight. Everybody is welcome, no matter your platform, sim version, or level of experience.

[Zadma]

Any idea what’s going on with this flight plan? The Planner web app has this going to WRLA, which is the ICAO code for Sangatta - an airport in an entirely different country and on an entirely different SE Asian island from Bugalaga, who’s ICAO code is WX53. But the WRLA on the Planner flight plan seems to be aroundabouts where WX53 should be - and then if you try and search for WX53 (the real Bugalaga) it doesn’t appear to be in the database unless you’re doing it from the in-sim version of the planner, where WX53 then does exist.

Also the mismatch/lack of WRLA (as seen in the web Planner) in the sim version of the Planner seems to be causing the flight plan to not load up in the sim whatsoever.

[RayGausman]

YESh!! Perfect flight for a helicopter. Thats going to be a green Bell 407 for me

[GraceParker232]

Nice post, Thanks for sharing.

[hobanagerik]

@SeedyL3205

MSFS 2024 Pilots on both PC and Xbox can import the flight plan from the new Flight Planner tool by clicking this link:

I’ve noticed before that if you aren’t already logged in, and authenticated with the flight planner, that link doesn’t actually work. You sign in but the import process doesn’t launch. Clicking the link a second time typically brings up the import window.

But this time I had to click that link four times before the route actually appeared. I’ve just found out why that is. When that window above appears, don’t click the “Load” button until you see the background map load completely, which for me shows the path of the sun, and other map details. Clicking “Load” before then doesn’t load the plan.

I suspect this will be one of those things where the speed of your computer matters, and the faster it is makes this more likely to happen.

[Zadma]

And due to a mismatch of nav data between the web Planner and the sim Planner, the route won’t even load into the sim, so it’s a bit pointless. I may have to try the .PLN instead.

[hobanagerik]

There shouldn’t be as they are using the same nav data, or at least they should be. It’s not like building a plan in Littlenavmap with one AIRAC, then pulling that into the sim where it runs another.

[Zadma]

They’re not - just look for the arrival airport in the sim as it exists in this route. Or search both places for an airport like LTBE for example. They do not match, unfortunately. Working Title is aware and investigating a solution.

[hobanagerik]

@Zadma

Working Title is aware and investigating a solution.

Was that posted on the dev. site? I don’t remember seeing that mentioned here before.

[Zadma]

Through their discord server. WT does a lot of work on the Planner independent of MS/Asobo, it would seem. They often have issues fixed and published within hours of their initial report, which is wonderful.

[Zadma]

Interesting - the PLN version of the flight plan has the destination as XM53, so it works inside the sim, but that route would not work in the web Planner. Hopefully WT finds a way to merge the two databases sometime soon, especially considering this issue is going to have a disproportionate impact on those planning flights at smaller airports, and that’s kind of what the native Planner tool is designed for more than airliner ops.

[Severus5354]

I will be flying along in the Spirit of St. Louis, probably just touch and goes when possible because this bird (now more historically accurate for 2024) does not have brakes. So that’s extra fun, if anyone else wants the added challenge.

[Severus5354]

Are those waypoints in your post’s screenshot the correct ones? I wasn’t able to get the plan into the planner so I wanted to just built it manually beforehand.

[Severus5354]

Can anyone give a list of the correct waypoints?

[SeedyL3205]

Hello @Severus5354,

If you’re re-creating the flight plan manually, the waypoints are:

WAVV (Departure)
WAVC
WAYL
WX53 (Arrival)

[RayGausman]

It’ll be fiiiiiiine

[aurel42de]

WAYL has severe elevation issues in MSFS24, as someone on stream put it (quoting from memory): “Nice Hotwheels ramp on the runway!”

One has to admire the honesty of showing off broken airports during a Community event.

[CriminalPilot]

Took out the Twin Otter and it performed well enough. Made it to Bugalaga with only a flat tire on landing. Not bad for a first attempt!

[MagnusR3D]

Thanks! it was a fun flight! i forgot about it at first, quickly started up and grabbed a plane, it turned out to be the fire fighting one.

I crashed about halfway through, so i had to restart and fly as fast as i could to catch up with you guys. Landing was a challenge with this pretty big bird on that tiny little uphill airfield in the middle of nowhere.

/ Magnus