Please bring back the basic function of the Flight Planner; the functionality of saving, loading flights with or without a flight plan - at the world menu and after fly now - and if a flight plan is created, with the function to load this into the FMS (each time after loading a file).
TL;DR - the three main points in this longer thread:
Restore save / load function (both .flt and if a flight plan used with .pln) and also allowing the saving and loading after fly now.
Restore the flight plan (.pln) into the FMS after loading a saved file (.flt incl. .pln or only a .pln)
âHave a full save and load featureâ (including parameters such as ânav info, AP, fuel, time, weather, weight, etcâ - described here by @TristeCiel and @CG604 - refer to .flt.
More information / Background:
Below in this thread is my summary of the current state; options that are now available with limitations and the open issues relating to save / load.
For reference here I have included what this features looks like in Microsoft Flight Simulator X below.
It was useful to have the Flight Planner window; which could be accessed at anytime during a flight - and the flight plan could be changed at anytime as well and ATC recognized the changes, the flight situation could be saved and loaded at anytime too.
I believe the functionality is still around but itâs not working fully from the beginning of release, this has been a bit of a hit and miss - and the UI inconsistency is still around. There was a work around that has also stopped working.
The Flight Planner feature; or more specifically the function of save / load is an essential feature - there are plenty of tools that export flight plans to the sim via the .pln (Flight Plan) and this should be possible to load before and after fly now. If the World Menu is suppose to replace the Flight Planner fully; in a first step I ask the developers to restore the functionality of loading a .pln after fly now or a .flt (State/Situation/Scenario) with a .pln included.
The Flight Planner window in Microsoft Flight Simulator
Prior to starting a flight it is possible to both load a .pln and .flt from the Windows Explorer dialog that opens when you press the load / save button or space key.
Once loaded into the flight, after pressing ESC you have the option to load the same dialog but now it is no longer possible to load .pln, only .flt, the UI still says both .flt and .pln and I think it should possible to load .pln files after loading, which was also possible in other versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator.
This seems like an obvious issue but I could not find any thread, is there one?
I think this is an essential part that should work, as .pln as part of flight planning.
I would very much like to see this fixed.
A simple work around that Iâve not come across until now⊠maybe it could be added to the known issues please?
I think itâs little things like these; where priority could also be placed as well; itâs often the little things that make big differences to the user experience. This little thing is related to the bigger feature; flight planning, used by many simmers.
The reality is, the whole Flight Planning system within MSFS needs an extreme re-design, that goes way past the loading & saving of flight plans.
The world map system is severely inadequate, as is any creation or changing of all but the most simple auto-generated flight plans.
User waypoints are a total mess, as is the inability to specify altitudes for specific legs of a route.
The good news (if you can call it that), is that this whole area is missing from the SDK, so hopefully it gets a re-design to bring it to a more usable âFlight Simulatorâ tool , rather than a Game Play feature, and gets fully documented in the SDK.
Unfortunately, quite a lot of work - which does not have the Glam & Glitter of new Scenery, or other surface Cosmetic improvements, that seem to be what he masses are happily feeding on, and pushing sales.
Yes there is lots of potential there to improve the flight planning feature, would like to see this too, please do create a separate feedback thread or add to the existing ones, there are many threads with feature improvements and comments about flight planning.
My aim with this thread was only about the restoring/adding the ability of .pln files once loaded to the UI. Your work around works well in the mean time until the functionality what the UI is saying is there is added. Thank you
Voted! Iâve reported this bug I think three times since it occured during launch in August 2020. Each time it has just been marked as resolved, but I havenât seen it actually being solved.
That is a nice tip too. What do you mean by the other related stuff getting worse? Are you saying it happens generally when loading .pln/.flt or just with .pln?
FWIW, flight files (.flt) contain a pointer to the flight plan (.pln) but this pointer is wrong most of the time. There is a workaround. When Load/Save is selected, a Windows file selection box is displayed. It is âlockedâ to enter only a .flt file. To get around this restriction, put . in the filename box. This will now display both .flt and .pln files for selection. Or the flight plan name can be entered including the .pln at the end.
The entered flight plan should be close to the current flight plan. If a random flight plan is entered for airports on the other side of the country, navigation pointers get messed up.
I only use this technique whenever ATC goes goofy. I will cancel IFR and shortly after, ATC asks if I want to file an IFR flight plan even though I am currently flying VFR. I enter the name of my original IFR flight plan. This seems to reset ATC.
Regarding the .flt files, it appears that Asobo has designed these to be used or reused once and they are to be used before starting any other flight. I donât think we are supposed to build our own library of various flights. Many of my older .flt files do not work after updates.
I canât get this âfeatureâ to work. I can reveal, and select a valid .pln file using the Esc/Load route. Clicking OK to load a new plan is accepted and it allows me to go back to the flight andâŠthe Garmin hasnât changed the plan at all. Itâs still the same one as I had entered previously. I created two different plans from the same location. Loaded the first with the flight, and then tried to load the alt one once sitting in the aircraft. Sadly no dice. Would be much better if Asobo just implement the âloadâ option as a menu item in the Garmin, as Xplane does.
I am so happy I found this! So this works well with the CJ4 to load a new flight plan after landing. My question now is if anyone know how to do it in the C208? Or the Garmin system. Tried force loading the flight plan, it did not go into the Garmin.
This is closed as by design as we currently do not allow loading of PLN files during a flight due to sim issues. If players want to load something during a flight, they should only load an FLT. The feature will not be changed but the message in-game will be updated to reflect the correct behavior.
Please vote on this issue to express interest in adding this feature. Thanks!
until the functionality what the UI is saying is there is added. Thank you
