Could the Flight Planner expand beyond IFR and include full VFR chart support? For example, displaying published traffic patterns ?
This would make VFR route planning more intuitive and closer to real‑world procedures.
2 Likes
Have you checked to see if they’re in the charts for the airport in the EFB?
Most VFR charts I’m familiar with don’t include a graphical representation of the traffic pattern, other than to textually denote whether it’s a non-standard pattern (something for which the sim is poorly programmed, anyway).
So unless there’s an official chart out there that features them, I’m not sure the request makes sense in terms of the context of “full VFR chart support.”
Perhaps there are some that are more like approach plates (I think Germany does this?). Not sure how to integrate that concept with a VFR sectional-style chart as the scale is going to be pretty minute and congested at 1:500,000, but I suppose it could be done.
However, in any case, that could be a bespoke feature for the sim charts and their rather flexible scale, if they wanted to. Again, would need correct airport info to determine right vs left-hand patterns. They do this to an extent with the flight planner, anyway.
That said, traffic patterns in many countries are fairly flexible to pilot’s discretion. It’s nice to know which way to go, for sure, but dimensionally, it’s hard to get super specific unless there’s a preferred local procedure (like at KSQL). For me, it’d add a lot of clutter, but I can see it being a useful, toggleable feature for many.