Hi,I know how to get and read an Alternate Airport , (@c:FlightPlanAlternateAirportIdent), by editing a .PLN file.Like to set it via xml and came up with some formulas, but they all crashed the sim.'A ' (@c:FlightPlanAlternateAirportIdent) scat like etc.No problem with writing eg. EGGL with char1,2,3, and 4.But how to set EGLL so, that it is readable in (@c:FlightPlanAlternateAirportIdent) and then retrieve the other alternate variables?Jan

Hi,I know how to get and read an Alternate Airport , (@c:FlightPlanAlternateAirportIdent), by editing a .PLN file.Like to set it via xml and came up with some formulas, but they all crashed the sim.'A ' (@c:FlightPlanAlternateAirportIdent) scat like etc.No problem with writing eg. EGGL with char1,2,3, and 4.But how to set EGLL so, that it is readable in (@c:FlightPlanAlternateAirportIdent) and then retrieve the other alternate variables?Jan

Hi Jan,I had some difficulty working with AlternateAirport too. The AlternateAirport variables don't really do much, so I agree with you that the key, as you show above, would be to turn AlternateAirportIdent into its ICAO and proceed from there. Concatenation with A and six spaces would do it, and then you're in.You might check into the following and see if this leads anywhere... I'm not sure. I have noticed that after the alternate_id is defined in the .pln file, FlightPlanAlternateAirportIdent returns the airport Ident (or appears to), but the first character of the Ident is not necessarily found in character position 1 of AlternateAirportIdent. As an example, if you look on page 114 of my gps guide, you'll see that WIKB, the Ident of Hang Nadim International, Batam, Indonesia, appears in character positions 3 through 6 rather than 1 through 4. Is the concatenation including the leading spaces, therefore creating an invalid ICAO? Don't know.Perhaps more troublesome than that, however, might be that SLEN of AlternateAirportIdent is zero, even though the Ident certainly appears to be returned (same thing AlternateName). I don't know why it is like that, but a guess is that operations with a string, or something presumed to be a string, whose SLEN is zero is the cause of the sim crash. So, you're back to how to pluck the Ident out of AlternateAirportIdent. I'd like to know the answer, too. Good luck.Bob

Hi,Yet no answer, but a way around.It is just entering a facility in the altn arpt box.It stays there no matter what you're doing elsewhere in the fmc.Don't mind some L:Var's; used for other actions.<Macro Name="InvokeICAOInputMode">@1 (>@c:IcaoSearchInitialIcao) @2 (>@c:IcaoSearchStartCursor) @3 (>L:data entry 2,enum) 0 (>@c:IcaoSearchMatchedIcao)</Macro>read: (L:rte,enum) 2 == if{ %((L:altn arpt,enum) 1 ==)%{if}%((L:data entry 2,enum) 0 ==)%{if}%((@c:FacilityIdent))%!s! / %((@c:FacilityName) uc d slen 0 == if{ p ' ' })%!s!%{end}%{end}%{end}%{end}toggle:(L:rte,enum) 2 == if{ (L:data entry 2,enum) 1 == if{ -1 (>@c:IcaoSearchAdvanceCharacter) } @InvokeICAOInputMode((@c:FacilityICAO), 'AVNWM', 1) 0 (>L:altn arpt,enum) 1 (>L:exec click,enum) 1 (>L:fmcsound,enum) quit } and enter:(L:rte,enum) 2 == if{ 0 (>L:data entry 2,enum) 1 (>L:altn arpt,enum) 1 (>L:exec,enum) 1 (>L:fmcsound,enum) quit } <On Key="AlphaNumeric"> <Visible>(L:data entry 2,enum) 1 ==</Visible> (M:Key) chr (>C:fs9gps:IcaoSearchEnterChar) </On>It works and you can retrieve other data and use the ident to set a new destination and/or approach.Jan

Hi,%((@c:FacilityName) uc d slen 0 == if{ p ' ' })%!s! or %((@c:FacilityName) uc )%!s!% could crash the sim.Jan

Hi Jan,It doesn't look like you are attempting to utilize Alternate information from the .pln file (alternate_id) and FlightPlanAlternateAirportIdent anymore. Is that correct?Bob

Hi,I do, but when there is no info (have many unedited flightplans), i can enter an alternate and use its data for further action.Jan