27 minutes ago, Treetops45 said:

Where I get stuck using Simbrief is on the MSFS Scenario side of things.

Say I want a short IFR flight from Glasgow to Edinburgh. Dept EGPF Rwy 05 & arrive ILS into EGPH Rwy 06.

I set that up in Simbrief & export it to my PC's FP Directory.

Do I set up the same flight in MSFS Scenario as a Low Level Airways ILS  IFR flight, which will generate the waypoints, & then hit Fly?

Yes, but the only real purpose it serves is to allow you to get to the cruise altitude setting so that you can input that. Otherwise, you need to ask ATC for your cruise altitude. ATC doesn't really know the FP in the airplane, and vice-versa, so I also pick the SID and STAR and runways on both ends just to tell ATC where I am going. The ATC has been surprising me during departure and descent on my past couple of flights, it has been clearing me to the correct altitudes once I am into the SID or STAR. I think that's because I've put them in the FP, I truly don't know but its working for me for now. 

Or just enter it as a VFR from Edinburgh to Glasgow? No. See above.

Then I load the aircraft & go to the FMC & drag in the Simbrief 737-700 .rte flight plan.

Download the Simbrief downloader from their web page. The hard part is finding the 2 folders you need to set it up. The PMDG 737 Flightplans folder, and the WX (or weather) folder.

<<C:\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\packages\pmdg-aircraft-737\work\WX>>

<<C:\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\packages\pmdg-aircraft-737\work\Flightplans>>

The downloader will automatically copy both files to those folders for you almost immediately after you press "Generate OFP" on the Simbrief web page, You don't have to do anything except click "OK" on the dialog box that tells you that it just copied the files. You can turn that off if you like Once in the airplane, click the RTE button and type in EGPFEGPH and press the LSK next to CO Route. Press Activate, then press Exec. Then, press the Dep/Arr button and input the departure runway, SID, and transition, and then press Index to go back and then input the arrival STAR, transition, approach, and approach transition. That's it except for the performance and takeoff pages.

If it differs from the MSFS Scenario set up FP, does it ignore the former, or overwrite it? The airplane will ignore any flight plan that you put in the MSFS flight planner. It does not care. ATC has no clue what you have in the FMS. By putting the same SID and STAR into the MSFS FP, that you have in the FMS, ATC will "know" where you are going and give you the proper instructions. Between the end of the SID and the beginning of the STAR, ATC is likely to tell you to "Continue to..." waypoints that are in the MSFS FP, but not in the FMS. Just fly the route in the airplane and ignore any references to waypoints that ATC mentions that are not in your FMS flight plan. If they fix the MSFS flight planner so we can search for waypoints, you we make the points in between the SID and STAR match and it will seem like there is only 1 flight plan for both ATC and the airplane.

I am finding that when I start flying & hit the AP its as if the aircraft is trying to follow 2 flight plans & then doesn't follow either. Hmmm... I don't think the plane IS following a plan because mine don't do that. 🙂

Meanders off track.

T45

 

 

 

 

4 hours ago, grandfred29 said:

The only thing who is boring with flight plan and simbrief is you must import fp and wx before loading the aircraft or maybe start fs.

 

Go to this page and grab the Simbrief Downloader 

No more manual copying.

7 minutes ago, MDFlier said:

Go to this page and grab the Simbrief Downloader 

No more manual copying.

I use it already, that's not the problem

What's wrong?

3 minutes ago, MDFlier said:

What's wrong?

If the plane is loaded the fms will not see any new flight plan.

So each time i must think prepar and create my fp with SB before start fs2020

With fbw i Can load direct from SB in the fms

Edited May 19, 20224 yr by grandfred29

1 hour ago, grandfred29 said:

If the plane is loaded the fms will not see any new flight plan.

So each time i must think prepar and create my fp with SB before start fs2020

With fbw i Can load direct from SB in the fms

Yes it will, if I have time for 2 flights I leave FS running and export a new plan from SB.

 

Picks it up straight away, no need to reload anything...

 

G

Edited May 19, 20224 yr by Gazzareth

You are using the wrong 2 PMDG folders.  There are the same folders in the main PMDG 737 folder in your Community folder. These have "Config" in the path name.

<<C:\Community\pmdg-aircraft-737\config\Flightplans>>

You need to use the ones with "Work" in the path name.

<<C:\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\packages\pmdg-aircraft-737\work\Flightplans>>

Anything put into the 2 folders under "Work" goes live right away,  even with the simulation running and the airplane loaded. Anything put into the "Config" folders gets copied one time when you start up the simulation with the airplane loaded. After that,  you need to restart before you can use them.

Just plan the flight the old fashioned way? What do you really need simbrief for?

I let them in by hand all the time.  I think it's fun. 

47 minutes ago, MDFlier said:

I let them in by hand all the time.  I think it's fun. 

Dunno, by the time I have entered past the second page I start thinking it's less fun, shorter routes I'd enter by hand, long ones get the SB treatment !!

 

Simbrief does however let you get the WX download....

 

G

5 hours ago, Treetops45 said:

Where I get stuck using Simbrief is on the MSFS Scenario side of things.

Say I want a short IFR flight from Glasgow to Edinburgh. Dept EGPF Rwy 05 & arrive ILS into EGPH Rwy 06.

I set that up in Simbrief & export it to my PC's FP Directory.

Do I set up the same flight in MSFS Scenario as a Low Level Airways ILS flight, which will generate the waypoints, & then hit Fly?

 

 

Go into the world map and hit the space bar twice. Click on the option to load a flight plan from your PC, navigate to whatever directory you're storing flight plans in, and choose the one you just generated. Remember to zoom in to the departure airport and change the departure to a parking space / gate if you don't want to start on the runway with the engines running.

16 minutes ago, eslader said:

Go into the world map and hit the space bar twice. Click on the option to load a flight plan from your PC, navigate to whatever directory you're storing flight plans in, and choose the one you just generated. Remember to zoom in to the departure airport and change the departure to a parking space / gate if you don't want to start on the runway with the engines running.

Really miss the ability to load up everything exactly as and where you left it, but time and weather advanced to current.

 

G

1 hour ago, eslader said:

Go into the world map and hit the space bar twice. Click on the option to load a flight plan from your PC, navigate to whatever directory you're storing flight plans in, and choose the one you just generated. Remember to zoom in to the departure airport and change the departure to a parking space / gate if you don't want to start on the runway with the engines running.

You, sir. Are brilliant.

I read your post and it hit me. I can add a 3rd file export to the Simbrief Downloader to save the OFP as a FS2020 .PLN file in my "Saved Flights" folder and export it automatically right along with the PMDG flight plan and weather files.

I added the 3rd type of file to export ("FS2020" in the list) to the downloader and set the save location to my saved flights folder. I built a new flight in Simbrief, hit generate OFP, and the Simbrief popup popped up and said, "3 files were saved".

I fired up MFSF and got to the map screen. I hit spacebar twice, and selected load from PC. It opened up a file picker pointed to some localcache folder, so I right clicked in that folder, hit create shortcut, and set the target to the saved flights folder that I set in Simbrief. When the shortcut appeared after I hit Ok, I clicked through it, and selected the Simbrief flight plan (conveniently named KBOSKBWI_MFS_19May22.pln).

Bam! The CORRECT flight plan along with cruise altitude, SID and STAR (with the correct waypoints in between), and the arrival runway were all set properly in the MSFS flight planner!

The departure location was incorrectly set to the departure runway, so I changed it to the correct gate. Doing that nuked the SID out of the plan, but I simply selected the correct STAR (PATTS22R) from the list and it went back to being correct. 

THIS WORKS PERFECTLY. It loads the MSFS flight plan, the FMS route, and the weather files automatically when you generate the OFP. Yes!

Edited May 19, 20224 yr by MDFlier

9 hours ago, Treetops45 said:

Do I set up the same flight in MSFS Scenario as a Low Level Airways ILS flight, which will generate the waypoints, & then hit Fly?

I just hit spacebar (twice) then load from the MSFS flight plan folder. Make sure you've got Simbrief downloader set to FS2020, PMDG flightplan and PMDG wind uplink.   

3 hours ago, MDFlier said:

THIS WORKS PERFECTLY. It loads the MSFS flight plan, the FMS route, and the weather files automatically when you generate the OFP. Yes!

It does 🙂 

Edited May 19, 20224 yr by Cpt_Piett

On 5/10/2022 at 5:29 PM, tfm said:

it’s quite funny how much special pleading goes on whenever it comes to PMDG.
 

PMDG version should offer the best-in-class simulation of what is actually available, not some clunky alternative.
 

The WT CJ 4 offers easy simbrief integration - it's free
The FbW offers easy simbrief integration - it's free
The 787 HDmod offers easy simbrief integration - it's free.