Help in MSFS with Flight Plan

[kingchiro 4]

Hi all,

My flying group ( mainly VR ) needs some advice. We are based here in Australia.

We have been flying fortnightly VR flights using P3D V5 but have now moved to MSFS and are running into some 'problems'. I know you all specialise in flying in a wonderful group, so whom better to ask.

For our first official flight yesterday, I threw them into the deep end with the Idaho Dirt Strips Revisited flight plan ! Well needless to say we all crashed at certain airports, (did anyone mention Dewey Moore  😲).

My/our question is, if you can't already guess, choosing Restart after crashing will take you back to the original airport and then you need to slew to catchup to wherever everyone else is. That is OK as it keeps the flight plan loaded on the GPS, but takes time for everyone to catchup. If we alternatively go back to the World menu and choose the airport to spawn where everyone is that's fine, but NO flight plan on the GPS is loaded. Remember we are VR so we can't easily look at Plan G or Little Navmap and it is easier following the panel GPS with a loaded flight plan. Getting out of VR is doable but multiple times is fraught with danger.

Are we missing something  or how do people catchup to the others if you are late or behind and still have your flight plan loaded ?  

Be gentle as we are trying to change our brains from P3D to MSFS.

Thanks for any advice.

Cheers

Mark Speechley

[MM 434]

Hi Mark,

Here are a few things that we do to handle crashes and irregular starts. We do not fly VR so these may not work for you. But please do let us know what you find helpful.

1. A late start and a desire to begin at an airport further along the expected flightplan. Use Little NavMap to truncate your original flightplan so that it now starts with the airport that you want. Save it into MFS with a different name. Then start your flight from the World Map and away you go. (If your simulator crashes, as will happen, you can use this trick to restart at an airport further along the original route where your friends expect to be in a few minutes.)

2. Crash. First, of course, turn off all crashes in the options. If you are flying together in multiplayer, those crashes will annoy more than please. (Same for other damages, though your tastes may vary here.)

If you crash your aircraft, you can simply use the SLEW key to lift up your wreck high into the air, push your throttle forward, and return to action. The MFS default keys are “Y” and “F4”. (If your plane is upside down, then lift it up and then place it down onto a flat surface where it will right itself. Then up and start flying. “Y” “F4” “F1” “F4” or some such.)

It is difficult to recommence flying from a slewed position, so practice this a couple of times to see what you have to do.

3. Crash and damage to your aircraft. You can try the “Repair” function – you have to go into the control settings and set a keyboard key to enact this. This may or may not work. Alternatively, you can set your General Options | Developers Mode to “On”. Then go to the Window Tab (that will appear when you move your cursor to the top of the screen) and re-select your aircraft. You will have the flightplan loaded but other aircraft switches and so forth may need attention. (Not sure if you can get to Developers Mode from VR.)

These are tricks we use to get through an event and return with the group. Some may not work in VR.

My friends may have other ideas to help

Please let us know what you find.

Mike

[jt_williams 300]

Hmmm?   I am not a VR flightsimmer and so am not really sure what to recommend.    Here is what I do when I crash out of MSFS during a multiplayer flight.  

• Crash takes me back to MFS main menu
• Task switch to LittleNavMap (which has the current route)
• Truncate the flightplan so that I am starting at either the most recent airport or the next one if it is closer to the group. Export that plan in MFS format.
• Start the flight using the new truncated flight plan.  
• Resume the fun

This would require VR pilots to remove the VR headset to modify the flightplan so may not be preferred.  A possible alternative would be:

• Crash takes me back to MFS main menu
• Restart MFS flight in the air near current player (without a flight plan)
• Try to keep current group in visual range 
• If able use autopilot heading mode to follow
• If avionics are capable use Direct To to obtain guidance to next airport(s).   

You have probably tried variations of this already, but that is all that comes to mind at the moment.  

 

[kingchiro 4]

Thank you so much Mike and Jeff.

Looks like you've covered some great solutions we'll give a try. Fortunately we don't fly Idaho Dirt Strips on a regular basis.  I think the slew in crashed plane position could be the winner and the most convenient. I'm looking forward to trying all the solutions and will report back.

We all really got sucked into the immersiveness of VR in P3D ( I also have a full size Learjet 45 simulator running P3D V5 in my shed ) but the lure of the graphics in MSFS was too much to miss out on.

Thanks again,

Mark S.

     

[kingchiro 4]

Hi chaps,

Well I can happily report that the Y and then F4 to go up ( or F3 for smaller increments ) is the easiest and quickest way to go.

One of my crew has just contacted me to show me something he had just discovered and I'll share it with you. Another method added to yours so we have a plethora of choices now.

 

At the top menu, Dev Mode, go to:

WINDOWS

TELEPORT WINDOWS

AIRPORT

SELECT AIRPORT (ICAO)

SELECT

THEN WHEN YOUR PLANE APPEARS, PRESS Y.

DONE... AND THE FLIGHT PLAN IS STILL THERE.

 

Thank you so much for your help. Definitely learnt something today.

Regards and keep up the flight plans. You have fans here in Australia that have been reading your posts ..........for years !

Mark S., Mark C, Peter, Brent and Steve.

[Ron Attwood 3,603]

That's nice. 😃