Really good explanation. Thanks Toby!

Update: Lots of changes under the hood to ensure accuracy, speed, reliability and ease of use, plus a new logo and a fresh coat of paint.
* Owned airports highlighted in green on Flight Dispatch Details, so you can see if you need to activate the scenery in your Addon Manager.
* Custom airports or airframes can now be individually removed, if you make a mistake or want to remove an entry.
* Your Last flight is saved to memory, so it you forget to save it to your logbook, you now have the option to save it before your next flight.
* Light Mode / Dark Mode / Greyscale Mode.
* Collapsible User Preferences Menu to keep things simple.

I hope that you are enjoying using VECTOR,
Toby

Vector Flight Dispatch - Glider update (v1.0.82)



Glider support is now live.

972 additional MSFS 2024 Detailed Small Airports and Glider fields have been added to the database (346 glider strips, plus 626 suitable small GA fields), bringing the searchable total to about 1,850 airports alongside the existing main set.

Six glider/motor-glider types are supported (Asobo DG-1001E, LS8-18, Stemme S12G, Pipistrel Taurus M, Got Friends AS 33 Me & Discus-2c), with six new Gliding missions - local soaring, cross-country tasks, instruction, ferry, and practice tasks. Routes are capped at max. 50 nm cross-country, with local flights when nothing suitable is in range.

Feedback always welcome - especially on routing and mission wording.

Thanks to JohnnyT5000 for the MSFS 2024 Detailed Small Airports database that this builds on.

Vector Flight Dispatch — Long Haul Update (v.1.1.58)

Long haul dispatch is now available!

• Routing Options: Select if you want to fly to/from, or only in, the Americas, Europe & Rest of the World or Worldwide.

• ⏳ Enable Long haul flights: Extends the flight-time slider up to 19 hours. Routes are matched to your target block time within about ±30 minutes.

• Long haul missions: A dedicated mission pool for extended sectors, including Intercontinental airline, freight, executive, and military cargo missions.

  Database Update:

• UK2000 MSFS 2024 products added (37 airports)

• Contrail - Dassault Falcon 50 added

• Just Flight - F70 and F100 added

• Stratoware x Miltech Simulations - MBB Bo 105 added

Refresh the page Ctrl+F5 to load the latest files.

Feedback welcome! Enjoy those long haul sectors!

Edited June 23Jun 23 by toby23

I'm sure that I'm just missing something stupid on my end...but every time I try to generate a route with a biz jet, regardless of parameters I've set, I'm getting "No valid missions found for this routing"

Edited June 24Jun 24 by FakeWayne

23 minutes ago, FakeWayne said:

I'm sure that I'm just missing something stupid on my end...but every time I try to generate a route with a biz jet, regardless of parameters I've set, I'm getting "No valid missions found for this routing"

Hi Wayne, sorry about that. Sometimes the files get stuck validating on Github. I've just checked and it is working, so could you please try CTRL+F5 to refresh the page? You should see App version 1.1.65 at the bottom of the Settings page.

Edited June 24Jun 24 by toby23

2 minutes ago, toby23 said:

Hi Wayne, sorry about that. Could you try CTRL+F5 to refresh the page? You should see App version 1.1.64 at the bottom of the Settings page.

That did the trick. Thanks!

VECTOR v2.2

I’ve uploaded a major rewrite of the dispatch engine. If you’ve been using VECTOR for a while, the UI should still feel familiar but how missions get picked, weighted, and matched to aircraft is almost entirely new.

What changed:

• Each aircraft type now has explicit mission pools. This speeds everything up and ensures you will always get a suitable mission for your selected aircraft.

• Add Custom aircraft has been simplified. Mission roles now drive what you missions can fly.

• Cache handling improved so you shouldn’t need Ctrl+F5 every update.

What didn’t change:
You still pick an aircraft and hit dispatch. No account, no subscription.

Thanks for flying VECTOR.

Edited Saturday at 04:15 PM3 days by toby23

Out of interest what reference and factors are used to assess the Take off distance required? I looked at routes within an hour of EGFF (Cardiff) in the iFly738-8200 and it came up with insufficient take off distance. It seems fine using the Simbrief Take off performance tool.

Loving this tool and thanks so much for creating and continually improving it.
Any luck on the job front?

Edited Saturday at 10:14 PM2 days by cowpatz

Thanks for the kind words, really glad you’re enjoying VECTOR.

I have updated the code and below is a quick clarification on what you’re seeing now versus before:

Previously: routes like EGFF in the iFly 737 could hit a hard block: “The runway is too short for your currently selected aircraft…”  and dispatch would stop.

Now: if the route is workable at a reduced takeoff weight, you will get an information popup instead. It can look like an error because it’s an alert box, but it isn’t: “Takeoff weight reduced for runway length at EGFF / EGYD. Payload limited; plan fuel normally.”

VECTOR has noted that the shorter runway is below the type’s MTOW takeoff distance in the fleet data (737 MAX 8: 8,300 ft vs EGFF 7,717 ft), so payload is capped accordingly. 

Data VECTOR uses: fleet MTOW, OEW, and min runway at MTOW; airport runway length; plus a planning allowance for trip + taxi + ~30 min reserve. It is not a full Boeing ACG / flex / wind / slope calculation, which is why SimBrief’s T/O performance tool can look more optimistic, and that’s expected.

If you still get the old “runway too short” message with no dispatch, tell me your VECTOR version and the exact dep/arr and I will take a look, you should be seeing v=2.2.3 in the url line at the top of the browser, or App version 2.2.3 at the bottom of the Settings page. CTRL+F5 will always force a refresh of the page but should not be required.

Thanks again for testing and for the feedback.

Things are looking good on the job front, thank you, so I’m very happy to have put the finishing touches to Vector today, only small updates, like for EGFF, required from now on.

Edited Sunday at 01:11 AM2 days by toby23

Thanks for the comprehensive reply. The pop up seems to be a great solution. Using MTOW for all airfields would be quite limiting without it.

Great news about the job prospects. Best of luck.

Edited Sunday at 03:53 AM2 days by cowpatz

3 hours ago, cowpatz said:

The pop up seems to be a great solution.

Worth clarifying: the fix isn’t the message itself, it’s the new runway/weight logic behind it.

Previously, VECTOR treated the aircraft’s MTOW takeoff distance as a hard limit at every airfield, so some realistic departures (like EGFF in a 737) were blocked. Now it works more like a real-world dispatcher: route fuel is reserved first (trip, taxi, and a planning reserve), then payload is reduced until takeoff weight fits the available runway, only then is the flight dispatched.

The popup is just a NOTAM telling you that happened. SimBrief remains where you file proper fuel and takeoff performance.

Edited Sunday at 07:40 AM2 days by toby23

A question..

If I select callsign , aircraft type= inibuilds A350 and departure airport = lebl then check the enable long haul flights, the slider for selecting the block time disappears. Is it possible to select a user-specified block time for flights >2 hrs for long haul flights?

Thx!

1 hour ago, 787flyer said:

Is it possible to select a user-specified block time for flights >2 hrs for long haul flights?

I looked at a user-adjustable long-haul block time, but couldn’t get it to behave reliably with routing, fuel, payload, and SimBrief, so I'm not adding that for now. I invested a lot of time at the weekend into finding a good approach for long-haul, and am experimenting with some options, which I will add it if I can get it working reliably.

Hope that helps.

Edited yesterday at 07:07 AM1 day by toby23

VECTOR update - long-haul mode removed

A quick heads-up for anyone using VECTOR for long-haul sectors.

Long-haul mode has been removed from the latest build, updating later today. The “Enable long-haul flights” option is gone; VECTOR now focuses on short-haul dispatch (40–120 minutes).

Why: VECTOR was built to generate flights to and from the MSFS 2024 payware airports that I own in one click, something I couldn’t find elsewhere. It grew into a broader tool (curated Asobo + third-party airport DB, 100+ aircraft, 250 missions, military missions/airports, gliding missions and gliderports, custom airports/aircraft, editable logbook, and a lot of community-driven ideas). I’m grateful for all of your feedback.

VECTOR was always meant to complement SimBrief, not replace it. Long-haul planning needs depth and accuracy that dedicated tools handle better, e.g. APLv2 for long sectors. VECTOR fits short-haul flying without time compression; for oceanic and ultra-long work, those alternatives are the better path.

Thanks for flying with VECTOR and for your support.

Toby

Edited yesterday at 12:47 PM1 day by toby23