dontsink

I think the Boeing 247 (by Wing42?) on MSFS may use it.

Well, it works. I am able to copy FSX NVX......bgl files into an addon package folder, then hand-build my layout.son file and my manifest.json file to specify the overlaying files. I then place this package into the Community folder. I bring up MSFS, and sure enough, it recognizes this as a new addon. If I go to the World Map, I can find all of the "old" navaids that did not exist in the NavBlu world for the grid-square that the FSX folders cover. There are caveats: Any Navaids that were covered by the NavBlue file that were not in FSX for that grid square are now invisible. The other caveat is that it does not work without temporarily removing Navigraph. I will look for a way around this next. Bad_T accomplished it at the SDK level with his Content.xml file. The results will vary depending on the region that you want to restore 2006 navaids. If you want older NDB's, you will get plenty. For example, for the U.S, NavBlue-2304 has 864, Navigraph-2305 has 507, while FSX has 1696. For Southern Europe, NavBlue has 566 NDBs, Navigraph has 470 NDB's and FSX has 848. Most regions will gain many more NDBs than exist today. In terms of VORs, for the U.S. NavBlu has 1032, Navigraph 1036, and FSX has 1086. For Europe, FSX has approx 15% LESS VOR's, however FSX recovers many VOR's that no longer exist. For Australia FSX recovers approx 50% more than the present VOR complement. For China, Russia, the Far East, and Africa, FSX lacks considerably compared with the newer databases. If anyone is interested in pursuing this, or in seeing more detailed data, please let me know. For now, I will be making use of the FSX navaids whenever I encounter an old flight plan which leaves too many VOR/NDB gaps to execute without GPS. I will first check whether the FSX files will solve the problem. If so, I will package up the applicable file(s) and create a temporary addon package for the Community folder.

The Sim's World Map shows it as an NDB symbol, and when you click on it, it shows it as a DME with the DME frequency displayed (not the NDB frequency). Maybe LittleNav Map does a match between the Call-Signs to infer it, or maybe, a match between lat/long. Either way, as long as my overlay presents the same format and the same flags to the map application as NavBlue/Navigraph does, there should be no problem. In the case of HLE, the FSX database also shows the VOR-component as a DME-Only. So an overlaid file should not change the behaviour for HLE. I would guess that in many cases, I will be reverting NDB-DMEs back to VOR-DME. In this case the Sim should then behave accordingly.

Wow, thank you so much for the very detailed response and the contribution of an example. You must have spent a bit of time on it. The SDK apparently created a mini version of the NVX06020.bgl file but containing only one VOR record. Apparently, the SDK created FRZ as a DME-Only station where FSX shows it as a VOR-DME. Did you do something explicitly to cause it to be a DME-only? Interestingly, FSX shows a slightly different latitude/longitude... I assume yours is from some website showing this navaid? Of course, the elevation is different..... as is the range and magnetic deviation. I suppose all this would need to be transferred from the actual FSX record. I have never used the SDK, nor have I had the time to come up on its learning curve. Your post gives me a great head-start. This looks like a sure alternative to the .bgl overlay approach should it not work . To create an addon this way for a large number of Navaids looks like it would take a lot of work, or a bit of Python to automate the building of the xml files. Alternatively, the FSX .bgl files already contain all of the details on each Navaid so it would only be a matter of hand-creating the support .json files by hand. (I think...... (I hope.....)). At any rate, I will try to do the hand-built addon later today if I get the time. Thanks again for your effort and your help.

Sorry for the delayed response. Yes, thank you for the example of an NDB-DME. Apparently, the sim supports it as follows (apparently NOT with a specific flag in the databse): The HLE DME-component shows up as a VOR record but with a flag that classifies it as DME-Only. There is no explicit linkage to an NDB record. The NDB component shows up as an NDB record in the same file. However, again, there is no explicit linkage to a DME. The only way to infer that it is an NDB-DME is via a match between the ICAO Call-sign/ICAO-Region pair. Apparently, the SIM (Nor does my software output) do this. The MSFS World Map shows HLE as a DME-only. If you click on the navaid, it does not refer to the NDB component. The FSX database records contain the exact same support for this as MSFS and Navigraph. Thanks again.

Very interesting. Being new to the sim myself, I have no idea how you added the FRZ VOR to the Sim. Please show us. Actually, the NVX.....bgl files which contain the VOR's and NDB's have not changed in format since FSX. The only thing I'm not sure of is whether NDB-DME's have been supported of late. I wasn't aware of any way to do this other than to create an occluding NVX...bgl file as a Community addon. Thank you!

Regarding the airplanes I mentioned above, the X Plane 474-200 (by Felis) is equipped with the Delco Carousel INS which is what I use when crossing the pond,, otherwise radio navigation. The FXS Capt Sim 707 uses Doppler Radar Nav for trans-ocean while using VOR/ADF over land. The FSX Captain Sim 727-200 is optioned with Delco INS (I believe that non-US models were equipped with this), and of course VOR/ADF . The X-Plane DC3 (by Johan Nan Wyk) is modeled with VOR/ADF radios. (Found this great article: https://www.dc3airways.net/tech_editor/files/te_nav_lr_nav.pdf on navigating without modern nav aids.) Finally, the FSX A2A Constellation is modelled with VOR/ADF only. I plan on building my single VOR overlay package later today. Will let you know how it works out. Regarding conflicts or repeated nav-aids with respect to the original .bgl file, I suppose that the .bgl file in the addon package will completely occlude any information in the corresponding original file. Therefore, repeated nav aids should not be an issue. The only problem will be in the case where the original MSFS file contains nav aids that are not in the FSX file. In this case, I will need to modify the FSX file to add the missing nav aids. The probability of this happening is greater when adding missing VORs in areas such as Southern Europe, Eurasia/Russia, South America, the Pacific Rim, and particularly, China. In these areas, the FSX database contains far fewer VORs compared with the modern Databases. However, there are cases in these areas where some VORs in FSX are nevertheless gone in the modern files. This should not be an issue in places like the US and Canada where the number of FSX VORs far exceeds the modern inventory. For NDB's this should not be an issue at all since the FSX database from 2006 contains far more numerous NDB's compared with the modern equivalent.

Hello to all. New to this forum and to FS2020. I have been a user of MS Flight simulator (FSnnnn) since the beginning, and a user of X-Plane as well for several years now. After having used FS2020 for a brief time, (along with the excellent Flysimware Cessna 414), I have decided that it must become my preferred sim for most flying. However, I have developed a concern regarding the unavailability of many radio navaids that exist in the older sims, presumably due to de-commissioning and the fact that MSFS uses dynamic updating to the latest AIRAC cycles. I now have 3 sims on my computer: FSX, X-Plane, and MSFS. One of the things I have enjoyed the most over the years is learning and flying historic airliners. On FSX, I fly the Captain Sim 707 and 727, as well as the A2A constellation. On X-plane, I fly the 747-200, 737-200, and an excellent freeware DC-3. For FS2020, my sites are therefore set on the PMDG DC-6, and the Boeing 247d by wing42. But I do not wish to be forced to fly these airplanes with GPS. I want to fly them as they were flown in their day. (And as I learned to fly in the 60's). It appears that in many cases, due to the depletion of radio navaids, for many routes, it will be impossible to navigate using VOR or NDB without filling gaps using GPS. I do not have this problem with FSX, as the Nav database goes back to 2006. Nor with X-Plane, as the Nav database is comprised of text-files which can easily be edited to add any needed nav aids. I decided to make an attempt to alleviate this problem for my own use of FS2020. First I decided to do an analysis of the three databases: MSFS/NavBlue Airac 2304 (latest on my machine), Navigraph AIRAC 2305-R1 (for MSFS) and FSX (files dated 2006). I excluded X plane because of the much different file format. To this end, I wrote software which extracts the appropriate .bgl files and analyzes them in terms of VOR, NDB, and ILS counts, and then computes a tally for each bgl file, each ICAO region and each ICAO country code while comparing the 3 databases. The results were rather surprising (to me). I believe my plan will work after seeing the resultls. If there is interest by anyone in continuing this thread, I will be happy to post my findings in more detail in a subsequent post. My end goal is to determine whether I can borrow NVXnnn.bgl files from FSX to package-up as overlays in the Community folder to fill gaps when I need particular VORs or NDBs to achieve a flight plan without using RNAV. I do not wish to mess with airport files or ILS's. Presumably, these are not suffering from de-commissioning attrition. My next step is to take an old flight plan, specifically Sion to Florence which I cannot use in FS2020 because of the missing FRZ VOR. And to then create an overlay package by hand (addon) to place in the community folder to overlay the newer NVXnnn.bgl file in the sim's database with the corresponding one from FSX. I will determine the feasibility of doing this. If anyone has any input on this, please, would love to read here. One thing I did find, is that the current (according to Wiki on fsdeveloper.com site) .bgl format does not support NDB-DME. I have read that many VOR-DME are being converted to NDB-DME. If my information is incomplete, and the file format does indeed support this, please let me know. Your thoughts and/or criticism are welcome. I should probably post this on the flightsimulator.com forum as well?

Thank you. I did know what the levers and buttons were for. I did not realize that switches 14 and 15 actually allow the levers to be moved or not. Does your statement about assigning to an axis mean that the levers are never mouse-selectable? What about the starter buttons? The Cera Sim User Guide describes the names of the many switches but does not say anything about the functionality of the non-obvious ones. I did find an actual flight manual on line today. Unfortunately, it too says nothing about manual vs automatic engine starting. I was very happy to get a quick response to this question from Cera's Support people within hours of my submitting it. Thank you to Cera Sim.

Apparently, this is the first AS365 post on the FXS forum. I feel like I'm in a vast minority of people that have purchased this helicopter for FXS. I just installed the aircraft and find that the manual fuel control levers, their associated manual starter buttons and governor warning lights appear to be not modeled. The strange thing is that I see youtube videos (probably made under P3D) where these elements are clickable and can be manipulated via the mouse. When I pass my mouse over these levers, nothing happens, as if they are not modeled. Has anyone else used this heli under FSX? I have presented this question to Cera Sim support.... not yet answered.... Thank you