B21

I'm sure you're aware of these bugs in MSFS2024 by now, but FYI after you load a PLN via the EFB, it's still not possible to load a PLN (at least containing user waypoints) from code inside the sim. Working Title have acknowledged two bugs, no commitment or a date yet to fix them: (1) For User Waypoints the EFB code overwrites the waypoint 'ICAO' code with a new 5-character random value derived from the latitude of the waypoint. Something like "49N03". This creates duplicate replacement ICAO codes for waypoints within some distance of each other (100km?) (2) The MSFS code that actually passes the flightplan data to the html/js gauges (GET_FLIGHTPLAN) deletes waypoints it thinks are 'duplicates' in the list of waypoints, using the ICAO code as the discriminator. (1) + (2) means that User waypoints in the PLN are routinely randomly dropped from the flight plan in the internal GET_FLIGHTPLAN API. That isn't a bug you can fix in LNM but worth being aware of. Something more work-aroundable is: a minor other bug I've recently come across but likely you've already programmed for, is 94 of the MSFS airports have an '&' in the name (e.g. EGME). If the *name* of that waypoint appears unchanged in the PLN (i.e. still including the '&') it crashes bits of MSFS2024. You can escape the ampersand with "&" so the XML is ok but then *that* appears in the name in some gauges. Easiest IMHO is to replace the "&" with "and".

sure - I think from that standpoint you have no issues at all. It's inside MSFS2024 where the nav API's that used to be connected to the PLN have all been altered/removed and the EFB serves it's *routePlan* which has a slightly tenuous relationship to what was in the PLN. You could reasonably take the view that's nothing to do with LNM but it's a niche detail to be aware of. Pilots using the MSFS in-game Garmin panels and the nav in the big jets will be fine.

Hi folks - good job by @jabloomf1230 . If/when the airport reference data is obtained, there are still challenges with the PLN file itself because of Working Title's design to have the EFB App the hub-of-all-things-nav rather than API's in the sim, and the 'load PLN' functionality in the 'traditional' sense (you have a PLN file from somewhere, you want to load that) doesn't seem to have been planned AT ALL. So what we have currently is a retrofit with an extra 'Load/Save PLN' button within the EFB app in addition to the planned EFB-only 'Load Flightplan' button which works with Working Title's web app planner.flightsimulator.com and exchanges data 'internally' (I think it actually uses Xbox storage). IMHO none of this is really quite ready for go-live. This mostly impacts the gauge (or simconnect app) access to the 'flightplan' data after the 'Load PLN' is clicked as now it's the EFB app loading the flightplan, generating it's own version of a 'planned route' given that PLN and that's what gets served inside the sim where realistically only the Working Title Garmins can receive that data. So the LNM functionality should be updatable to be 'ok' feeding the EFB and thus the MSFS Garmins, although there might be a bit of trial and error comparing what you feed in vs. what the Garmins ultimately display (e.g. currently the PLN title and waypoint names are discarded). Use cases outside those Garmins are really struggling though, especially our gliding usage of PLNs for which LNM has been very helpful (thanks).

I assume this is currently a work-in-progress, although the sim comes out in a couple of weeks. A forum post from WT today suggests they're going to come out with a new PLN format so we'll have to wait and see. IMHO they'll likely have a strong focus on what they need for their EFP in-game webapp to talk to their Garmin instrument panels though, rather than finding out how LNM has been used over the centuries.

Any ideas what's going to happen with LNM for MSFS2024? Support for PLN files seems mostly 'deprecated' by Working Title in favor of their in-game 'EFB' tablet talking directly to their in-game Garmin panels. The World Map 'load PLN' option has gone. The EFB tablet is supposed to have a 'load PLN' button but this looks like it's only just been added as an afterthought (the button still shows its 'reference' title instead of the expected label text) and everything in the PLN gets thrown away except for the lat/long of each waypoint.