Loading a flight plan

[Greyheart]

Hi, I've just purchased FSUIPC7 and I am trying to use the load flight plan function but it doesn't appear to be loading the plan into my plane.

I was advised by another user that I can do that while I am in my plane, which happens to be a Cessna 172 G1000 in this instance. 

Thanks in advance.

[John Dowson]

From the MSFS SimConnect SDK documentation:

(see https://docs.flightsimulator.com/html/index.htm?#t=Programming_Tools%2FSimConnect%2FSimConnect_API_Reference.htm&rhsearch=file persistent storage)

So flight plan load/save functions in the SimConnect SDK (which is what FUIPC uses to communicate to the sim) are not currently working. This needs to be fixed by Asobo. In the mean-time, you should use the MSFS facilities directly for loading/saving flight plans.

John

[Greyheart]

That's a shame but thanks for letting me know. Hopefully it'll be fixed / implemented at some point in the near future.

[n0taurius]

Hello John,

I, unfortunately, was the person who informed Greyheart that loading flight plans via FSUIPC7 worked. And if the above is the "official" response, I understand.

However, in actual practice I have MSFS 2020 - latest version; LittleNavMap - latest version; and FSUIPC7 - version 7.2.1 (from June I think). My workflow is simple: I plan the flight in LittleNavMap and under the File Menu I choose Export as MSFS 2020 .PLN. In MSFS 2020 I spawn to the departure airstrip and then using the "Load flight plan" feature in FSUIPC7's File Menu, I load the aforementioned saved flight plan.

I have yet to have it fail to load. What I really like is having the ability to over-write flight plans while in-Sim.

FYI, I just tried it before writing this and it worked flawlessly.

Just my observations from a current User.

Brent

Edited September 9, 2021 by n0taurius

[John Dowson]

14 hours ago, n0taurius said:

However, in actual practice I have MSFS 2020 - latest version; LittleNavMap - latest version; and FSUIPC7 - version 7.2.1 (from June I think). My workflow is simple: I plan the flight in LittleNavMap and under the File Menu I choose Export as MSFS 2020 .PLN. In MSFS 2020 I spawn to the departure airstrip and then using the "Load flight plan" feature in FSUIPC7's File Menu, I load the aforementioned saved flight plan.

I have yet to have it fail to load. What I really like is having the ability to over-write flight plans while in-Sim.

FYI, I just tried it before writing this and it worked flawlessly.

Just my observations from a current User.

Ok, that's interesting. Maybe it works with flight plans exported from LittleNavMap then, but has issues with plans generated by MSFS?

@GreyheartAre you generating your flight plans within  MSFS, LittleNavMap or something else? Have you tried loading a flight plan generated from LittleNavMap?

FSUIPC7 just uses the SimConnect API function to load the flight plan. If its not working, as the OP's post suggests, then its not really worth me looking into this in FSUIPC7 at the moment as  the API function is not documented as Working.

Cheers,

John 

[n0taurius]

Hello John,

According to a post in Discord, @Greyheartfollowed the same steps as I explained in my response above but the flight plan generated in LittleNavMap failed to load. I cannot account for why it works for me. (Maybe I have a rogue SimConnect version). I'm not savvy enough to determine the 'Why'. I wish I were because it is such a great feature to have working. Having said that, I am not in any hurry to update to the latest version of FSUIPC7 in case there is an issue there! 🙂

Brent

[John Dowson]

10 minutes ago, n0taurius said:

Having said that, I am not in any hurry to update to the latest version of FSUIPC7 in case there is an issue there!

Could you please try this - download and install the latest version, v7.2.9 (just released). Save a copy of your current v7.2.1 FSUIPC7.exe (make a copy somewhere) just in case.
Nothing has changed in this area since the version you are using, but if its working for you in that version and not in the latest, I will look into it.
 

John

[Greyheart]

10 minutes ago, John Dowson said:

Could you please try this - download and install the latest version, v7.2.9 (just released). Save a copy of your current v7.2.1 FSUIPC7.exe (make a copy somewhere) just in case.
Nothing has changed in this area since the version you are using, but if its working for you in that version and not in the latest, I will look into it.
 

John

Thanks both, assume that was for n0taurius? 🙂 

I am using 7.2.8 so I will try updating as well.

Edited September 10, 2021 by Greyheart

[John Dowson]

2 minutes ago, Greyheart said:

will give that a try shortly and will let you know

Oh - and save (make a copy) of the FSUIPC WASM installed in the Community folder, if using that, as the latest version will not be compatible with your v7.2.1 (in case you want to roll back).[sorry, for @n0taurius who is using v7.2.1]

Edited September 10, 2021 by John Dowson
clarified

[n0taurius]

Well John,

I didn't see your last message about making a copy of the WASM in the Community folder until well after the fact. However, happily or unhappily (depending on which side you are standing) v.7.2.9 has no effect on my ability to load flight plans via FSUIPC7. Everything works as intended and I am able to load flight plans while in-Sim with no issues.

I sure wish I knew why it works for me so I could share.

 

Brent

[John Dowson]

Just now, n0taurius said:

I sure wish I knew why it works for me so I could share.

Yes, its strange that it is working for some and not others. I think it must be to do with the plan, aircraft or AP system used. But I'm glad its working for you at least. I'll take a look at this in more detail when I get time (hopefully this weekend), to see if and what flight plans I can load via FSUIPC7.

Cheers,

John

[n0taurius]

I think we can rule out the plan or aircraft as I used the exact model aircraft @Greyheartused and we both used a plan generated in and exported from LittleNavMap. The only difference was the loading via FSUIPC7 worked for me.

But thanks for looking into this because if you could get this sorted, you would make a lot of users very happy.

 

Cheers

Brent

[Greyheart]

@John Dowson I don't know if this is useful or not but here's a snip of conversation from discord outlining in a bit more detail the process @n0taurius and I are using.

Quote

MSFS was started and I was parked up in the Cessna at the departure airport (with no flight plan loaded from world). FSUIPC7 was already pre-loaded from starting MSFS. I created and exported the flight plan from Little Navmap using the "Export Flight Plan as a MSFS 2020 PLN" option. I selected File -> Load Plan from FSUIPC7, browsed to and highlighted the exported flight plan and hit Open. The browse window closed but there was no confirmation, etc, which I guess is to be expected. I checked for a flight plan in my plane using the FPL button on my right hand screen and it was empty of a plan.

Like @n0taurius I have a pretty straight forward implementation although I do have two addons installed, which @n0taurius may not have. They are the Cessna 172 G1000 NXi mod and LRM. I'll remove both later this afternoon to see if it makes any difference and will confirm back here.

Again many thanks to you both for taking the time out to take a look.

[n0taurius]

@John Dowson and @Greyheart,

I don't have the mods @Greyheartmentioned. However, and I don't know if this would impact (permissions maybe?), but I have the MSFS Packages folder, which normally resides in the C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Packages when MSFS 2020 is initially installed, moved to a custom folder in the root of C:\ to avoid potential security permission issues when interacting with third-party apps and the Community Folder. It was recommended & I followed this youtube video 

as a guide.

Like I said, I don't know if this would have any impact, but only mention it as a change to a typical install.

[Greyheart]

Thanks @n0taurius, I will give that a watch and try out.

From my end I removed the two mods / addons. I also found a simconnect install from early August, which I have also removed. 

The results are definitely a step forward as I can now load a direct (two entry) flight plan into my plane but it won't accept any updates after that, even if it is just a change to the destination. I've also tried loading a slightly more complex plan with one WP and that loaded OK as well. So the initial flight plan load looks like it is now working but I need to dig deeper into why changes aren't working. 

I will also load NXi back in to see if it was that or the simconnect (expect the latter).

[Greyheart]

I spoke too soon, looks like it is NXi that is not playing nicely. I'll post on their discord to see if they can provide some insight.

I still need to look into why it won't update via FSUIPC, which may take a while and a possible install.

Before I do, please could you ( @n0taurius ) confirm you can update the plan OK to overwrite an existing plan, so an initial load and then update both using FSUIPC, thanks?

[Greyheart]

Here is the response from the NXi team and it's not good unfortunately, which is a shame as the NXi mod is very useful.

Quote

We only sync from the sim's flight plan on flight load, so if a plan is loaded after that, it won't ever make it into the nxi

I did ask if they would consider it and he did give a bit of hope but doesn't sound like anything soon, so I guess I will have to do without the NXi mod until that time as the capability for me to load flight plans trumps the NXi mod, at least for me.

Quote

We do want the nxi to eventually be more "integrated" with the sim's built-in flight plan system, but we can't say when any changes will happen on that front.

 

[John Dowson]

Ok, so this sounds like it was a mod interfering with the plan loading, no? Not sure how (or why) mods can do this...

Maybe @n0taurius can upload/attach a valid flight plan (i.e. one that works for you) and @Greyheart can upload one that fails, and you can try each others (with and without mods) to confirm it is actually the mod causing this issue? I will also try both, and look into that mod (which I don't have or know much about!).

John

 

[Greyheart]

16 minutes ago, John Dowson said:

Ok, so this sounds like it was a mod interfering with the plan loading, no? Not sure how (or why) mods can do this...

Maybe @n0taurius can upload/attach a valid flight plan (i.e. one that works for you) and @Greyheart can upload one that fails, and you can try each others (with and without mods) to confirm it is actually the mod causing this issue? I will also try both, and look into that mod (which I don't have or know much about!).

John

 

From one of the recent comments. the NXi mod authors (Working Title Simulation) are a Microsoft contracted team hired to recreate the full Cessna Garmin instrument so yeah it was the last thing I expected given how close they are to the MSFS project.

Quote

MS hired us, and this single instrument alone will be easily 6 person years of work or more

I am doing a bit more experimenting, which may take a while but once I've finished (probably tomorrow now) I'll upload a plan that fails.

[n0taurius]

I can't do any more today, but I will do some experimenting and upload results tomorrow.

 

Brent

[Greyheart]

I've emptied my community folder and I only have LNM, FSUIPC and MSFS running.

I've carried out 4 tests: -

Note - all flight plans [fp] are exports from LNM and all imports are through FSUIPC, with one exception, which is test 4 - that was through the world map import function

1. imported a 2 point fp [ksez-kprc], correctly appears in the instrument view

2. imported a 3 point fp [ksez-juwso-kprc] over the top of 1 and it didn't update the existing fp in the instrument view

3. imported a 3 point fp [ksez-juwso-kprc], all OK except juwso is showing as a blank space in the instrument view (see attached picture)

4. imported the same 3 point fp [ksez-juwso-kprc] through the world map view and all 3 points are present in the instrument view (see attached picture)

I've uploaded screenshots for 3 and 4 along with the 3 point fp.

@n0taurius if you get chance please could you try the same to see if you get different results and perhaps attach a 3 or more fp that you have created and I'll try that?

IFR Sedona (KSEZ) to Ernest A Love Field (KPRC).pln

[Greyheart]

1 minute ago, n0taurius said:

I can't do any more today, but I will do some experimenting and upload results tomorrow.

 

Brent

Great, thanks - and no hurry 🙂

[John Dowson]

Also, please note, that FSUIPC does nothing with flight plans except instruct/ask MSFS to load them, via the simconnect API call that (I already mentioned) is documented as not (or only partially) working. This means that there is nothing I can possibly do in FSUIPC to improve this at the moment, except maybe to update the documentation on what is and what is not working. However, when this depends on other mods installed, it becomes even more difficult for me to do this, but I can mention mods that are known to cause issues, if this is actually the problem/difference between your two set-ups.

John

[n0taurius]

@John Dowson Understood. Thanks for for this. Hopefully with some testing we can arrive at an understanding of what works and what conflicts.

 

Cheers

Brent

[n0taurius]

Good day All,

I’ve been mucking about with this for sometime this morning. All I can say is this is not as straightforward as I thought it might be. My findings so far can be best described in two words – “Results Vary” 😊

Using the flight plan generated by @Greyheart, I get very different results depending on the GPS unit it is loaded into. For preliminary tests I used both default Cessna 172’s. One with the G1000 and the other has the GNS 530. Since MSFS 2020 SU5, loading a direct flight from the World Map will result in two extra waypoints added (they appear to be some type of departure and arrival reference points). In the 172 with the G1000 they are not named in the flight plan but are represented by an indirect route graphically (in this case a curved flight path upon departure from KSEZ and an initial DTK of 214°.  Then loading overtop using FSUIPC7 you will notice the DTK of 245° (the correct angle) to the waypoint JUWSO. However, the graphical display does not change.

Using the non-G1000 172 has more dramatic and easily seen results using the same steps as above because the waypoints added by MSFS 2020 are named and are erased when the flight plan is reloaded via FSUIPC7,

I don’t normally fly the models with the glass cockpit so my statement that FSUIPC7 overwrites the flight plan needs to be qualified as described above. A newly generated flight plan will not overwrite an existing flight plan.

Having said that, spawning to an airport and loading a flight plan via FSUIPC7, I find, does work. When I loaded the flight plan @Greyheart generated into the G1000 model the waypoint JUWSO did show in the FPL screen so I don’t know why it didn’t when @Greyheart loaded it.

@John Dowson, I don’t think there’s much you can do at this point as I see this as not being a FSUIPC7 issue, and I’m sure all will change again when SU6 is distributed.

I will continue to experiment and once I have something definitive and consistently replicable, I will revisit this post.