Below is the list of planned features (in no particular order) that are currently on the development list. Some of these have already been started and others are still in the conceptual stage. In particular a number of features have been added to the Flight Simulator SDK that should allow better real-time communication with Flightplan and in-flight loading and modification of flight plans. We want to get feedback from our users on all of these features and see if there’s anything else you’d like to see. Please comment below with anything you think we’ve missed.
Copy Waypoints From One Flight Plan to Another
Allow a selection of waypoints to be copied from the open flight plan to a second existing flight plan to be selected during the copy. Planned features would include a range selection to specifiy a number of waypoints to copy “from” (for example all waypoints on an airport approach) and the ability to select which waypoint in the “to” flight plan the new waypoints would be inserted after, similar to the existing New Point functionality. This would also make it easy to combine multiple flight plans and remove all unecessary airports (leaving just the first and last for example).
Engines/Propellers Editor
Provide a form to view, edit and save engine, hydraulics and propeller parameters. Depending on the type of aircraft, the engine settings for either a propeller engine or jet engine would be displayed along with the appropriate propeller and hydraulics parameters. It would provide the ability to view and modify the documented engine settings of any flight plan saved from Microsoft Flight Simulator and would also allow the engine/propeller to be saved independent of the aircraft. This would allow engines and/or propellers to be “swapped” in Flightplan prior to loading it in World Map. *Note: Flightplan WILL NOT be able to guarantee that a specific engine configuration will work with any given aircraft – editing and swapping engines would be provided at your own risk.
Editable Weather
Provide a form to view, edit and save weather files. Flightplan already allows for a weather file to be associated with a flight plan on the Flight Settings form. However the weather file must be created and saved in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This feature would provide a form for editing/creating the weather file directly in Flightplan as well as saving of weather files independent of the flight plan for reuse later.
Editing/Loading Flight Plans In-Flight
Currently flight plans are only read when initially loaded in World Map. Any changes to the flight plan in-flight are not reflected unless you return to World Map in Microsoft Flight Simulator and reload/restart the flight. This function would allow waypoints to be modified and/or different flight plans to be loaded in-flight and updated real-time in the simulator. *Note: this feature is based on recent MSFS SDK additions and has not been vetted by development.
Facilities Listings
Retrieve waypoint and airport facilities locations within the flight bubble and allow for display on the map. This would query MSFS for the same waypoints/airports you would normally see on a glass cockpit map display. This would also provide awareness of various approach (VOR, DME, etc) and other waypoints within 200 miles of the aircraft. *Note: this feature is based on recent MSFS SDK additions and has not been vetted by development.
Editable Payloads
Flightplan currently preserves any payload/cargo settings saved in Microsoft Flight Simulator. This feature would provide a form similar to the aircraft Fuel Tanks editor for viewing and modifying payloads preflight.
Generic Parameter Editor
In all cases, Flightplan reads and preserves all parameters saved by Microsoft Flight Simulator when the flight file (.FLT) was saved. For the ones it recognizes, it displays them and allows you to change values on various fields throughout the app. However there are often many more parameters organized into sections in the flight file created by MSFS. Some are slated to be made available for editing through Flightplan in future releases already (engine or weather parameters for example). But it will be impossible for Flightplan to recognize and display every combination of parameters for each and every aircraft, ATC setting, flight variable, etc. Given that fact, we are considering adding a generic editor to allow viewing and editing of all parameters read from the flight file that Flightplan doesn’t already recognize as a “standard” parameter (which it already handles). This would allow advanced users to add parameters and sections to the flight file beyond the ones already managed by Flightplan. Of course, this feature would be provided at your own risk since it would be possible to render a flight file completely unusable with this feature.
Check back for updates to the list and for our poll of Most Requested Features. Happy Flying!
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