To get the most out of your flight plans, you'll need to understand a few things about Microsoft Flight Simulator. Below is a overview of options and considerations for creating a flight plan.
Once you've opened MSFS you'll have a number of options at the Main Menu such as Activities, Featured Activity and the World Map. You can explore the Activities (Discovery Flights, Landing Challenges and Bush Trips) from here and in most cases your location, spawn position and flight plan (if any) will be predefined for you. With Simflightplan™ for Flight Simulator you can create your own flight plans with the same behavior, or just create a route to load in World Map.
From within MSFS World Map you can select your aircraft, flight conditions and arrival and departure airports in the top portion of the screen. You can also interact with the map to select runways or parking, or select a random spot to spawn. Once you've selected an airport or airports in the general area you wish to fly, you can save this flight plan using the MORE and LOAD/SAVE options at the lower left of the screen. This will give you a flight plan that can be reloaded to spawn at the same airport, with the same starting and ending airports each time. It may or may not include addtional waypoints (CLIMB, CRUISE, etc.) and/or IFR waypoints depending on your selections in MSFS World Map. However there is no way in World Map to edit the flight plan or provide additional information about how you wish to spawn.
If you use Simflightplan™ for Flight Simulator, you can open the MSFS flight plan and use Google Maps to add waypoints for whatever you want. You can also control your spawn position, first flight state, aircraft state and much more. Once you've created a flight plan you're happy with you can upload it to the Downloads Library to share or just to save it to download later.
Flightplan is a Google Maps flight planning add-on for use with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. Flightplan can be used to create and share your own flight plans using an interactive Google Maps drag-and-drop interface complete with terrain elevations, landmarks, streetviews, etc. Click on the interactive map to drop a pin at any location on earth, plus edit your aircraft and flight plan settings before you get in the cockpit.
Download Flightplan for Flight Simulator for free now! Google Maps API subscription is included free for 2 weeks.
Flightplan is always free to use for editing and modifying flight plans, a Google Maps API subscription is required to continue using the map features. Software updates and upgrades are free for life.
Note: Each PC can be registered to only 1 user, so please make sure you are using the same PC you run Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 on when you open Flightplan for the first time.