Callsigns and flight numbers strange behavior

[Meme35]

I just had a bug in the PMDG 737 where when loading in a flight plan, the plane froze. I believe this was the issue: https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/pmdg-737-for-msfs/general-discussion-no-support/330074-reproducible-737-cockpit-froze-after-importing-from-simbrief.

I had the same issue as them where my airline code was the two letter IATA code, it was like this becuase I used a VA to generate the flight plan, so didn’t input the data myself. I asked the VA itself about why this was the case and they said that if they use the ICAO code the flight numbers appear as ICAO code+flight number (eg. RYR1001 instead of FR1001), which you would never see used anywhere and this strange mix of codes would appear on their records. This issue isn’t very significant out of Europe where flight number is usually the same as the number in the callsign but in Europe, it is rare to see a flight with the same flight number and callsign, for the example above, the callsign is RYR38EL, so by having the flight number also have an RYR code, it could lead to some confusion over which is the callsign and which is the flight number

An easy solution to this would be to stop appending the ICAO airline code to the front of the flight number. I noticed on the flightplans, the correct flight number with IATA code is displayed but just below it, is the strange ICAO + flight number mix and below that is the correct callsign, so you can find the IATA code from the ICAO code provided and that should be used everywhere and not just at the top of the flight plan. In my example below, the code highlighted in green at the top should also be the same as the code highlighted in orange and the callsign at the very bottom is correct.

It should be like this but the PMDG 737 sometimes will break becuase I put a two letter identifier in where it expects a 3 letter.

This feels like a very long winded and niche issue but it could just help remove some confusion with callsigns and flight numbers and make flight numbers work properly.
Thanks for any help you can give

[Meme35]

To clarify, I’m not blaming the bug on you or your systems, you can’t control which data PMDG decide to use. I was trying to figure out the cause of the bug and came across this strange behavior while doing so

[SimBrief]

Hi,

SimBrief doesn’t merge the airline code and flight number in the raw OFP data that most add-ons use. For example, the data from your latest flight is coded as follows:

So really it’s up to the individual integrators to handle this. Your VA may choose to enter the IATA airline instead of the ICAO airline, and they are free to do so, but technically SimBrief expects the ICAO code to be entered under the airline option. Normally it shouldn’t cause any issues either way, but if this is causing crashes in PMDG I’m sure it will be fairly easy for them to fix.

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@Meme35

I noticed on the flightplans, the correct flight number with IATA code is displayed but just below it, is the strange ICAO + flight number mix and below that is the correct callsign, so you can find the IATA code from the ICAO code provided and that should be used everywhere and not just at the top of the flight plan. In my example below, the code highlighted in green at the top should also be the same as the code highlighted in orange and the callsign at the very bottom is correct.

This isn’t necessarily incorrect, each airline handles this differently on their own OFP layouts. Different airlines may display the flight number in the top left using either IATA or ICAO codes. We have seen real OFPs using both approaches.

Accordingly, the default “LIDO” layout will show the ICAO flight number in this space. However, if you choose the “RYR” layout for example, the IATA flight number (FR....) will appear in the top left instead. Even if you enter RYR in the flight options.

Best regards,