Custom Airports in MSFS 2024 have issues with RNAV approaches

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1

I’m not sure where this belongs, so I’ll start here. I use Orbx KHVN airport (made for MSFS 2020) in MSFS 2024. The RNAV20 approach does not work in my Citation X jet. The waypoints appear in the flight plan, but are not displayed in the PFD.

If I remove Orbx KHVN, and simply use the Asobo KHVN, then all works correctly and the Citation X jet follows the RNAV20 approach all the way to landing.

In researching this issue, I found this post in the Orbx forum for the exact same issue, but at a different airport. The ‘solution’ was to modify the manifest.json files. Now, the Orbx KHVN works correctly in my Citation X jet.

Here is a partial copy of the post/solution:

"with the default settings, most if not all custom airports will have a higher priority in MSFS2024 than the Navigraph data.

This appears to mean that you will see the Navigation procedures data provided by the scenery rather than those provided by Navigraph (which seems to me to take away part of the point of Navigraph!).

I was therefore interested to find out from any Navigraph users out there what you have been doing about this situation.

I managed to find a bit of correspondence from early 2025 suggesting using the package re-order tool but that was all.

There’s probably a lot that I failed to find.

My ‘unofficial’ solution is to change the package_order_hint entries in the manifest.json files from NAVDATA to POI.

This gives the Navigraph data a much higher priority.

As far as I can tell it works but have only just tried it.

So for ‘navigraph-nav-base’ I now have

“package_order_hint”: “CUSTOM_POI”,

and for ‘navigraph-nav-jepp’ I now have

“package_order_hint”: “CUSTOM_POI_PATCH”,"

If interested, here is the link to the original post: https://forum.orbxdirect.com/topic/227328-a-question-about-using-navigraph-data-in-msfs2024/

My question, is this a known issue using Navigraph, and is there another official solution?

If not, can some sort of setting be added to Navigraph, which adds the manifest.json modification shown above?

That way, I do not have to manually edit them every time a new Navigraph airac file is installed.

2

Hi,
Thank you for your posting and for sharing your thoughts.

What you describe is a typical 3rd-party scenery issue and has nothing to do with our data. I will try to explain it without making it too technical.

With MSFS2024 SU3, MS/ASOBO has changed how and in what order 3rd-party packages are loaded. To this end, they have introduced a new setting for 3rd-party developers called “PackageOrderHint”.

Here the original text from the official SDK:
This is used to give the package order hint, which the VFS uses to place the package in the correct place in the load order.

According to the SDK for navdata updates, you should use:

  • CUSTOM_NAVDATA (These are 3rd party packages that replace all the navigation data for the world)
  • and/or CUSTOM_NAVDATA_PATCH (These are 3rd party packages that override navigation data from CUSTOM_NAVDATA packages)

CUSTOM_POI or CUSTOM_POI_PATCH are for POI elements/objects and not for navdata.

We use the navdata package order hint for our data, as specified by the SDK.

So, what does this mean for 3rd-party scenaries now? That also means 3rd-party scenery needs this package order hint, so the sim knows how to load them in the correct order. When this PackageOrderHint is missing, the sim loads such packages at the end.

You wrote that it is an MSFS2020 scenery. I would expect that this scenery does not have this PackageOrderHint because this information does not exist in MSFS2020, which results in such behavior. The package will be loaded at the end, and therefore, you “overrule” our navdata package.

Since SU3, it is important that this PackageOrderHint is set correctly in all 3rd-party packages, not limited to sceneries.

It is not what we have in our hands. We follow the rules exactly from the MSFS2024 SDK, and we set this flag correctly (therefore, it works without 3rd-party scenery because our package “overrides” the stock scenery navdata information).

In other words, the solution is to go back to Orbx and tell them they must add this PackageOrderHint per the MSFS2024 SDK. We may, and we can´t do this; this is clearly a fully reproducible issue on the 3rd-party scenery. There are tons of such reports here on our forum, and the solution has always been an incompatible 3rd-party package.

This FAQ is from September 2025, where we offer a step-by-step instruction on how you can solve such issues on your own. Again, it is not navdata related - it´s a ddesit’s issue in the 3rd party packages.

Hope that helps,
Richard

PS: as a fast test - let the 3rd party scenery installed - go into the library and turn both our navdata packages on/off - after that, look if the procedures are visible/selectable or not … normally, you should see all procedures as with the stock-scenery because you force the sim to load our packages first.

3

Thank you. I do understand your position, but there are simply too many airports with this problem to single handedly solve by me. So, I’ve created two simple batch files to solve this problem. One for MSFS2020 airports and the other for MSFS2024 airports.

Easy peasy, much easier than any other solution suggested…

4

Only to clarify, it is not our position; we follow the official specification. What you do is not legal (at least for us as a company) because you change something without the developer’s permission, which clearly breaks their regulations/rules. Just a side note to your workaround.

We highly recommend informing the scenery developer instead of making any changes to their code.

Thanks
Richard

5

Thank you, as far as notifying the developer, I’ve already done this. Unfortunately, nothing will happen there…

By the way, when I do use the airport, I do see the RNAV approach…with or without the Navigraph data active.

The problem is that while the RNAV waypoints show up in the flight plan, they do not show up in the PFD.

So, the plane does not line up with the runway.

Anyway, thanks for your help.

6

This is sad because it lies in their responsibility to build and design their products according to the SDK standard.

But that is not what you have written in your initial posting. So, I’m a little confused now.

Any 3rd party package in your sim “blocks” this import due to the incompatibility - this is 100% the reason.

Have you tried my PS in the previous posting? Or have you looked at the FAQ link that I have posted?

Cheers
Richard

7

Thanks Navdata, I think we are going round and round, saying the same things over and over. I appreciate your help, but I have already figured this out. I have confirmed it is the developers scenery, but I was hoping for a better solution from Navigraph. I understand your position.

You’re following the MSFS 2024 SDK and the original developer is not updating his 2020 scenery to the same. I consider this issue solved and I appreciate your help and explanation of the issue.