MSFS 2020 Cold Start

SimBrief Dispatch
1

I was able to create a new flight plan through SimBrief, load it in MSFS 2020, however, the flight plan forces me to start at the active runway, engines running, etc. I would like to start my flight on the ramp, as a cold start. I tried to select my starting point as a GA ramp location, however, MSFS changes the flight plan waypoints. Any way to work around this?

Thanks.

Mark

2

Hi Mark,

There were some suggestions at Add ability to select gate - #5 by Ian.

Cheers
Ian

3

Thanks. If flying a SID with a particular runway assignment selected, MSFS will automatically select the departure runway and won’t change it, even if you select a separate gate to start from. I suspect this is a MSFS issue.

4

Well, I found a simple utility called GetFP which allows a user within Simbrief to use GATE or PARKING and the number of where you want your flight to start, and will insert this into your .PLN file to have MSFS start your flight from this location. A simple utility for something that Simbrief should automatically do.

5

simBrief doesn’t know what gates are available in Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Would be interesting to know how GetFP does it, could be something that might eventually be integrated with the simBrief downloader or something?

Appears to be MIT-licensed and available here: GitHub - BojoteX/GetFP: Simple utility to fetch MSFS Flight Plan from Simbrief with custom starting location (e.g Gate or Ramp)

Regards,

Ti,m

6

Looks like it just takes the user’s word for it, I don’t think it checks if the gate actually exists in the sim.

If MSFS imports fail entirely if an invalid gate is supplied by the user, then this isn’t a suitable option in my opinion. I’ll need to test various scenarios to see if this is something that could/should be added in the future.

Best regards,

7

Thank you for considering.

I’m enjoying Simbrief, however, starting a flight from the active runway doesn’t make it feel very real. I think most of us want to start cold at a parking location or gate. When I import my flight plan into MSFS from Simbrief, and I try to change my starting position to either a gate or parking location, either a) MSFS don’t allow it or b) the entire flight plan changes. Typically, MSFS won’t allow changing the departure location if a specific SID RUNWAY has been selected.

The ability to put in the comments section a starting point of a gate or parking location seems easy. For now, I guess I will use GetFP to make the change. The program works very well!