Using Simbrief to import flight

I’m curious within FS2020, and creating a flight plan in Simbrief within the sim at the beginning before going to World Map and finding the departure airport and Gate. Bring the flight plan in to the PMDG 737 through the EFB within the aircraft, only to find that the sim only gives ATC as a VFR flight only. No IFR Clearance or any IFR Coms along the route.
Is there any thing to assist in creating a proper IFR flight with IFR ATC within the sim using Navigraph Simbrief?

Hello! Welcome to our forum!

Thank you for the feedback. Our initial investigation shows that this may have been a deliberate act due to issues with the IFR option during the import process.

We shall investigate when we have the resources to do so!

Kind Regards,
Malte

Hello again!

We investigated this issue, and setting the ATC flightplan type to IFR breaks the import for some reason. The integration we built for the world map is a hacky workaround and is thus not officially supported by the simulator.

However, we were also not able to reproduce the issue. We do get IFR clearances! Could you provide an example route so we can try your specific scenario out?

Thanks, I’ll try to give as much info as you have requested. Within 2020, accessing Simbrief to create the Flightplan which is YPPH, RWY 03 with the AVNEX5 departure, AVNEX , Q20, ONGAR, W14, GEL
All up it was as below.
MIDLA, AGELU,BUDMA,AVPES,HARBY,SAKOM,VENUP,AVNEX, ONGAR into YGEL.
Within the Selections Field I have IFR as my Flight Rules.
Load this through the EFB in 737.
Hope this suffices.

Can you confirm what this box says after import?

I tried your route and was not able to reproduce the issue:

It seems to be the route, unable to tell with the location placards covering the waypoints , but close enough.

I get ATC command for Clearance but it cycles straight back to VFR commands. I’ll have to try again, as it seems your getting IFR

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Is there a particular process with import or the way your doing it within the Sim. I may be missing a point along the way.

I just entered your origin & destination airports, checked the autogenerated route (which seemed to match what you got). Then I generated the flight and imported it!

Are you getting a different result with the same steps?

When the flight is loaded in Simbrief, I then drop the aircraft onto airport at the Gate, after power to aircraft and loading FmC with flight. ATC seems to only give VFR commands when requested. I select IFR clearance but the ATC menu cycles me back to only VFR.
I leave the IFR , VFR choice within 2020 alone when selecting Departure airport.
Should I choose IFR

I now realize that I have misread your initial post.

Upon further reflection, you are creating the flight through SimBrief in the world map, but you are not importing it.

You then use the 737 EFB import function (built by PMDG, not Navigraph) to populate the aircraft flight computers, not the simulator.

If this is correct, then everything is working as intended. At no point is an attempt made to update the simulator flightplan, which ATC uses to give you a clearance.


To populate the route so that ATC picks it up, you need to do one of the following:

  • Press the “Import route” button after generating your flightplan in the SimBrief interface on the world map

  • Use the SimBrief in-game panel to load your flight and press the “Import route” button

  • Use the Navigraph Charts in-game panel, load your flight, and export it to the simulator through the export menu

Please note that #2 and #3 will not work as you expect them to. The flightplan will be updated, but ATC won’t pick it up until it “feels like it” - the exact triggers are not apparent. I would highly recommend the first option, as that seems to work 100% of the time.

Here is what I get if I do option #1 (you can select the gate after importing):


To be extra clear, here is the import button I am talking about:

Pressing it yields:

Your detail reply, may have resolved the issue, after creating the flightplan in Simbrief on the Start page of the sim, I then Generate the flightplan.
This plan is then used when aircraft is switched on through the FMC after first switching on the PMDG EFB to have the flightplan available for entering the flight.
From this I was using the Import flight from FMC to generate the Legs needed.
I was never seeing the departure or arrival as you have demonstrated.
I’ll need to repeat your process then when my 2020 is reinstalled. I have had CTD, recently.

Thank you for confirming your workflow! It does sound like that is the reason why you do not get any IFR clearance. I look forward to hearing your results once you have the sim up and running again!

I have finally reinstalled 2020 and tried your explanation, everything you said was fine.
The only other point is it takes the aircraft directly to the active runway.
How do you have the aircraft appear within the sim at a Gate so it allows the startup of systems from cold and dark, with still keeping ATC instructions for IFR.

Tried out the sim and was able to get IFR ATC working. Not sure how.
After import from Simbrief, it did have the active runway loaded in World Map. From that I removed the Active and replaced it with the Gate.
The flight was launched and at the Gate with the IFR ATC active.

You can select the gate after importing the flightplan, just like you usually would!


That sounds totally correct! Happy to hear that it works fine for you :slight_smile:

Do you have any further issues?