flight planner - coordinates

[flflight]

Is it possible within the flight planner to enter a destination of coordinates? If so, what is the format?

[sandokan]

hi,
if you read the flight plan saved in X:my documents/flight simulator
you'll find all coordinates of departure,waypoints and destination.
Sandokan

[flflight]

Can you explain to me what the last number is on the ends of these lines:

(example only)

departure_id=LB0U, N42* 17.08', E24* 52.25', +000560.00
destination_id=LG0A, N38* 52.30', E22* 26.33', +000060.00
waypoint.3=LG, KOZ, , KOZ, V, N40* 17.32', E21* 50.57', +002055.00,
waypoint.4=, LG0A, , LG0A, A, N38* 52.30', E22* 26.33', +000060.00,

[slarente]

I would say they are altitude reference, but I may be wrong...

[KChapman]

Simon,

You got it. Those are the assigned elevations of the given airports and/or navaids in FS. :-)

Kevin

[KChapman]

flflight,

To answer your question literally, no, you cannot end a legitimate FS2004 flight plan at anything other than an airport as best I can tell. However, there is a way for you to manually add coordinates of your choosing to any FS9 flightplan that connects airports. I enter these coordinates as intersections with arbitrary names, and it seems to work fine. Let's take a simple GPS-direct flight from KOKV (Winchester, VA) to KMRB (Martinsburg, WV). The .PLN file when opened with Notepad will look like this:

&l;flightplan&r;
AppVersion=9.0.30612
title=KOKV to KMRB
description=KOKV, KMRB
type=VFR
routetype=0
cruising_altitude=5500
departure_id=KOKV, N39* 8.32', W78* 8.27', +000726.99
departure_position=32
destination_id=KMRB, N39* 24.32', W77* 58.33', +000556.99
departure_name=Winchester Regl
destination_name=Eastern W Va Regl/Shepherd
waypoint.0=, KOKV, , KOKV, A, N39* 8.32', W78* 8.27', +000726.99,
waypoint.1=, KMRB, , KMRB, A, N39* 24.32', W77* 58.33', +000556.99,
_____________________

This is what the same plan (waypoints only now) looks like after I've inserted two waypoints (fiddled with the coordinates off the top of my head):

waypoint.0=, KOKV, , KOKV, A, N39* 8.32', W78* 8.27', +000726.99,
[font color=red]waypoint.1=, GOT, , GOT, I, N39* 12.99', W78* 54.07', +000000.00,
waypoint.2=, ITNOW, , ITNOW, I, N39* 42.99', W78* 44.07', +000000.00,[/font color]
waypoint.3=, KMRB, , KMRB, A, N39* 24.32', W77* 58.33', +000556.99,
_____________________

Please note that...

1) The name of the intersection appears after the first and third commas, and you can name it anything you like.
2) The letter "I" appears after the fourth comma (for intersection) with code letters A for airport, I for intersection, N for NDB, and V for VOR.
3) The elevation of the intersection is irrelevant. For the sake of standardization, I input +000000.00 for each one.
4) Your waypoints must be numbered sequentially.
5) I've found in my limited testing that FS2004 must be restarted before it will properly recognize changes you've made to a .PLN file.
6) If any of this information is misleading, please bear in mind that I just discovered this today and haven't found reference to any of this in the SDK's. Trial and error style.

I've included both .PLN files: [link:www.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/4141d4e07edcc5f7.zip|KOKV-KMRB] and [link:www.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/4141d4ef7ef06b1f.zip|KOKV-GOT-ITNOW-KMRB] as zip files. Please feel free to unzip them, place them in your My Documents\Flight Simulator Files folder, and load them in the flight planner screen to see how they look.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

P.S., I'll probably post this information in the FS2004 forum soon, and if it holds water, I'll try to post it in a more permanent spot.