The plugin provides information from the Simbrief flight plan and/or relevant VATSIM frequencies for ATC communications in X-Plane 2D and VR flight setups.
Note: Due to a protocol change of VATSIM webservices, FlyWithLua can currently not perform any requests to obtain ATC frequencies.
It solves major issues that VR pilots usually face:
- A printed flight plan can not be taken into VR. And even if the resolution of the VR device allows for, scrolling through tiny Simbrief flight plan fonts is usually very exhausting. Instead, there is a window showing the most important information from the flight plan, just enough to operate and monitor the flight.
- VATSIM frequencies can not be obtained from official charts (e.g. Navigraph). Also, taking notes in VR takes a lot of time, which easily distresses pilots. The plugin provides a window showing airport related frequencies.
- Air traffic control stations are highly volatile. When using the plugin it can be avoided to approach an unmonitored airport. Instead, pilots can divert to their alternate where there are air traffic controllers on service.
- For Co-Op / Multi Crew VATSIM flights, depending on who's going to file the flight plan, it's annoying to share the corresponding VATSIM client-specific flight plan over and over again. Especially when performing last minute changes. Therefore, the download can now be performed automatically along with displaying the flight plan in the cockpit.
- Install FlyWithLua plugin: https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/38445-flywithlua-ng-next-generation-edition-for-x-plane-11-win-lin-mac/
- Download the latest release of this plugin
- Use the installer and install to your X-Plane folder or extract all folders in the zip-File to
<X-Plane-Directory>/Resources/plugins/FlyWithLua/and, if asked, overwrite existing files. It's not sufficient to put the scriptvatsimbrief-helper.luainto thescripts-Directory! - During first launch, a configuration window will show automatically. Enter your Simbrief Username and press Set.
- Create your flight plan on Simbrief as usual, at some time before takeoff.
- If you already started the simulation but want to reload the flight plan due to late updates, open the
Vatsimbrief Helper Controlwindow as described below, and clickReload Flight Plan Now. - Windows can be toggled inside the plugins menu
Plugins / FlyWithLua / FlyWithLua Macros:Vatsimbrief Helper Flight Plan: Opens/closes a window showing a relevant excerpt of the flight plan.Vatsimbrief Helper ATC: Opens/closes a window showing relevant ATC frequencies that will refresh every minute, if "Auto Refresh" is enabled.Vatsimbrief Helper Control: Opens/closes a window for setting the Simbrief username, reloading the flight plan or ATC data manually, and configuring the download of flight plans. The settings window should be closed during the flight. It shows a big lumpy to simplify user interaction in VR.
- If an attribute has two values separated by
/, the left value refers to the destination and the right one to the alternate - If you find that the font in a window is too small, scale it up by dragging the bottom right corner of each window. If you permanently want to adjust the font size, there's a setting in the settings menu. The window will automatically adjust to the configured font size the next time it opens.
- Note that the visibility of windows will be saved between sessions. To restore a window, reopen it manually in the menu
Plugins / FlyWithLua / FlyWithLua Macros. - Window can also be toggled with hotkeys using the following commands:
FlyWithLua/Vatsimbrief Helper/ToggleWindows: Toggles all windows on/off.FlyWithLua/Vatsimbrief Helper/ToggleFlightPlanWindow: Toggles the flight plan window.FlyWithLua/Vatsimbrief Helper/ToggleAtcWindow: Toggles the ATC window.FlyWithLua/Vatsimbrief Helper/ToggleControlWindow: Toggles the configuration window.
- For automatic flight plan downloads, it's possible to configure the folder and the file name on a per file-type basis. Empty values mean that the default path as seen on top of the
Vatsimbrief Helper Controlwindow and a file name format of%a_%t_%o-%dis used. The default file name format generates names like20201103_013246_EDDM-EDDT.mdrto protect from accidentally overwriting existing files. However, the file name format can be customized by using one or more of the following placeholders:%a: Date%t: Time%o: Origin Airport ICAO%d: Destination Airport ICAO
Happy Flying!
Vatsimbrief Helper supports clicking a frequency in the ATC window and subsequently tuning it in via VR Radio Helper. Install and enable both at the same time and you're good to go.
Required runtime Lua dependencies: copas, luasocket, binaryheap.lua, coxpcall, timerwheel.lua, LIP, xml2lua
The required files are bundled with the release artifact (both ZIP and EXE)
Could the plugin provide more automatism and/or interactivity, e.g. calculate the remaining time to scheduled take off?
The plugin is not going to become another FMC. It's meant to provide the pilot with necessary information to do his job.
I'm not using VATSIM. Does it make sense to use this plugin?
Sure. One can close the ATC window in the menu at Plugins / FlyWithLua / FlyWithLua Macros and only use the precious flight plan information. On the other hand, only using VATSIM without Simbrief does not make sense as the output of the ATC window is based on an active flight plan.
You're always welcome to provide feedback.
- Issues: If something does not work as expected, please create an issue on gitlab.
- Comments or Feature Requests: Leave comments or feature requests on X-Plane.org.
- Reviews: If you like this tool, support its further development by leaving a review on X-Plane.org.
Vatsimbrief Helper offers a public interface to other scripts. For more information, see Vatsimbrief Helper Public Interface. At the moment, VR Radio Helper uses the Vatsimbrief Helper ATC data to display station names and Vatsim clients in a Radar panel.