MSFS 2024 Development News

Location Manager 2 is now available for purchase @ https://sonicviz.com/project/location-manager2-for-msfs/ 

Aircraft Manager 2024: On hold as MS/AS have now locked down the UI from modification.
MS/AS say they intend to make it modifiable “sometime”.
Stay tuned for more info.

Turbocharge MSFS

Also available from Orbx and MSFS Marketplace (PC & Xbox)

Note: for MSFS 2020 only. New products for MSFS 2024 in development, stay tuned. 

IMPORTANT: Keyboard and Mouse are required to use Location Manager properly.

Get 15% off bundled with Aircraft Manager Pro

Video Guide

Quick Help Guides

Tips

Want to get the best out of Location Manager? Use the included help tools.

There is a small learning curve with the Location Manager user interface, and the most efficient way to learn it is via a simple process.

• Use the tool tips that show up when you mouse over the column header
• Read the annotated quick help guide image that is included with the download, and shown above here. Click where shown, understand what happens as a result.
• Watch the videos linked above here for deeper insights, while referencing “How to best use Location Manager” section directly below.
• Ask support via the form at the bottom of this page if you don’t understand something, or have found a bug/issue to report.

You will then have a more complete understanding of how it works, and then you can decide how you want to use it, the way that suits you best. It’s quite flexible in that regard.

How to best use Location Manager

How It Works

From the main map, it’s not possible to start on the ground from any custom saved location via the Fly button due to sim limitations. The functionality to do that simply isn’t exposed to use, so the method to “Start Anywhere” in Fly Mode is the following:

• • Explore the map in Map Mode and save interesting locations as starting points as per the video guide
  • You can only initially start from the main map at an existing airport, in either hot or cold start mode, so pick a starting airport close to your target location and enter Fly Mode in either cold or hot start mode as per normal, or start in the air via a custom location (height will vary depending on the type of aircraft chosen).
  • Once in Fly mode open the Location Manager toolbar, choose where you want to go from the saved locations, and teleport there from the saved location to start your new flight anywhere on the ground or in the air, depending on the settings you choose, which are explained in detail below.

 Map Mode

• • Map mode in the main MSFS user interface is where you do most of the saving and managing of locations.
  • In flight planning, save all ICAO or POI/City/LM/Custom Waypoints you like.
    • Choose where you want to go from your saved favorites
    • Save airport ICAO’s to do some take off and landing practice at unique locations at different times and in different weather.
    • Save interesting POI’s, cities, animal locations that of are special interest
    • Save custom waypoints so you can start anywhere on land or water, your own private bush strip. Note that Custom Waypoints saved in map mode will always have a height (ground elevation) of 500m/1640ft. This is by design, confirmed by Asobo devs, and will not change. In Fly mode Custom Waypoints will be saved with correct ground elevation as it doesn’t have this limitation. In either case you will still end up at the correct teleport position as I compensate for the incorrect height.
    • Find your own use for it.
  • Make sure ICAO’s have been saved with the runways/parking spots. Check the message, and you can also confirm by seeing the auto tag added eg: r2, p4 type tags.
  • Some ICAO’s, mainly user, don’t have any runways or parking spots and a message will show stating that.
  • Heliports are currently not returned by the Javascript SDK, nothing I can do about that.

Fly Mode

• • UI Scaling
    • Make sure your MSFS UI scaling is sized so you can see the training bar drop down selections properly (see image below).
    • 
    • You may also want to adjust your screen resolution.
    • You can adjust the width  and height of the Location Manager toolbar by dragging a corner, then hit “Resize Grid”.
  • Selecting a location
    • Click on a location name in a row to select it. It will highlight as a green row, and load into the training bar at the top of the Location Manager toolbar window (see image above). The training bar above the grid includes:
      • Font size slider
      • Reset Grid Button to reset the grid to default state and resize it to fill the window
      • Heading slider to adjust the heading of the plane
      • Time slider to quickly adjust time of day. Great to test yourself in different lighting conditions.
      • Wind direction indicator relative to the planes heading. Real time, changes depending on wind strength/direction at height AGL.
      • Weather dropdown to conveniently change the weather for different scenario training
      • Save location. Saves the current location of the plane as a custom waypoint with the ground elevation it is at.
      • Help & Support button to open a browser window that goes to the website
      • Training bar activity fields that differ depending on the type of location selected. See below for more info.
    • ICAO Locations
      • If the location has an ICAO, you can quick filter to just that ICAO by clicking on the ICAO column in the grid for that selected row
      • Selected ICAO’s have dropdown options populated as shown in the training day video above
    • Non-ICAO locations – POI, Cities, Animals, Custom Waypoints
      • Selecting these locations loads them into the training bar but with only three random options in the position drop down
      • As these are point locations with no airstrip direction reference, planes will be assigned a random direction when Fly or Park is used. You can easily adjust the planes heading with the heading slider just above the training bar
    • Note: When you initially load into Fly mode and open the Location Manager toolbar you should (generally) see a location already highlighted in green. This is because LM auto highlights your closest location as a convenience. You still need to click the name to select it and load the location into the training bar. Sometimes you may see multiple rows highlighted in green. Don’t panic, this is just LM telling you that it’s found more than one location within the distance threshold (~500m) from the planes location. Just select one of them to load it into the training bar and the rest will be cleared.
  • Location Teleporting
    • Teleporting Options
      • Please read the Known Issues/Teleporting Issues for important info.
      • Sometimes you may get a bad teleport to ground and the plane will be in an unusual attitude. No problem, just hit Fly again to regenerate the teleport and reposition. Teleporting is dynamically adjusted based on distance, so it will be super quick and in cases like this it just takes 1 or 2 (at most) extra teleports to set the plane correctly. If you really need to reset the planes attitude before teleporting use a quick slew mode on and off again, usually bound to the Y key, and the plane will be reset in the best position attitude for teleporting.
      • Please turn all your Assistance Options/Failure and Damage options to OFF in order to avoid issues that may happen with teleporting collisions (ie: ground/aircraft while the new location loads in). Also be aware there may be some issues with Aircraft using custom damage modelling that may override these settings. I suggest testing first with a base aircraft that does not have these issues.

Fly or Park in each row are active buttons with the following teleport functionality

• • • Park
      • Park will teleport you to the lat/long of the location if no parking spots are available (ie: Start anywhere on ground or water), or to the selected parking spot.
      • Note: Be careful, this currently works on selected locations (row is green) and unselected locations.
      • Plane state will be:
        • Flaps up
        • Gear down
        • Engine off
        • Trims are untouched
      • Plane direction
        • ICAO locations: Plane direction will be parallel to the first runway
        • Non ICAO locations: Plane will be assigned a random direction. Adjust it with the heading slider at the top as needed.
    • Fly
      • Before using the Fly options make sure your flight systems are all up and running, either by hot starting on the runway, or cold starting and doing a full startup procedure (or Ctrl-E if supported). Fly only turns the engine on, not the associated flight systems.
      • You can teleport to a selected runway for take off or to the air for landing practice (ICAO locations only).
      • If nothing happens when you click Fly please check the message in the top left
      • Position in the training bar has the following selections when a location is loaded
        • Take Off (ICAO location only)
        • Final (ICAO location only)
        • Base L / Base R (ICAO location only)
        • Cross L / Cross R (ICAO location only)
        • Downwind L / Downwind R (ICAO location only)
        • Random – assigns a random position and bearing at the specified distance from the location lat/long
        • RandomTo – assigns a random position at the specified distance from the location lat/long, pointing at the location
        • RandomFrom – assigns a random position at the specified distance from the location lat/long, pointing away from the location
      • Set options for Distance, Height, or Speed lets you choose from the following ranges at stepped intervals:
        • Distance: 0.25 to 25km
        • Height: 125 ft to 30000 ft
        • Speed: 50kts to 400kts
      • Random options for Distance, Height, or Speed will select a value from the following subset of number options:
        • Distance: 0.25 to 6km
        • Height: 125 ft to 5000 ft
        • Speed: 55kts to 125kts
      • Take off practice.
        • This only needs you to select Position: Take Off & the runway you want to take off from, then click Fly to teleport there
        • Plane will be aligned to the runway magnetic bearing
        • Plane state will be:
          • Flaps up
          • Gear down
          • Engine on
          • Trims are untouched, so check as per normal take off checklist before take off.
        • Take off practice is totally doable in non-ICAO locations, but as they are point lat/long locations without “real” runways your start direction will be random. Use the heading slider up top to adjust your heading before take off.
      • Landing Practice
        • The following positions are for landing practice: Final, Base L/R, Cross L/R, Downwind L/R, Random, RandomTo, RandomFrom.  You need to select all the dropdowns marked * to be able to click Fly. Check the warning message.
        • Pause checkbox at far right controls whether you will be paused after teleport. This is useful so you can double check things before unpausing to continue the exercise. Best to bind active pause to a button for easy access.
        • Plane state will be set to:
          • Engine on
          • Gear up
          • Flaps up
          • Trims untouched, so reset them if needed before hitting fly.
        • Landing practice is totally doable in non-ICAO locations, but as they are point lat/long locations without “real” runways your start direction will be random depending on which random direction option you select (see Position in the training bar above for descriptions). It’s fun though, try it. Use the heading slider up top to adjust your heading if you wish.
      • ILS Landing Practice
        • If a runway has an associated ILS frequency it will be loaded into the ILS field next to the runway dropdown when the runway is selected.
        • Tune & activate the frequency, align yourself to the runway, and at the ILS detection distance you will see it on the PFD
        • Make sure you activate the ILS frequency when unpaused, as if you do it in pause mode it sometimes doesn’t trigger properly
      • Saving custom locations in Fly mode
        • Fly mode save location only saves as a Custom Waypoint at the current lat/long of the aircraft, with altitude set to the height of the ground at that position.
        • You can use these saved custom waypoint locations to start anywhere on ground or water where there isn’t an airport with an ICAO by using Park to teleport to that location. Use Fly and the training bar settings to start in the air as an alternative.
        • This area may be developed further, but performance and reliability are always the key criteria for implementing new features.

V1.2 Save Location changes for airports with ICAO 

You can update your currently saved airport locations by quickly going to them from the grid, and then save them again. They will be updated with the new runway and parking data, if available, but your tags will be overwritten with auto-generated tags to show runways, parking, and ils. You will lose any existing tag data. Apololgies for that, but I not could come up with a good solution in the case where someone did multiple saves, so just went with overwriting tags for now.

I want to start a flight cold at the last location I stopped at in the sim. How do I do that?

You can do that with location manager pro. Whenever you stop, engines off, save that as a new location in Location Manager via the toolbar. That location will then be automatically added as the last saved location in default mode (unsorted & unfiltered).

Next time you start the sim, you can choose that saved location to start with (which will place you in the air if it’s a custom waypoint) or somewhere close to it. Then when you are in fly mode, select that saved location in the Location Manager toolbar & use the teleport to ground feature for that saved location (pro version) and it will place you there engines off. Now start the flight as per normal.

I don’t implement automatic saving of the last location you are at, as there are so many possible use cases that can happen here that it’s too much to cater for. There are also storage implications if you constantly auto-save locations and don’t manage them, so a simple manual process is best here if you wish to do this. Delete older locations as you go if you don’t wish to keep them permanently in order to save location slots.

So, if you wish to pick up a flight at the exact spot you stopped at last time, follow the above process and you’ll be able to do it. We use the tools we have, not the ones we’d like to have, or that may not be possible to currently implement.

First time user and you clicked on the grid and all your locations disappeared, leaving a blank grid?

This is likely because you clicked on the favorites quick filter/unfilter trigger, which is accessed by clicking on any plane name in the grid. If you haven’t yet set any favorites (yellow F in far left column in image above) then nothing will show. Use the Reset Filters button (pro) or manually reset the Favorites Filter on the top of the far left column. To open the Favorites Filter on the top far left, make sure you click on the hamburger menu icon, the three little horizontal lines, and not the filter icon. Once open, press the reset button to clear the filter and all your planes will appear. It’s a narrow column to save space, so if you click on the filter icon just to the left of the hamburger menu (3 horizontal lines) you will actually trigger a sort of that column. You can see the sort icon by clicking on the column header when the filter is cleared, and you will see an up or down arrow on successive clicks, changing the sort order, and no arrow when the sort is cycled back to off.

Please check the quick help guide included in your download, as well as watch the videos for insights into how things work, then devise your own system using it that suits you.

Issues with 3rd party add-ons in MSFS?
MSFS Safe Mode is a new feature that will allow players to launch the sim in a basic state to ensure stability.

• MSFS Safe Mode FAQ
• To force start MSFS in safe mode, crash or force quit the app with alt+F4 or end the process from Task Manager. You will then get the prompt to boot normally or in safe mode on restart.
• It’s also possible to trigger safe mode on startup by dropping an empty file called running.lock into your local MSFS directory. This appears to be a lock file that MSFS uses to detect if MSFS exited correctly the last time it was used, and is deleted if MSFS successfully exits. If it exists, it triggers the safe mode selection screen. See this thread Command line parameter to start the sim in SAFE MODE for more info.

Installation

The product is delivered as an MSFS package to be installed in the MSFS Community folder.

Install

• Unzip the downloaded zip file to a location (and keep it for the included documentation)
• Move the included package folder(s) in “Location Manager Release Pro” folder into your community folder.

Note: For V1.2 there’s a difference between the Orbx and direct bought versions in the package folders. Orbx version has only one package folder in the download, direct bought version has two seperate package folders you need to install into the community folder. This will be harmonized in a coming update so both Orbx and direct bought versions only have one package folder in the download for easier management. Stay tuned on that update, coming soon with some other fixes.
V1.2.5 (current version) is now a single package to make this process simpler.

Update

• Delete the old package folder(s) from your community folder
  • If you have more than one package folder with the old install make sure to delete both.
  • Check your original download zip file if you need to confirm the package folder names to delete.
• Replace with the new package folder as in the install process above.

All data is stored using the MSFS SDK data storage routines and is part of your cloud save, so is independent of the add on (unless something changes and the data needs to be migrated, which has happened in the past due to SDK changes). Cloud saves can be corrupted or lost by CTD’s however, but if that happens you have bigger issues. Never close MSFS by the top right window, as that does not trigger data saving to the cloud, always close via the bottom left menu. This is direct advice from Asobo developers.

if you don’t know the path of your community folder or the package doesn’t show up in sim, please do the following while running the sim:

• Go to Options / General screen in the User Interface
• Click on “Developers” tab at the bottom of the list on the left
• Switch the Developers Mode to ON
• On the Developer Mode Menu which you will now see on the upper left of your screen, select Tools / Virtual File System
• The community folder location can be found under “Packages Folders”.
• Open it and move the package folders as described above into there.

See also: https://www.google.com/search?q=msfs+location+of+community+folder

Uninstall

Remove Location Manager from your MSFS community folder.
If it’s the MSFS Marketplace version (TBA) uninstall/delete the package from the marketplace in game.

FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do Aircraft Manager/Location Manager work, and are there any sim breaking risks?

Aircraft Manager and Location Manager are unique addons designed to improve the UX (User Experience) that are enabled by integrating custom code into the core files that make up the MSFS UI system. The MSFS UI system has not been designed as an extendable system to incorporate 3rd party additions such as AM and LM, so the only way to extend it to provide these UX improvements is to override the core MSFS UI files with the custom code. The benefits are obvious, with a vastly improved UX to solve many pain points that the user community has recognised, but there are also a couple of risks you should be aware of, and how to mitigate them if you have issues.

• There is limited abiliy to interoperate with other addons that might try to extend the main MSFS UI, so you will have to make a choice between products that wish to do this. See Known Issues for more specific info on known conflicts.
• The MSFS Core UI files are checked with every release to ensure they are up to date with any changes Asobo may have introduced. AM and LM are also tested prior to any SU beta releases to ensure they work ok, and the main UI is still consistent. If issues do occur they will be rectified asap and updates to AM/LM released if needed.
• If you have any problems, you can always deactivate AM/LM at any time to return to the current MSFS base UI system with no impact.
• Please contact support via the form at the bottom of this page if you require further clarification or have an issue to report.

Q: Will Aircraft Manager and Location Manager work with MSFS 2024?

On June 11, 2023 Microsoft dropped notifcation that MSFS 2024 is coming.
MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2024: THE NEXT GENERATION OF THE LEGENDARY FRANCHISE

Given the lack of detail about content transfer and other obvious questions, they quickly followed up with some clarifying statements:
MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2024 FAQ

• Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is a new standalone simulator distinct from MSFS 2020.
• They will continue to support Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) post the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 launch.
• With very few exceptions, virtually all add-ons that work in Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) today will function in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.

I also pay close attention to the development roadmap and updates, the latest one of this post being “JUNE 8TH, 2023 DEVELOPMENT UPDATE“.

Two features listed on this update are relevant to AM: Aircraft Specific Control Profiles (Planned) and Aircraft Favorites (Under Investigation).
I note also that Asobo has 20+ open job postings for MSFS, some of them being UI specific, such as: “We are opening a Lead UI Programmer position as part of the implementation of a new UI tech on the Microsoft Flight Simulator project.” Asobo Studio – Lead UI Programmer H/F (Flight Sim)

So it seems MSFS 2024 User Interface system is undergoing a complete rewrite for MSFS 2024, and as such AM & LM in their current form will remain as MSFS 2020 addons only due to the changes in the underlying UI framework that will come as part of that. I suspect that the Control Profiles and Favorites noted above are unlikely to be done for MSFS 2020, and they will instead implement it properly as part of MSFS 2024.

Pending more information in the future:

• MSFS 2020: Aircraft Manager Pro and Location Manager Pro will remain essential addons to improve your UX, as they will keep MSFS 2020 running post MSFS 2024 release. There is nothing announced about back porting this new UI framework to MSFS 2020, which isn’t likely to happen given they are releasing MSFS 2024 with it as a key feature and selling point.
• MSFS 2024: The MSFS 2020 versions of AM & LM will likely not work on MSFS 2024 (TBC) as it seems as they are developing a completely new UI framework based on lessons learned. I will keep pace with MSFS 2024 developments, and see what value I can bring to it then with a MSFS 2024 specific version of AM and LM.

Q: Can I save specific airport gates or ground points as cold & dark start locations?

A: Short answer: not currently. Long answer: Location Manager is intended to be a generalised location manager for storage and retrieval of locations, to act as a starting point for your next flight. The intent is to zoom back to the saved location, THEN you manually select what you want to do for the flight by another click as per normal map use: start in the air in the general area, select a specific parking spot for a cold and dark, select a runway, select a water runway (in the case of a location with both land & water runways), or select the airport and let the sim decide the runway. In fly mode, you can teleport to saved locations at 1000′ AGL, then decide what to do.

Update 07/03/2023: Work in progress is showing this it’s possible to teleport to ground/water locations successfully in fly mode. It won’t be possible to start from map mode like that due to limitations, but with a little bit of a process we should be able to implement a system where you can arrive at a point to start your flight anywhere in world (obviously contrained by the realities of the geography). Stay tuned.

Update 09/03/2023:Start anywhere teleport functionality is released in V1.0.3
As mentioned, it won’t be possible to start from map mode like that due to limitations, but all you need to do is:

• Explore the map and save interesting locations as starting points as per the video guide
• Pick a starting airport and enter Fly mode in either cold or hot start mode.
• Once in Fly mode open Location Manager, choose where you want to go, and teleport there to start your flight.

Q: Can I uninstall the LM Toolbar widget and just use the main LM app?

A: No. Currently Location Manager requires both addons installed in order to be able to work properly.

Q: Why is there a size limit on the notes/tags you can save (and other things)?

A: There are currently unknown and undocumented aspects to the MSFS SDK, and storage limits are one of these fuzzy areas.
After doing my own testing to get some clarity, Asobo developers indicated there should be no issues based on some reasonable size tests they have done, and to let them know if any issues are encountered. Based on this, I’m taking a measured risk reduction approach for now with storage limits.

I’ve decided to initally release with smaller storage limits, see what people do with it, get feedback, and increase the limits as needed in measured steps based on real world usage.

There are also performance implications with loading/unloading huge blobs of text in the UI, and I’d like to strike a good balance between utility, value, and performance. There’s always trade offs with this kind of thing.

 Known Issues

• Addon Conflicts:
  • Due to current limitations, be aware that other apps that integrate into the MSFS UI may conflict with AM and LM, so you may have to make a choice between them. Apps known to integrate into the main MSFS UI are:
  • Issue: Aircraft Manager does not show any aircraft.
    • Cause: Add on conflict with Modern UI  (Confirmed incompatible)
    • Solution: Do not use Modern UI add on.
    • Be aware that the Modern UI addon is no longer officially supported either (see the file download message at the referenced link above), so use at your own risk.
  • Issue: MSFS Activities do not show description & Fly button.
    • This is an intermittent issue that seems to affect a small number of users, based on reports received so far. The issue seems to be a triggered by a heavy load imposed at some points in the MSFS UI that can cause Location Manager dependencies used by the Activities view not to be loaded. These dependencies are used by Location Manager to retrieve the airport information, and are very dependent on load order timing. On most PC’s it seems ok, others are subject to loading hitches for various reasons outlined below. This is under active investigation to find mitigation measures. I personally don’t experience this with 930+ addons installed despite multiple attempts to trigger it.
    • Update: Currently beta testing a performance update that should solve this issue. Unfortunately to do this it has some other impacts in terms of memory consumption etc in order to resolve the intermittancy of the issue. Trade offs! Stay tuned.
    • Possible Causes and Solutions
      • Cause 1: Addon conflicts with apps that modify the MSFS UI, like P42 Stripr (confirmed), causing UI loading slowdowns.
        • Solution 1: Choose which one you want to use, Location Manager or P42 Stripr. Conflict reported to P42. TBD.
        • Note: User who originally reported this issue says all is ok now after WU XIV w/ Stripr, LM, & Activities.
        • Your mileage may vary, so if you do experience this issue with Stripr, try disabling that as a test.
      • Cause 2:  MSFS UI slowdowns caused by GPU working at max capacity (confirmed)
        • Solution 2: None atm. Under investigation.
        • Note: Other user who initially reported this didn’t use Stripr, but cleared the issue by adjusting performance settings.
        • Things to try: Lower the graphics settings to lessen the GPU load when in the main UI. If your GPU is 100% utilized in the main UI, back off the settings. Set Experimental/Low Power Mode to On.
      • Cause 3: It wouldn’t surprise me to find more. TBD.
  • Pro and Free don’t mix: Pro and Free versions will cause issues if used together. ie: AM Pro + LM Free or AM Free + LM Pro are not supported. This is due to underlying requirements.
• Teleporting Issues: 
  • Please turn all your Assistance Options/Failure and Damage options to OFF in order to avoid issues with loading conflicts that may happen with changing locations (ie: ground/aircraft while the new location loads in). Also be aware there may be some issues with Aircraft using custom damage modelling that may override these settings. I suggest testing first with a base aircraft that does not have these issues.
  • One user has reported an issue with planes being thrown into the air when it finishes teleporting. I’m unable to replicate this fully, and still working to determine the cause & a solution. It seems to be a timing issue with the physics engine and aircraft collision system that is system dependant somehow. If you experience it at all please let me know via the support form at the bottom of the page. 
    Manual Workaround: Enable slew mode (Y key bind by default) before teleport to ground, teleport, disable Slew mode by pressing same key to enable it (Y key bind by default).  
• Location Height: The altitude of saved locations should be correct, but it may be off if you saved the location zoomed way out on the map. Please zoom into the map to a close distance when saving to ensure the point saved is the most accurate resolution and is placed where you want it.
• Scaling to different screen resolutions. Due to issues encountered integrating into the MSFS UI it hasn’t been possible to implement a fully responsive UI that scales up and down like the MSFS UI does. The workaround for the moment is a manual font size change feature, so the user can adjust the font size of the data grid to their own preference. There are also some adjustments to column widths depending on the font size chosen. I would call it partially responsive. Free demo now includes this functionality.
• Font Character Accents: Due to limitations with the integration method, font character accents are currently not supported. They have been filtered out in names, tags, and notes to be replaced by the english equivalents so you shouldn’t see strange characters anymore. Let me know if you do (via the support form below at the bottom of the page) and I’ll look into it.
• Scrolling/Pagination: Due to memory issues with integrating into the MSFS UI a hybrid pagination/scroll system has been implemented to avoid any issues. Page size is currently set at 80 rows to stike a balance between utility, performance, and bug free use.

Release Notes

Pro Version

Location Manager Release Notes 1.2.5
Date: 25/08/2023

* Adjusted ground teleporting
* Added country quick filter to Location Manager toolbar widget
* Moved type column to be next to favorites
* Tuned Teleport dynamics
* Install package consolidated to one folder
* Performance improvements

Location Manager Release Notes 1.2.0
Date: 29/06/2023

* New! ICAO Airport runways auto saved for configurable landing/take off practice. Teleport to base/crosswind/downwind/final/random legs, land, repeat.
* New! ICAO Airport parking spots auto saved. Just save the airport, & use them in fly mode as teleport locations to cold start.
* Fixed saved font size to load properly on opening
* Font accents replaced by standard letters in name/tags/notes.
* Bug Fixes
* Performance Improvements

Location Manager Release Notes 1.1.0
https://sonicviz.com/project/location-manager/
Date: 26/05/2023

* Complete rewrite of the scaling for a much improved User Experience (UX)
* Other small UX adjustments
* Bug Fixes
* Performance Improvements

Location Manager Release Notes 1.0.4
Date: 28/04/2023

• Re-enabled sort on Notes
• Performance optimisations
• Library update

Location Manager Release Notes 1.0.3a
Date: 10/03/2023

• Teleport implemented correctly for multiengine aircraft + gear/flaps configured properly
• Teleport time dynamically adjusted based on distance from current location to teleport location. Quicker restarts!

Location Manager Release Notes 1.0.3
Date: 09/03/2023

• New: Start Anywhere – Teleport to saved locations on ground/water/air (geography permitting)
• Improved Teleport user experience
• Fixed correct row selection when sorted
• Performance Improvements

Location Manager Release Notes 1.0.2
Date: 23/02/2023

• Performance Improvements
• Fixed issue with missing country
• Fixed missing icons in filter popups
• Fixed horizontal scrollbar

Free Version

Location Manager Free Release Notes V 1.1.0
https://sonicviz.com/project/location-manager/
Date: 26/05/2023

* Complete rewrite of the scaling for a much improved User Experience (UX)
* Other small UX adjustments
* Bug Fixes
* Performance Improvements

Location Manager Free Release Notes V 1.0.3
Released 2023-05-20

• Added favorites for free

Free V 1.0.2 Released 2023-03-16

• Improved Teleport user experience

Free V 1.0.1 released 2023-02-16

• Bug fix with selected aircraft/location when sorting to maintain position
• Sorting in free versions of both synchronised to 3 (check version comparison help file for details)
• Performance tweaks

V 1.0.0 released 2023-02-14

Update 13/2/2023

• New free version release, no version number change.
• Many fixes and improvements.
• LM toolbar allows teleporting and saving locations

Update 2/2/2023

• New free version release, no version number change.
• Fixed saved height unit measurments
• Includes alpha test release of Location Manager toolbar widget to test teleporting to saved locations.
  Teleports to the saved location at speed 100kts, Heading 360, pitch/roll level, @ 1500ft agl.

29/01/2023 Released

Refund Policy

Please try the free lite version/demo first before buying, to ensure the addon works ok on your system before buying.

Due to the nature of this product being digitally available, purchases of this product are non-refundable.

Support

Please contact us via this form if you have any issues to report.
If you have email issues or no reply you can try contact via the social channel links up top right of the page or ping me on the MSFS forums.
Note: Free version support is limited compared to the payware version.

To resolve issues it’s important to be able to replicate them, so we need to have as much information as possible in order to reproduce the problem and hopefully resolve it. Please also make sure you have read the Known Issues and Tips sections above.

Please include as much of the following information as you can:

• Your receipt information for proof of purchase, and where you bought it from
• Your version of MSFS (Steam or Microsoft store)
• Whether you are on the live version or the Beta version
• Describe what you were doing prior to the issue occurring
• Describe what happened to trigger the issue
• Does it happen all the time or only in certain situations?
• What addons you have installed
• Specs: Windows Settings/System/About (screenshot Device/Windows sections) + GPU + a list of all the controllers you have attached.
• Describe anything else you think is relevant.

Thanks!

MSFS 2024 Development News

Location Manager 2 is now available for purchase @ https://sonicviz.com/project/location-manager2-for-msfs/ 

Aircraft Manager 2024: On hold as MS/AS have now locked down the UI from modification.
MS/AS say they intend to make it modifiable “sometime”.
Stay tuned for more info.

Turbocharge MSFS

Also available from Orbx and MSFS Marketplace (PC Only)

Note: for MSFS 2020 only. New products for MSFS 2024 in development, stay tuned. 

IMPORTANT: Keyboard and Mouse are required to use Aircraft Manager properly.

Get 15% off bundled with Location Manager Pro

Video Guide

Aircraft Control Presets – Video Guide

Automatically switch device control presets on a per aircraft basis. Please note a maximum of 10 connected devices are supported.

Quick Help Guides

Tips

Want to get the best out of Aircraft Manager? Use the included help tools.

There is a small learning curve with the Aircraft Manager user interface, and the most efficient way to learn it is via a simple process.

• Use the tool tips that show up when you mouse over the column header
• Read the annotated quick help guide image that is included with the download, and shown above here. Click where shown, understand what happens as a result.
• Watch the videos linked above here for deeper insights.
• Ask support via the form at the bottom of this page if you don’t understand something, or have found a bug/issue to report.

You will then have a more complete understanding of how it works, and then you can decide how you want to use it, the way that suits you best. It’s quite flexible in that regard.

What’s a recommended way of using Aircraft Control Presets so I don’t have to setup every controller on the grid?

As explained in the video, the “blank” preset is the default MSFS preset for that controller. It’s used here to make the control preset switching more performant and also have less visual clutter on the grid. While it may not be the generic preset you want on your system, we can use it alongside your own custom generic presets to make a performant generic type switching setup.

Here is how I would make a “generic” type setup.

1. Make sure you watch the Aircraft Control Presets video first, in order to understand key aspects of how it works.
2. Think about your switching on a type basis. Eg: twin, glider or whatever. Tag them appropriately so you can quickly filter/sort them.
3. Choose one aircraft from that “type” to act as a master plane.
4. Set the custom presets for that.
5. Use that as your primary initial switch to plane if using aircraft from that “type”.
6. Others in that type can just have all blank defaults, so when you switch to them it’s almost instant, as ACP doesn’t switch presets when it encounters a “blank” preset, it defaults to the previously set one.
7. You can also assign your own preset if you wish. ACP will also detect if the current preset is the same, in which case it will also not switch in order to be more performant. The grid will look busier with everything filled in, but some people prefer that.

It’s up to you how you want to use it. It’s best to play around with it for a while to discover which way suits you better, or you might come up with another method. Due to the complexities that arise with users naming their own presets, it’s not possible to implement a user driven generic preset system at this time. I have no control over what names users might give to presets, so it’s practically impossible to use that for code switching like the current “blank” default. Enforcing something would annoy people as well. The default presets actually have a standard naming structure prefix assigned by Asobo so they can be reliably detected and used as such.

Performance is key because this is really intensive to switch control devices and people have a wide range of systems for MSFS, from potatoes on up to high end. The other reason for performance is some people just click on a lot of planes, switching to them all the time when browsing, and it’s hard to change that behavior. So if it’s doing 10 second switches by 10 devices (worst case) that’s a big performance hit with potential for other issues cropping up.

First time user and you clicked on the grid and all your planes disappeared, leaving a blank grid?

This is likely because you clicked on the favorites quick filter/unfilter trigger, which is accessed by clicking on any plane name in the grid. If you haven’t yet set any favorites (yellow F in far left column in image above) then nothing will show. Use the Reset Filters button (pro) or manually reset the Favorites Filter on the top of the far left column. To open the Favorites Filter on the top far left, make sure you click on the hamburger menu icon, the three little horizontal lines, and not the filter icon. Once open, press the reset button to clear the filter and all your planes will appear. It’s a narrow column to save space, so if you click on the filter icon just to the left of the hamburger menu (3 horizontal lines) you will actually trigger a sort of that column. You can see the sort icon by clicking on the column header when the filter is cleared, and you will see an up or down arrow on successive clicks, changing the sort order, and no arrow when the sort is cycled back to off.

Please check the quick help guide included in your download, as well as watch the videos for insights into how things work, then devise your own system using it that suits you.

Tagging Suggestions

Tagging is the best way to categorize your aircraft to suit your own aircraft management style and needs.

For example, you can do by function by adding tages like: float,skydive,stol,tw(in) and many more. 
To fit the maximum tags within the 30 character limit you can abbreviate them, like twin to tw in the example above. 

For technical tagging, use the lists at New Propeller | CFD | Soft Body Simulation – Aircraft List to add 3 letter tags to your aircraft as:

• NPS : New Propeller Simulation
• CFD : Computational Fluid Dynamics
• SBS : Soft Body Simulation

You can do the same for:
Other Aircraft lists:

• Adverse Yaw | Aircraft list (NEW)
• Ground Handling | List of aircraft wheel friction values

Then all you have to do is use the filtering to extract on whatever you want, single or combo.

Issues with 3rd party add-ons in MSFS?
MSFS Safe Mode is a new feature that will allow players to launch the sim in a basic state to ensure stability.

• MSFS Safe Mode FAQ
• To force start MSFS in safe mode, crash or force quit the app with alt+F4 or end the process from Task Manager. You will then get the prompt to boot normally or in safe mode on restart.
• It’s also possible to trigger safe mode on startup by dropping an empty file called running.lock into your local MSFS directory. This appears to be a lock file that MSFS uses to detect if MSFS exited correctly the last time it was used, and is deleted if MSFS successfully exits. If it exists, it triggers the safe mode selection screen. See this thread Command line parameter to start the sim in SAFE MODE for more info.

Installation

The product is delivered as an MSFS package to be installed in the MSFS Community folder.

Install

• Unzip the downloaded zip file to a location (and keep it for the included documentation)
• Move the included package folder(s) in “Aircraft Manager Release Pro” folder into your community folder.

Note: For V1.2 there’s a difference between the Orbx and direct bought versions in the package folders. Orbx version has only one package folder in the download, direct bought version has two seperate package folders you need to install into the community folder. This will be harmonized in a coming update so both Orbx and direct bought versions only have one package folder in the download for easier management. Stay tuned on that update, coming soon with some other fixes.
V1.2.5 (current version) is now a single package to make this process simpler.

Update

• Delete the old package folder(s) from your community folder
  • If you have more than one package folder with the old install make sure to delete both.
  • Check your original download zip file if you need to confirm the package folder names to delete.
• Replace with the new package folder as in the install process above.

All data is stored using the MSFS SDK data storage routines and is part of your cloud save, so is independent of the add on (unless something changes and the data needs to be migrated, which has happened in the past due to SDK changes). Cloud saves can be corrupted or lost by CTD’s however, but if that happens you have bigger issues. Never close MSFS by the top right window, as that does not trigger data saving to the cloud, always close via the bottom left menu. This is direct advice from Asobo developers.

if you don’t know the path of your community folder or the package doesn’t show up in sim, please do the following while running the sim:

• Go to Options / General screen in the User Interface
• Click on “Developers” tab at the bottom of the list on the left
• Switch the Developers Mode to ON
• On the Developer Mode Menu which you will now see on the upper left of your screen, select Tools / Virtual File System
• The community folder location can be found under “Packages Folders”.
• Open it and move the package folder as described above into there.

See also: https://www.google.com/search?q=msfs+location+of+community+folder

Uninstall

Remove Aircraft Manager from your MSFS community folder.
If it’s the MSFS Marketplace version (TBA) uninstall/delete the package from the marketplace in game.

FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do Aircraft Manager/Location Manager work, and are there any sim breaking risks?

Aircraft Manager and Location Manager are unique addons designed to improve the UX (User Experience) that are enabled by integrating custom code into the core files that make up the MSFS UI system. The MSFS UI system has not been designed as an extendable system to incorporate 3rd party additions such as AM and LM, so the only way to extend it to provide these UX improvements is to override the core MSFS UI files with the custom code. The benefits are obvious, with a vastly improved UX to solve many pain points that the user community has recognised, but there are also a couple of risks you should be aware of, and how to mitigate them if you have issues.

• There is limited abiliy to interoperate with other addons that might try to extend the main MSFS UI, so you will have to make a choice between products that wish to do this. See Known Issues for more specific info on known conflicts.
• The MSFS Core UI files are checked with every release to ensure they are up to date with any changes Asobo may have introduced. AM and LM are also tested prior to any SU beta releases to ensure they work ok, and the main UI is still consistent. If issues do occur they will be rectified asap and updates to AM/LM released if needed.
• If you have any problems, you can always deactivate AM/LM at any time to return to the current MSFS base UI system with no impact.
• Please contact support via the form at the bottom of this page if you require further clarification or have an issue to report.

Q: Will Aircraft Manager and Location Manager work with MSFS 2024?

On June 11, 2023 Microsoft dropped notifcation that MSFS 2024 is coming.
MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2024: THE NEXT GENERATION OF THE LEGENDARY FRANCHISE

Given the lack of detail about content transfer and other obvious questions, they quickly followed up with some clarifying statements:
MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2024 FAQ

• Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is a new standalone simulator distinct from MSFS 2020.
• They will continue to support Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) post the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 launch.
• With very few exceptions, virtually all add-ons that work in Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) today will function in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.

I also pay close attention to the development roadmap and updates, the latest one of this post being “JUNE 8TH, 2023 DEVELOPMENT UPDATE“.

Two features listed on this update are relevant to AM: Aircraft Specific Control Profiles (Planned) and Aircraft Favorites (Under Investigation).
I note also that Asobo has 20+ open job postings for MSFS, some of them being UI specific, such as: “We are opening a Lead UI Programmer position as part of the implementation of a new UI tech on the Microsoft Flight Simulator project.” Asobo Studio – Lead UI Programmer H/F (Flight Sim)

So it seems MSFS 2024 User Interface system is undergoing a complete rewrite for MSFS 2024, and as such AM & LM in their current form will remain as MSFS 2020 addons only due to the changes in the underlying UI framework that will come as part of that. I suspect that the Control Profiles and Favorites noted above are unlikely to be done for MSFS 2020, and they will instead implement it properly as part of MSFS 2024.

Pending more information in the future:

• MSFS 2020: Aircraft Manager Pro and Location Manager Pro will remain essential addons to improve your UX, as they will keep MSFS 2020 running post MSFS 2024 release. There is nothing announced about back porting this new UI framework to MSFS 2020, which isn’t likely to happen given they are releasing MSFS 2024 with it as a key feature and selling point.
• MSFS 2024: The MSFS 2020 versions of AM & LM will likely not work on MSFS 2024 (TBC) as it seems as they are developing a completely new UI framework based on lessons learned. I will keep pace with MSFS 2024 developments, and see what value I can bring to it then with a MSFS 2024 specific version of AM and LM.

Q: Why is there a size limit on the notes/tags you can save (and other things)?

A: There are currently unknown and undocumented aspects to the MSFS SDK, and storage limits are one of these fuzzy areas.
After doing my own testing to get some clarity, Asobo developers indicated there should be no issues based on some reasonable size tests they have done, and to let them know if any issues are encountered. Based on this, I’m taking a measured risk reduction approach for now with storage limits. I’ve decided to initally release with smaller storage limits, see what people do with it, get feedback, and increase the limits as needed in measured steps based on real world usage. There are also performance implications with loading/unloading huge blobs of text in the UI, and I’d like to strike a good balance between utility, value, and performance. There’s always trade offs with this kind of thing.

Q: What do the blue reset/refresh buttons actually do?

A: Working from left to right, they reset the grid filters/sort, the msfs plane filter, or combinations of all. They are quick ways to reset everything if you want to go back to the start view, so you don’t have to go into the filters or click through the header sort. Convenience features.

The “Reset All” is also a good way to reset and refresh the grid with current data if things have visually gotten messed up from column changes or other things. The only thing it won’t reset is the MSFS search bar, which you will have to clear manually via the X in the search bar.

Delete, in red for DANGER, is a one click delete data button for the control preset data you have made. There’s no confirmation dialog, so be careful of it. I may remove this at some point, it’s also a convenience feature for when you’re learning and want to quickly reset your control preset data. This does nothing to the actual Control Options device presets, it only affects the data stored by ACP linking planes to your selected control preset.

  Known Issues

• Addon Conflicts:
  • Due to current limitations, be aware that other apps that integrate into the MSFS UI may conflict with AM and LM, so you may have to make a choice between them. Apps known to integrate into the main MSFS UI are:
    • Modern UI
      • Confirmed incompatibility, causes Aircraft Manager to not show any aircraft.
      • Be aware that the Modern UI addon is no longer officially supported either (see the file download message at the referenced link above), so use at your own risk.
    • See also Location Manager Known Issues for issues specific to that addon
  • Pro and Free don’t mix: Pro and Free versions will cause issues if used together. ie: AM Pro + LM Free or AM Free + LM Pro are not supported. This is due to underlying requirements.
• Aircraft Control Presets:
  • IMPORTANT: MSFS Controller Preset Names. It is essential that you make distinct names for each control preset for each device in the MSFS Peripheral Control settings section. This name is used as key in ACP to switch presets, and they need to be distinctive for each device, and within each device. The easiest way to do this is prefix each uniquely named preset with couple of characters that identify the device. For example, keyboard might have KFenixA320 and KPMDG737, Mouse would be MFenixA320, MPMDG737 etc. This should also be done if you create disabled presets for devices you don’t want to use for a plane, so KDisabled, MDisabled etc.
    In the ACP grid you will never see the same preset name under a different controller. If you see that, change the name so they are distinct. 
  • Max devices = 10. No more than 10 devices are supported by ACP.
    If you have more than 10 control devices connected to MSFS only the first 10 devices as shown in the Control Options will be used in ACP as there are only 10 slots. The rest will remain untouched.
    It’s likely that if you have over 10 devices you don’t actually need to switch them all per aircraft, and you probably have at least a few that are general for all aircraft. It seems MSFS does the device order on how it polls the USB ports, so you could try swapping the devices past #10 in Control Options with your non-changing devices.
    How to do this? Try plugging all devices in, then go to control options, note the order MSFS assigns, specifically the devices past #10. Then go to the ACP panel. You should see the 10 devices are the same order with an index added to the start from 0, which is how I order the columns. That index comes from MSFS, but I add it to the name for an easy what to identify devices. Exit MSFS, swap your general devices with the ones you identified as past #10, then start MSFS again and check Control Options to see the changed order is correct. Rinse, repeat till happy, then confirm the ACP panel shows the 10 devices that are most variable per aircraft. 
  • Duplicate Devices: Does not handle duplicate devices with same Device name. This is a MSFS bug that needs to be fixed.
    • Some users have found workarounds for this Duplicate Device issue. See MSFS forum thread Can Microsoft Flight Simulator use two identical joysticks for some suggestions that might be used in combination with Aircraft Control Presets. There are no guarantees these will work for you, and no refunds, so if this is too much risk for you at the moment please do not purchase until Asobo resolve this issue.  
    • Special Case: Turtle Beach Velocity One flight controls will create two Velocity One Flight game controllers under Windows. It seems it uses two USB chips to do its work. As reported by TBVelocity One users of ACP, it works ok with Aircraft Control Presets.  
  • Tobii Eye Tracker issues: Some users have reported a strange issue where the Tobii presets are only showing up in the next controller column. This problem appears to be TrackIR (or OpenTracker/NaturalPoint) DLL’s or Registry entries still remaining on your system from a previous eyetracker installation (Viewtracker, Opentracker++) which causes some confusion in MSFS control options, which ACP relies on. You need to remove all traces of TrackIR. See this MSFS forum thread for some solutions: Removing TrackIR from the Controls Options
    This will also help you get rid of that mysterious TrackIR controller entry that might have been bugging you!
  • Auto Preset Switching Time: Presets will automatically get switched every time you select a new plane ie: make a new plane the active one. Switching a bank of presets is not instant, and needs to be done sequentially like you do in Control Options. To get reliability when many device presets are switched at once I’ve had to increase the switch time to 1 second per device preset. However, to balance this I’ve implemented dynamic switching so the overall time will vary depending on how many presets are set in ACP (Auto Control Presets).
    For example, say you have 5 presets set that are changed from the previous aircraft. It will take 5 seconds to switch all 5 presets.
    If you only have one, the rest blank or the same as the previous aircraft, it will take 1 second.
    If no presets have changed it will switch instantly.
    So to optimise the switching time you should consider how you want to set up your presets in ACP to switch most efficiently.
  • Switching Presets: Abide by the “Please wait” message when switching. You must give it the required time to change the bank of presets. Be aware switching planes in Aircraft Selection and Aircraft Manager that a preset switch is not already in progress when selecting a plane, as it will fire off another switch while one is still in operation. ie: Think before selecting. 
  • ACP Panel Aircraft selection disabled when a switching operation is in progress: In the ACP panel this is done to avoid multiple switch conflicts from double clicking. Be mindful when in other aircraft selection panels (see previous point) that a switch is not in progress before selecting a new plane. 
  • Presets Not Switching: Do not use completely empty presets as blank placeholder presets. Devices seem to hang doing this automatically as opposed to manually, so if you want a “blank” placeholder preset set at least one setting in there that you won’t use. Use case here might be a dual yoke & stick setup, and you want to blank the yoke while using the joystick for a plane. 
  • SPAD.Next: https://www.spadnext.com/ is an external solution to solving the same problem that ACP does. I haven’t tested it, but logic dicates that the two operating on the same area at the same time isn’t a good idea. So don’t do that. Use one, or the other, and preferably disable the one you’re not using to remove any chance of conflicts happening.
  • Delete Data button: Sometimes, saved preset data may become corrupted, or perhaps you want to start from scratch again. Press the red Delete Data button to delete all the saved plane device presets, go back to the main menu, then back into Aircraft Control Presets to reinitialize the data, and set your presets as you wish. This does not affect the Control Options presets, it just resets the ACP grid data for switching.  
  • Don’t Change the Default Presets: The sim comes with default presets you can use for each controller. Do not change these. If you want to use one as a base for a new preset, duplicate it and rename it.
  • Preset Renaming: Due to the control preset initialisation process it is not possible to automatically detect renamed presets. To rename presets, it is recommended you plan out your preset naming strategy, duplicate ones you wish to rename & name them in Control Options, then change them manually to the new preset in Aircraft Control Presets. Then you can later delete the unused preset(s) from Control Options if you wish. 
  • Selected Plane not showing in ACP:  Due to the control preset initialisation process it is not possible to automatically scroll the grid to the currently selected aircraft as the main Aircraft Manager view does on first time entry. Please press “Reset All” button to trigger this, and the current selected aircraft should pop into view. This should also resolve any other issues with data and or column formatting you might have.  
  • Duplicate Aircraft Names: Does not handle aircraft with same name (like AM) as plane name is part of the data key. Do not use two aircraft with the same name at the same time.
  • Device Hot Swapping: ACP does not support hot swapping devices ie: unplugging/plugging in controller devices while MSFS is running. To change device configs must exit the sim, change, restart the sim.
• Weight and Balance Presets: Some gliders may have issues loading saved presets (eg: changed pilot weight) which then changes the ballast weights. This seems to be due to the automatic ballast balancing code that some gliders have. No solution at the moment.
  Workaround: load the preset as is then adjust the overall ballast slider to equalize the ballast positions, then adjust tail ballast.
• Favorite Synching: Favorites are shared between the Aircraft Manager and Aircraft Control Presets, but may not be fully visually synchronised if you change a favorite on one AM panel and immediately switch to the other AM panel. To keep them 100% in synch you will need to trigger a data refresh that will re-read them from storage, either by re-selecting the active plane (or another one) or doing a search in the search bar. I’ll look into optimising the User Experience to remove any confusion.
• Scaling to different screen resolutions. Due to issues encountered integrating into the MSFS UI it hasn’t been possible to implement a fully responsive UI that scales up and down like the MSFS UI does. The workaround for the moment is a manual font size change feature, so the user can adjust the font size of the data grid to their own preference. There are also some adjustments to column widths depending on the font size chosen. I would call it partially responsive. Free demo now includes this functionality.
• Search Integration: Search via the MSFS search boxes is bi-directional (both ways) between AM and MSFS aircraft selection. AM filtering is restricted to within AM as the search functions for them do not currently exist in MSFS.
• Scrolling/Pagination: Due to memory issues with integrating into the MSFS UI a hybrid pagination/scroll system has been implemented to avoid any issues. Page size is currently set at 80 rows to stike a balance between utility, performance, and bug free use.
• Font Character Accents: Due to limitations with the integration method, font character accents are currently not supported. They have been filtered out in names, tags, and notes to be replaced by the english equivalents so you shouldn’t see strange characters anymore. Let me know if you do (via the support form below at the bottom of the page) and I’ll look into it.
• Sound: No sound click effect when selecting a plane in the aircraft manager, but there is some visual feedback in response to clicking.

Release Notes

Pro Version

Aircraft Manager Release Notes 1.2.5
Date: 25/08/2023

* Install package consolidated to one folder

Aircraft Manager Release Notes 1.2.0
Date: 29/06/2023

* New! Weight and Balance Presets. Includes W&B toolbar.
* New! Favorite Livery – save/reloads the active livery (aka current favorite) when switching aircraft. No more switch back to default livery when selecting a plane.
* Added control preset switching message to main AM panel
* Aircraft Control Presets sorted alphabetically
* Font accents replaced by standard letters in name/tags/notes
* Bug Fixes
* Performance Improvements

Aircraft Manager Release Notes 1.1.0
https://sonicviz.com/project/aircraft-manager/
Date: 26/05/2023

* Complete rewrite of the scaling for a much improved User Experience (UX)
* Other small UX adjustments
* Bug Fixes
* Performance Improvements

Aircraft Manager Release Notes 1.0.6
Date: 28/04/2023

• Re-enabled sort on Notes
• ACP Performance optimisations

Aircraft Manager Release Notes 1.0.5
Date: 16/04/2023

• Restricted Max devices to 10
• New: Dynamic switching time to improve both reliability and the switching UX. See note in known issues.
• Aircraft selection disabled when a switching operation is in progress. Please wait until the switch is finished. Avoids multiple switch conflicts from double clicking.
• Performance optimisations

Aircraft Manager Release Notes 1.0.4 Date: 28/03/2023

• Removed Su12 data migration check
• Added progress message for Aircraft Control Preset switching
• Fixed issue with customization options

Aircraft Manager Pro Release Notes 1.0.3 Date: 21/03/2023

• Data migration fix for SU12 data change. NOTE: DO NOT USE WITH MSFS VERSION LESS THAN SU12 RELEASE.
• Performance Improvements

Aircraft Manager Pro Release Notes 1.0.2 Date: 02/03/2023

• NEW FEATURE: Auto Control Preset Switching (separate tab) see video explainer @  https://youtu.be/AVmBFMgK5ro 
• Performance Improvements
• Fixed missing icons in filter popups
• Fixed horizontal scrollbar

Free Version

Aircraft Manager Free Release Notes 1.1.0
https://sonicviz.com/project/aircraft-manager/
Date: 26/05/2023

* Complete rewrite of the scaling for a much improved User Experience (UX)
* Other small UX adjustments
* Bug Fixes
* Performance Improvements

Aircraft Manager Free Release Notes V 1.0.3
Released 2023-05-20

• Added favorites for free

Free V 1.0.2 released 2023-03-16

• Due to upcoming SU12 data changes tags are being removed from AM Free. Sort on speed is implemented as a replacement.
• Performance tweaks

Free V 1.0.1 released 2023-02-16

• Bug fix with selected aircraft/location when sorting to maintain position
• Sorting in free versions of both synchronised to 3 (check version comparison help file for details)
• Performance tweaks

V 1.0.0 released 2023-02-14

Update 13/02/2023

• New free version release, no version number change.
• Performance improvements + fixes
• Mandatory install for data migration prior to pro version release, if you want to keep your current tags.

Update 19/1/2023

• New free version release, no version number change.
• Performance improvements + Larger image for >2K screen resolution (adjust font to see).

Update 18/1/2023

• New free version release, no version number change.
• Performance improvements + UI/UX improvements.

Update 9/1/2023

• Update 2: Hybrid pagination/scroll system, 80 rows/page. Fixed bi-directional search integration with MSFS search.
• Update 1: New free version release, no version number change. Resolve memory issues with scrolling of large aircraft collections.

Update 8/1/2023
New free version released. Check the Known Issues and Help guides above. No version number change:

• Added new Free version features – see Benefits and Features comparison table above
• User controllable font size to adapt to different screen resolutions
• Many under the hood fixes and improvements.

Update 5/1/2023
New video explainer including the new favourites functionality and dark mode, combined with the tweaks outlined below.

4/1/2023 Updated the Free Demo.

No change in version number, but a summary of tweaks:

• Implemented Dark Mode theme. Fits better with the MSFS UI. Tip: Mouse over the far right edge of the grid to quickly scroll up/down. It will scroll in amounts depending on how far up or down the page you are.
• Lowercased the inbuilt categories
• Renamed Time to End(urance)
• Zeroed out bad data if a plane didn’t have it for speed/alt/end/range to 0 (N/A).
• Add Auto convert speed/alt/range to metric or imperial values to the free lite demo.

V 1.0.0

Initial Release (free): 04/01/2023 – dd/mm/yyy format😉
Pro version release (Early Access): TBD

Refund Policy

Please try the free lite version/demo first before buying, to ensure the addon works ok on your system before buying.

Due to the nature of this product being digitally available, purchases of this product are non-refundable.

Support

Please contact us via this form if you have any issues to report.
If you have email issues or no reply you can try contact via the social channel links up top right of the page or ping me on the MSFS forums.
Note: Free version support is limited compared to the payware version.

To resolve issues it’s important to be able to replicate them, so we need to have as much information as possible in order to reproduce the problem and hopefully resolve it. Please also make sure you have read the Known Issues and Tips sections above.

Please include as much of the following information as you can:

• Your receipt information for proof of purchase, and where you bought it from
• Your version of MSFS (Steam or Microsoft store)
• Whether you are on the live version or the Beta version
• Describe what you were doing prior to the issue occurring
• Describe what happened to trigger the issue
• Does it happen all the time or only in certain situations?
• What addons you have installed
• Specs: Windows Settings/System/About (screenshot Device/Windows sections) + GPU + a list of all the controllers you have attached.
• Describe anything else you think is relevant.

Thanks!