I’m getting this error, Error parsing line 5: -KPDX0126
Well, what is the default value, though? C? S? X? L? What about ADS-B/C capabilities?
As I said in my message above: “this field is not a yes or no question”. And because of the combinatory nature of this field, a dropdown list would very quickly go overboard.
Just pushed an update with a few fixes:
- OPR/ is no longer limited to 3 characters - thanks @810369
- All fields are properly converted to upper case - thanks @1068951
- Parser no longer shows an error on line 5 when missing an “Alternate” - thanks @1195842
There’s some additional validation/warnings that will be added to DOF and Off Block Time. Automatically converting to the current date might cause an issue for pilots that are refiling their flight plan during a long haul after reconnecting, where the actual DOF might be the day before - I know this is not properly handled right now, but it will be.
The error does not go away because that validation is happening on the backend, and that field is not configured for live validation (yet).
Pretty much what @1627359 said. It would be difficult to come up with a proper default for this, and if we did, it might be an incentive for pilots to just always use the default, without even looking at it and/or filing what they actually have.
It won’t be a dropdown, but I am planning on a better way to fill in all fields that have specific options available, like equipment, PBN, PER, STS (soon™) etc.
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Hello, maybe I’ve found a bug in the arrival field.
Some real airports have only 3 letters, but the form field validates that It need to have 4 characters.
This isn’t a bug. If the airport doesn’t have an ICAO code, you put ZZZZ and your actual origin/destination in the remarks.
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does this change (potentially) allow to change the flightplan midflight? This would be particularly interesting for training flights with several legs but only touch and goes.
Sp far this has to be done with STAY, which works in theory but is quite cumbersome in practice. Filing separate flightplans for each leg, which is the (more) correct way to do it would be nice
Suggestion: move the date of flight to DOF in the field 18 section to better align with ICAO format
This feedback is in the top right of the screen, usually only lasts a few seconds and i found even on a 34 inch monitor I had to scroll up from the file/save flight plan button to see the actual feedback.
Even when you could file via vpilot, after ATC amend your flight plan its locked so you cant make changs and re file it. you can file a new flight plan with out disconnecting if you have arrived at your destination of the previous flight plan. (we did this during worldflight)
maybe this “ATC locks” your FP mechanic coulkd be loosened then 
You can also try putting a ‘K’ in before the 3 characters for the smaller US airfields 
e.g KU01
I’ll try that, thanks
Would it be possible to make a short form for VFR, only including the essentials?
Aircraft callsign, departure airport, arrival airport, aircraft type, and requested route
That is the minimum requirement in the Code Of Conduct. So having a form that requires more as mandatory is maybe not the most optimal.
Thank you for the update of the form and the possibility to provide feedback. I have collected the following questions/proposals:
- Flight Rules: are Y and Z types planned to be implemented?
- Aircraft Type: Maybe this could be linked with a list of valid types (as it was available before in vPilot) to avoid the use of wrong types by presenting only a list of valid ones? If this type list is updated regularly, a validation prior accepting the form could be enforced. I would suggest to use the VATSIM GitHub repo to allow easy contributions.
- Wake Category: officially “Wake Turbulence Category”, or short WTC. “Super” has no longer a special status, but has been integrated in to the WTC as an equal category for specific aircraft types of 136000 kg or more. Although the A388 currently remains the only aircraft assigned WTC J, this category is no longer solely reserved for a single aircraft type.
- Equipment & Transponder: It would be great to have some sort of checkboxes to indicate the available entries. This could also be solved in a popup. In addition, a checkbox solution could also be used to indicate dependencies and activate/deactivate other entries based on the user actions. Without such a solution, I would suggest to link at least to a source for further information, either internally in the myVATSIM portal or to an external page like LZ: Flight Plan Guide [NMO-FPL-GUIDE] (eurocontrol.int).
- All time fields: Propose to use the “time” type to allow browser supported picker.
- Altitude: Propose to change the step from 1 to 1000 (or 500). Further improvement could be done with a dependency from the flight rules (500 ft offset for VFR, so that it jumps from 1500 to 2500 etc.).
- PBN: The number of entries should be limited to 8 (16 characters). A validation similar as for equipment and transponder would be the ideal solution. Some basic validation can be done using regex, as all entries need to follow the same pattern (letter + number).
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This would be mostly an FSD change. Mike addressed this a while ago on discord:
Right now, you’ll have to disconnect, file a flight plan, and reconnect if it’s been locked by ATC or you’re flying/moving.
You shouldn’t need to scroll up to see the Success/Failure message. That part is using the same “system” as the old form, no changes were made. I’ll increase the time it stays up so it’s easier to spot.
I’m not sure how that’s handled on CRC, you might encounter issues doing that on the US.
The appropriate way would be what David said above. ZZZZ on the departure field, with DEP/ filed (the PDF I linked on the first post has an example).
This has been requested, I’ll look into it in the future - likely after this beta is over.
The fields curently marked as required are unlikely to change for now, since that’s what FSD requires.
- Y/Z are being considered, but would require an FSD change as well.
- I have that planned. My initial idea was to use the official data provided by ICAO, but having an Open Source Github repo could work as well.
- The little hint for the A388 was there already, I simply moved it from the old form. I’ll remove that and updated it accordingly.
- Planned. Like I mentioned here, fields like PBN/PER/STS/etc, that have a “limited set of options”, will have some sort of checkbox/select system (+ some hints on each option) in the future
- I’ll look into it. Browsers tend to do weird timezone conversions on those fields, and that could break it, so no promises. Also, fuel and enroute time are not really time fields, so that would apply for Off Block Time only
- I’ll look into it, but this might cause issues on countries using Meters that need to convert it to feet
- Refer to the above, but yes, this will be properly validated soon
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If I’m missing it, I apologize, but is there a dark mode available? If not, is one being developed?
Thank you.
What is the time limit to file a FP in VATSIM?
In the past the prefile was saved for 2 hours, however it seems that we can now file flight plans with up to 2 days of advance.
If the limit is still 2 hours, I would suggest to limit that in the DOF field. Maybe even pre-select it automatically
that now FPs are saved, would it require a big change to FSD to “hotswap” the flightplan?
Maybe it would be a good compromise to just check if the number is a full level (if IFR is selected) or a half level (if VFR is selected) and put out a warning message to users to check that they have filed a valid level for their flight if this is not the case - they can then either check and if necessary correct the level or acknowledge and continue. That way, it can be reasonably assured that people don’t file wildly incorrect stuff, but the option to deviate from this norm is still there to accommodate exceptions. There are a couple of situations that I can think of where you don’t use a half level for VFR, e.g.
From an ATC point of view it is not desirable that pilots can just re-file/change their flightplans once ATC has modified them.
you can already do that by refiling when disconnected within a couple of seconds. I doubt you would even notice