FStarter Introduction

FStarter is a MSFS utility app that let you do the following:

1. Easy start up a flight over any of the 3D rendered cities in the world for some sightseeing flying.

2. Easy start up a flight over any non-3D rendered city in the world for some sightseeing flying.

3. #1 and #2 above can be started from the MSFS World Map UI or from FStarter "Start flight" when you are in any flight situation.

4. Add user POI of any flight situation with a mouse click to be later loaded as described above.

                Examples of POI setting possibilities:

                - Your house

                - At any airport runway ready for takeoff

                - Downwind situation

                - Approach situation

                - etc, etc, any type of situation

5. Add the desired altitude to any "Start flight" situation.

6. Easy start up a flight to enter any Airport Traffic Pattern and train your landing skills on any airport runway in the world.

                - "Start flight" can be set as Final, Downwind left, Downwind right, Entry left, Entry right,

                   Base left or Base right with altitude, distance(km/miles) and speed settings

                - Once a specific airport setting is set, it can also be set as a POI

7. User can also manually add POI from Bing Map and copy to poi.txt file

FStarter How to use

1. Start the FStarter app

2. If you want FStarter to always stay on top of all other windows, click OnTop marker

3. Click the "City(3D) Touring","City Touring" or "POI Touring" button

- select a city or POI to explore and make a CTRL-V(paste) when your cursor is in "MSFS WORLD      MAP UI" Search box.

                - click  the line with the radians for the selected position,

                - click "Custom" and "SET AS DEPARTURE" to start your flight in the air

                - or zoom out a little and select an airfield in the city surroundings to start from a runway

4. Click "FLY"

5. Add your own POI(Point of Interest) to poi.txt file

                - Start up Bing Map app and right click the position you want to add and copy lat and long data

                - open poi.txt file and add "name of poi"*"county/state"*"country"*lat,lon

                                i.e. Asker*Viken*Norway*59.833946, 10.439018,1000,0.0,0.0,300,100,0

                - Saved format in poi.txt: info1*info2*info3*lat,lon,alt,pitch,bank,hdg,spd,onground

6. You can also add a POI when flying, in the textbox below the airplane image you name your POI(Asker*Viken*Norway*) and click "Add POI"

7. You can also "Start flight" to another city(3d), city or POI at any altitude when you are in an active flight in MSFS2020

                - First, select a city or a POI, and then click the "Start flight" button

                The poi.txt included in the zip file has some demo POIs for landing at Hokksund airfield and some sightseeing

                You can make your own POIs for easy landing training at any airport

8. Click "Airport" to find you airport and set up an Airport Traffic Pattern to any airport and runway

A good read about Airport Traffic Patterns can be found here:

https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/airplane_handbook/media/09_afh_ch7.pdf

- Select airport, runway, altitude, distance, and speed

Distance format examples:

 Final:                    6   (On final 6 km/miles from runway threshold)

Downwind left: DL6,4 (On Downwind left 6 km/miles away and 4 km/miles to the left of runway threshold)

Downwind right: DR6,4 (On Downwind right 6 km/miles away and 4 km/miles to the right of runway threshold)

Entry left:            EL1,2 (On Entry left 1 km/miles away and 2 km/miles to the left of runway threshold)

Entry right:          ER1,3 (On Entry right 1 km/miles away and 2 km/miles to the right of runway threshold)

Base left:             BL6,4 (On Base left 6 km/miles away and 4 km/miles to the left of runway threshold)

Base right:           BR6,4 (On Base right 6 km/miles away and 4 km/miles to the right of runway threshold)

                * Distance can be set in km or miles with checking "Dist in miles"

                *IMPORTANT:   when using the “Airport”  feature, make sure you are in an active flight situation that is properly configured, preferably with an autopilot set to ON

                *TIP:                      You can start at an airport position as set above from MSFS's World Map UI

*TIP:                      when Alt, Dist, and Spd boxes are empty you can spawn to the selected runway on ground

*TIP:                      Repeat you landings efforts with a new “Start flight” to start again

9. How to set up your own Google map to be used in FStarter

To use Google My Maps, you must have a Google ID and the Chrome web browser installed on your PC. In Chrome, when you are logged on with your Google ID, go to https://www.google.com/mymaps Your My MAPS ID is the text between the 2 “=” in the search bar after you have created a map.

Paste this ID to Map.ini in the FStarter folder.

10. Check OnTop to have FStarter on top of other windows.

11. This app is a work in process, more features will come later for free.

                More innovative functions will be added. Feel free to suggest any new features.

My To do list now:

Flightmap to show live airplane position. In the meantime I suggest that you use the Little NavMap utility.

                Airplane selector

                Start a flight from any gate in the world

                Start in cold and dark

11. If you find an airport missing, please tell me and I will include it. Send to http://www.flightsim4fun.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=970

I would love to get some feedbacks, bad or good, it doesn't matter.

rksoftware

FStarter v1.2  2020-09-20