Today we’re spending some time introducing you, fellow reader, to a few useful utilities to enhance your experience in Microsoft Flight Simulator. Earlier today we brought you Random Flight Database, a nifty little app that can generate flight plan ideas based on a few user-defined criteria. Now, we’ll introduce you to another free utility for MSFS that is oriented toward those who know where they want to fly and wish to find an easy way to check all that handy SimBrief info directly in the cockpit!
Aptly named SimBrief Panel, this is one of those extremely simple and instantly invaluable tools that we can’t believe took this long to arrive. FlyingArt is the developer responsible for this creation, which promises to simplify the task of inputting all that SimBrief data into your FMC.
SimBrief Panel is as simple as it can get. It works as a toolbar utility that you can open inside MSFS. From there, it’s just a matter of giving it your SimBrief username, in the settings, and asking it to fetch your flight plan. And voilà , the magic happens instantly, and you’ll be prompted with a resizable window listing all the most valuable data, including origin and destination airports with ICAO codes, airport elevation, cruise altitude, fuel, payload, route, and more.
And that’s really it! The use cases are varied and this can be useful in a few handy circumstances, such as when programming the FMC, or when flying in VR, when having all the info you need inside the simulator proves to be extremely valuable.
Obviously, many of you already use the EFB included in some airplanes to fetch SimBrief info, but this little panel makes this task even easier to do and quicker to use in the aircraft. Since it’s stuck in front of you no matter where you’re looking (despite being movable), it can always be there by the CDU. You’ll no longer have to look back and forth between the EFB and CDU to get the data you need and fill in the corresponding fields.
SimBrief Panel is one of the most ingenious and useful free utilities we’ve seen yet for MSFS and it’s a must-have if you depend on SimBrief to plot your next flight. It’s available now, for free, through flightsim.to!
