Installing the SimConnect Client for MS Flight Simulator and Prepar3D | FSCharter Docs (2024)

FSCharter works by interacting with your simulator via a standalone SimConnect application, that connects to both your simulator (MSFS or P3D) and FSCharter. The client is responsible for placing your aircraft in the world, setting fuel and payload and recording takeoffs, flights and landings.

Installing the Client#

• Log in to FSCharter and download the client from the sidebar menu Download Plugin.
• Unpack the FSCharter_SC.zip archive and
• run the included FSCharter_SC.msi installer.
• Once the installation has completed you will find an FSCharter icon in your Windows start menu.

Connecting to FSCharter#

Start MSFS or P3D as usual, and the FSCharter client from your Windows start menu. Wait until the client has established a connection to your simulator, saying "Connected" in the menu bar. You can log in to FSCharter using the same credentials that you use to access fscharter.net by opening up the Settings window (Settings > Settings...):

Notes#

MSFS Software Tips#

To see important text messages inside MSFS sent by the FSC client, you need to enable Assistance Options > Notification > Software Tips.Each message needs to be clicked to go away, which is the reason why only very few messages are yet passed through to MSFS, like flight invalidation or taxiing / taking-off without having boarded an FSC job.

Lockheed Martin Prepar3D Pause on Task Switch#

In Prepar3D, go to Options > General... > Application and ensure Pause on task switch is OFF, otherwise the simulator will pause whenever you try to work with the FSCharter client, which in turn will deactivate many functions of FSCharter.

Using a SimConnect Remote Connection#

You can run FSCharter.exe on a remote computer and have it connect to the simulation machine over the network. This is a feature of SimConnect, not so much of FSCharter. You will need to configure:

• The server (ie. the simulator-side) to open a port for incoming remote traffic by providing a SimConnect.xlm file defining a connection for example with <Protocol>=IPv4, <scope>=global, <port>=500, and <Adress>=(simulator's pc name or ip address). See here (MSFS) or here (P3D) for more details and a template SimConnect.xml file.
• A firewall rule on the simulator-side if you run a firewall. Easiest would be to allow the port(s) that you configured (e.g. in Windows Defender, select Inbound Rules, then Action > New Rule..., Port, TCP, specify the ports (e.g. 500,501), then Allow the connection in your Private network).
• The client to remotely connect to the simulator by putting a SimConnect.cfg file into the folder where FSCharter.exe lives. This files needs to define the same address, port, and protocol as open for remote connection on the server side. See here (MSFS) and again here (P3D) for more details and a template SimConnect.cfg file.

The FSCharter client tries all available configurations in turns, starting with [SimConnect] section (with no trailing digit). You can pass another configuration number as a command line parameter, so executing FSCharter.exe 1 would load configuration [SimConnect.1].

Updating the Client#

The client informs you with a message at startup as soon as a new version of the FSC Client is available. Major version changes are even mandatory and you must update before you can proceed.

Click on [Download and Install] to download the new plugin to your Downloads folder and run its installer. The FSC Client will quit to allow the installer to do its work.

If you click [Download] only, you can install later yourself from your Downloads folder, see above.

Known Limitations#

Building Collision (MSFS)#

If MSFS reports a collision when you accept a flight by clicking Begin Job then the starting position might be inside a building. This can happen for example if you accepted a job of another company, which parked the aircraft using a different simulator or with different scenery, in which there was no airport; or by accidentally placing a new aircraft inside a building.

To recover you have two options. First of all, restart your flight in MSFS, placing you aircraft at any suitable ramp or runway position. Then do one of these:

• Temporarily disable automatically setting the plane's position and taxi yourself near the boarding position:
  • In the Settings' Plane-specfic options, disable Location.
  • Select Settings > Start over... from the menu, which will restart your communication with the FSCharter platform.
  • Click Begin Job again, but this time your aircraft will not move.
  • If the client displays For boarding you need to be positioned according to your current FSCharter position. then follow the given directions to taxi towards the boarding position manually.
  • Once nearby (50m radius), set the parking brake, shut down engines, and click Board.
  • Consider re-enabling the Location option in Settings.
• Disable MSFS's crash detection:
  • In the Options (separate tab in the main menu, or just hit [Esc] when in flying mode) go to Assistance Options > Failure and Damage
  • and switch Crash Damage to Disabled.
  • Select Settings > Start over... from the FSCharter client's menu, which will restart your communication with the FSCharter platform.
  • Click Begin Job again and your aircaft will be teleported into the building but won't be consdered crashed.
  • Use Slew mode to navigate the plane out of the building (hit [Y], then move the plane with the num pad's keys, end with [Y]), but not too far away from the original position to be able to board.

Missing Payload Values (MSFS)#

Payload is set automatically and applied to the aircraft's weight but MSFS does not display applied values in its Fuel/Payload dialog. This seems to be an MSFS bug.

Payload Balancing Issues (MSFS & P3D)#

Due to the nature of MSFS's and P3D's payload system, FSCharter can bring a plane out of balance and make it tilt.

In these simulators, payload is assigned to "payload stations", which can range in size from the pilot seat, via small baggage compartments, to the entire cabin or cargo compartments. But FSCharter cannot find out the max allowed weight per station! So it tries to identify single seats (pilots, individual passengers) and assigns 70kg weight each, but then distributes all remaining payload evenly across all other payload statins. This can assign too much weight to individual stations causing a fatal shift in center of gravity.

If this happens to you, you can switch off automatic payload in FSCharter's Settings, see the Plane-specfic options at the bottom.

Flight Continuation Altitude Issues (MSFS)#

MSFS does not honor individual waypoints' altitude. For this reason, flight plans written for MSFS instead set the Cruising Altitude to be the altitude required for flight continuation.

Message Popup Window Position (SimConnect Client)#

The message popup window sometimes seems to move back to the top left corner, even if you configured it otherwise (Settings). You can drag the window any time while it shows.

Support#

Information on support has been moved here.

Tips, and Tricks#

• Tooltips are often available when hovering over GUI elements like checkboxes or buttons.
• As a premium user, you can continue an interrupted FSCharter flight (e.g. if your simulator stopped/crashed or because you were interrupted by real life events).