This is a developing story and will be updated over the next couple of hours.
Navigraph has taken to the FSExpo main stage this afternoon to give an update on their current product lines and some new features coming soon.
Staring with online traffic, the team headed by Magnus said this is still beta but soon will be going into production on the charts app.
Then, moving onto new features, we saw scratchpads. This is a utility where, as a pilot, you can make notes on instructions given to you by ATC – a feature especially useful to those flying on virtual networks. This feature is almost done, and the team said it would be releasing after the summer holidays.
Next up, a partnership with Rogers Data. This is a European company providing VFR charts across the continent. This will be coming soon to the unlimited subscription at no additional cost, complimenting the FAA sectionals already in the app for simmers in the US. This is a very new feature, and the team said right now there is no internal release date as Navigraph continues working on the charts integration.
Taxiing Assistant and Planner
Following this, the team welcomed their colleague Alex to the stage, who gave a demo of the new feature which received the loudest applause in the room – a new taxiing assistant built into the charts app.
This feature gives the user previously unseen levels of assistance when it comes to following a taxi routing. A dashed line always shows shortest route to the runway from your stand, and an Autoroute button can automatically generate a route for you. The user also has the ability to add stops at holding points.
For users on the virtual air traffic networks that often get complex taxi routings, there is an incremental taxi route building tool, wherein a custom route can be entered and then displayed in the app. We can select turns as we go and filter with an input field. A new taxiway routing widget in the charts app shows progress along the taxi with linear representation of your path, runway crossings and hold points. You taxiing path turns red when reaching a hold to indicate you cannot progress, and you a can remove these once you’ve received the clearance. If you diverge from the planned taxi route, a dashed line appears which gets you back to the route you’re meant to be on.
A new stand information modal has been added as part of the update as well, where you can click on any stand and see the stand name, compatible aircraft types, terminals, fuel types available and more.
Not yet implemented but also coming with the update are: aural warnings, hotspots, live traffic, maximum wingspan info, restricted aircraft on taxiway information, max speed info, hold category selections for low visibility procedures (LVPs), selecting intermediate holds and more. The team even made reference to stand occupation information in stand selector, and there is an aspiration to add more features like de-icing areas, time predictions, progressive clearances and stand occupations – though these are not officially confirmed.
Alex then gave us a short preview of the upcoming SimLink v2 application. SimLink v1 pulled sim data once every second, however with v2 this has been increased by at least 4 times. Jokingly the team said “we’re not trying to turn charts into your nav display, but we’re not stopping you either”.
One of the most impressive features of SimLink v2 though is the ability to display AI traffic in the simulator. We saw this working with MSFS 2024 AI traffic, and also injected traffic from the BeyondATC AI client.
Keep an eye on our socials and website as we continue to bring the latest news, updates and announcements from FSExpo in Providence, RI.
