JP Jump Ahead allows shifting (or jumping) the airplane in cruise towards the next waypoint, while appropriately adjusting fuel and time. This is an alternative to simrate acceleration for planes that do not support it at the level desired, or if simply the sim pilot prefers it. It preserves the feeling of flight continuation and is a very good solution for VR pilots wanting to fly long range routes without spending hours in the virtual cockpit. I wrote it for myself as I love long-range planes but also like to fly them in a way they were intended to fly, not just on a short range. I also feel leaving the plane to fly by itself for hours while doing something else outside of sim is very artificial to me, and breaks the feeling of continuity, which is observation of changing environment, weather and time (see the sunrise for example on your way). Of course it is my own opinion, yours may be different. The reason I wrote this app is that many planes do not do well above simrate 4, and few can do 8x or 16x, so to shorten long flights to a reasonable length I needed something else. This is work in progress, features will be added, errors fixed, please report any bugs you encounter.

Installation

Extract the zip file to folder of your choice or use “Extract all …”. There are 4 folders inside the zip: jarekp-jumpahead-ingamepanel, jarekp-efb-jumpahead, JPJumpAheadHelper and fuel-bridges. jarekp-jumpahead-ingamepanel and jarekp-efb-jumpahead should be placed in your community folder, the first is toolbar panel, the second is EFB app interface. JPJumpAheadHelper can be placed in any convenient location, it contains Windows executable (helper), that generates graphics displayed in the toolbar panel and communicates with the simulator. fuel-bridges folder contains fuel bridges necessary for some airplanes to control fuel from the helper, one folder per plane. You can copy all of them to the community folder (this is what I do myself), or only those that you intend to use. If you use “A220 GSX EFB App” for Synaptic A220 please copy jarekp-a220-fuel-bridge-gsx from OPTIONAL folder INSTEAD OF regular jarekp-a220-fuel-bridge. Each bridge is only activated with a particular plane loaded and does not cost any fps. To use the app, start the sim, then start the helper (your antivirus may ask you first time if it is OK to run it, you need to agree), set helper options as desired (see below) and then use toolbar app or EFB app to jump and monitor from inside the sim.

Usage

NEW 0.9.22.1: Added logging to files to preserve data for debugging. Added iniBuilds A380 to inibuilds profile. Added Phenom 300e to default profile. Created new profile for Synaptic A220, A220 is now supported (requires jarekp-a220-fuel-bridge installed in community folder, users of the A220 GSX EFB App must install jarekp-a220-fuel-bridge-gsx from the OPTIONAL folder instead of the regular bridge. Do not install both versions). Created new profile "iniBuilds direct", which uses fuel bridges to connect to iniBuilds EFB to directly manipulate fuel. The fuel change is now fast.  This profile requires a fuel bridge (jarekp-xxxx-fuel-bridge) for each airplane. Added iniBuilds A350, A330, A380, A320neo, A321LR and A300 to "iniBuilds direct" profile, created necessary fuel bridges. Created "FBW-family refuel" profile from "FBW A320", it can now control different airplanes that use the same fuel handling. Moved FBW A320 to "FBW-family refuel" profile. Added Headwind A330 to "FBW-family refuel" profile.

IMPORTANT: Please make sure "Set Current IAS" speed handling method is selected, other two methods are likely not to work correctly.  Pre SU5 way of handling speed after jumping does NOT work with SU5 (it sets speed to zero instead). Unfortunately, the method suggested for SU5 does not work either, it freezes or crashes sim.  I have implemented a generic direct setting of pre jump IAS, and it seems to work well. All three methods are available in a new pulldown “Speed handling”: "Preserve [Legacy pre-SU5]", "Preserve [SU5 EXPERIMENTAL]", and "Set Current IAS". 

An essential part of the app is the ability to manipulate fuel levels in the tanks, and this is usually specific for a plane or family of planes. All planes share the same jumping and navigation routines, but fuel is custom. Some planes use their own custom fuel system (for example iniBuilds, Synaptic, FBW), and it usually requires a custom module (profile) to manipulate fuel for them. Current version supports wide variety of airplanes using classic and new simulator fuel system, SimConnect lvars, custom lvars, as well as airplanes supported with a custom connector. The procedure for manipulating fuel is a “Profile” drop-down on helper interface.  The second pull-down, “Tank Names”, defines parameters used by the profile as well as proper tank names. Each profile contains “Default” tank names, which does not use any custom names and tries to guess parameters. To verify if the airplane you are interested to use with the app, but not listed as supported, is compatible, start it on the ground with engines running and fuel tanks filled at least partially, then start JPJumpAhead helper, set appropriate profile (e.g. inibuilds or default), click “Start”, look at the toolbar app display (or open a browser) and check if all tanks are displayed. Then click “Test fuel”. The log window will tell you if the test fuel writing was successful, but  then you need to check manually if the fuel really changed as specified – if the fuel tanks are locked, even with “successful” write it may not change.

iniBuilds note: IniBuilds planes can now be used with two profiles: classic “inibuilds” profile using custom variables and “iniBuilds direct” profile using fuel bridges. A400, AN-225 and L1011 TriStar have been developed by iniBuilds, but they work with default profile, NOT custom iniBuilds profiles.  Classic inibuilds profile uses SimConnect to manipulate fuel, but unfortunately it takes long time to adjust, so fuel correction may take 30 seconds or even 2 minutes on long jumps (A350 central tank is the slowest). For example, a high burn 250nm jump with A330 may take up to 2 minutes. A300, A320neo, A321LR, A330, A350 and A380 were tested with “inibuilds”. A340 will likely work with “inibuilds” profile too but not tested.  “iniBuilds direct” profile uses fuel bridges to manipulate fuel, and fuel subtraction is fast. The tradeoff is that you need to use fuel bridge, specific for each plane. The fuel bridge needs to be verified and sometimes updated after the plane is updated to a new version. Known problem: I cannot update used fuel counter in iniBuilds planes, fuel-used counters do not include fuel consumed during jumps. This leads to a “FUEL LEAK SUSPECTED” warning in A350 (no such warning was observed in other planes). Optional workaround: go to “Situations”-> “Faults” menu on OIS EFB, “Fuel” section, and trigger “FUEL LEAK DETECTOR FAULT”, then clean it in EICAS (but keep it triggered for the flight). This disables simulated fuel-leak detection for the flight.

NOTE: Generally multiple shorter jumps are preferred – I extensively tested 250nm.

A400 note: iniBuilds A400M Atlas fuel consumption is broken after SU5 (usage at about 20% of expected). You can use optional “Sync fuel burn to Simbrief FOB” to keep fuel usage reasonable until it is fixed, you have to choose “A400” tank names in pulldown to override default active tank scheme.

Fenix note: I was wrong with Fenix, they do sync with MSFS fuel system, but it can only be used after it is initialized from Fenix EFB by Fenix EFB. Fenix tank names setting is now part of default profile, please select Fenix tank names to use it. Please note that fuel must be initialized by Fenix EFB, if it is loaded by GSX fuel writes will not work.

FBW note: FBW A380X is now supported, use it with lvar-refuel connector and “A380X FBW” tank names. Please note that FBW A32NX uses different fuel logic, and it can be used with “FBW-family refuel” connector.

BUGS: Please understand I cannot test the app in all circumstances; I am just one person “team” coding in the evening after work and then flying sim planes for fun. Fully testing in flight all variants is just not possible with free time I have. What I do I test all the planes on the ground with engines running, and at least one representative of each profile in flight.  All planes share jumping and navigation routines, it is the fuel that needs most testing. Please report any problems with detailed context about how they happened and a log file of the flight attached (C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\JPJumpAhead\Logs). Feel free to send me a PM on flightsim.to with any bug reports or suggestions.  

Helper options

To use the app the helper must run, it communicates with the sim and executes jumps. Helper should be started and configured before the toolbar/EFB app is started. The jumps and monitoring are supposed to be done from the toolbar. Here are the helper options. “Start” button initiates connection to the sim, “Stop” disconnects. “Dry Run” and “Start” are here for debugging, they have the same function as on the toolbar app.  “Dry Run” computes all jump parameters, but does not execute or change anything, while “Jump” does. “Open Browser” opens toolbar interface inside a regular desktop browser, useful for debugging. “Clear Log” clears messages in the log box below. “Test fuel” should be used to verify compatibility of the plane and settings, as described in the NOTE. Simbrief ID is the numerical Simbrief ID needed if Simbrief flight plan is the source of waypoints (see “Waypoints”). “Debug” checkbox will make the log very verbose. The next 4 parameters are the main controls for the app.

“Profile” pulldown is for choosing the interface to communicate with the plane, “default” (SimConnect), “inibuilds”, “iniBuilds direct “, “lvar-refuel”, “lvar-tanks”, “FBW-family refuel” and “A220” are now implemented.

Currently supported planes (and available “Tank Names”) are:

• default profile: A340 Toliss, A400M, B-52H (GKS), C-172, Fenix A319/A320/A321, L1011 Tristar, Phenom 300e
• inibuilds profile: A300, A320neo, A321LR, A330, A350, A380, (likely A340)
• iniBuilds direct profile: A300, A320neo, A321LR, A330, A350, A380
• lvar-refuel profile: A380X (FBW)
• lvar-tanks profile: Aerostar 600 (A2A)
• FBW-family refuel: FBW A320, Headwind A330
• A220: Default

When using a profile that requires a fuel bridge, two additional buttons are available: “Recover fuel bridge” and “Reset fuel bridge” (except for A220 bridge). These allow recovery from certain bridge errors without restarting the flight or simulator.

If a bridge error occurs, try “Recover fuel bridge” first. If recovery is unsuccessful, try “Reset fuel bridge”. These buttons are rarely needed during normal operation.

The fuel bridges perform extensive sanity checks to prevent incorrect fuel adjustments. Occasionally, an aircraft may exhibit unexpected fuel-system behavior (a bug?) that causes these checks to fail. Rather than risk an incorrect fuel adjustment, the bridge stops the operation and reports an error. The recovery and reset functions provide a way to restore operation without restarting the simulator. Important: After a bridge error, verify the aircraft's actual fuel quantities before attempting another jump.

Fuel tanks detection, unusable fuel and fuel usage

“Tank Names” controls fuel tank names and parameters, and its function is a bit complicated. For custom connectors like inibuilds or A220 it just holds parameters and tank names. For MSFS classic and new fuel systems one of the important parameters regarding fuel tanks is “unusable fuel”. If unusable fuel is not zero, the sim expects the app to write total fuel, including unusable, into a fuel simvar. Therefore, the app must determine unusable fuel value for each tank, otherwise the fuel levels will go bad whenever adjusted. The app is designed to do that at the start, but it is only possible when fuel levels in tanks are above unusable fuel level, if they are lower it cannot find unusable fuel value. In general, if you start a plane with fuel above 4-5 gal per tank it should be OK for automatic detection. To do that, start the plane with half-full tanks, start the app, then the log window will show auto detected tanks and unusable fuel values; below is an example for Cessna 172:

[17:54:12] Indexed tank 1: direct unusable detection qty=19.785 total=21.285 unusable=1.5
[17:54:12] Indexed tank 1: kept, qty=19.785 gal total=21.285 gal unusable=1.5 gal cap=28 gal
[17:54:12] Indexed tank 2: direct unusable detection qty=19.785 total=21.285 unusable=1.5
[17:54:12] Indexed tank 2: kept, qty=19.785 gal total=21.285 gal unusable=1.5 gal cap=28 gal

If the unusable fuel values are zero (most planes), you do not need to worry about anything, you can safely use “default”, and don’t need json file described below, unless friendly tank names are desired. Once the unusable fuel values are known, they can be stored in a json file in Configs\TankNames directory (where helper exe is), one file per plane. An example for Cessna 172 is

{
  "name": "C172 default",
  "notes": "Friendly tank labels",
  "profile": "default",
  "mappings": {
    "FS1": { "label": "Left Tank", "order": 1, "unusableGallons": 1.5 },
    "FS2": { "label": "Right Tank", "order": 2, "unusableGallons": 1.5 }
  }
}

Where “label” is a friendly name for a tank, otherwise tank names are just their SimConnect variables or aliases, order is for display order in the toolbar panel, and the last is unusable fuel value. Each json file corresponds to one entry in “Tank Names” pulldown. Once the “Tank Names” is chosen, you can start the plane with empty tanks and the app will use it as an override.  For start I provided two example json files, but over time more will be coming. If you create your own, please share. Most planes do not simulate unused fuel, so they don’t need json file, unless friendly tank names are desired. To summarize: “Tank Names” at default is OK if the tanks are NOT empty on start (or if you know unused fuel is not simulated for the plane you fly), you can empty them if you wish after the app figures out unusable fuel. Otherwise, a json file is the best choice.

Sometimes fuel usage for a plane may be off due to bugs or highly variable fuel usage. In this case you can enable “Sync fuel burn to Simbrief FOB” on the helper. This option overrides actual fuel usage computed and uses Simbrief fuel on board values from flight plan instead, of course it only works in Simbrief plan mode. It can be handy, like in a case of A400M which fuel usage is broken after SU5 and until it is fixed this is a temporary solution. In this mode there is additional button “Sync fuel” in toolbar app which will just sync fuel to Simbrief without any jumps.

Jump distance

The jump is executed in the direction (and on the great circle route) to the next waypoint, airplane heading is adjusted to the heading to the waypoint, and altitude is preserved. “Max jump nm” limits maximum jump to 250 nm at default, and you can change that here. A jump will reload things, most notably scenery, typically it is instant unless you jump into a low altitude over Manhattan or a similar place. However, for stability of the autopilot in your plane jumping too far in one step is not advised. Similarly, jumping over the waypoint may lead to nav system confusion and should be avoided – the second parameter “Min wp nm” takes care of that. The plane will use “Min wp nm” as the minimum distance before the waypoint that is it is allowed to be shifted to – the default here is 2nm, but for fast jets you may want to increase to 5nm.

Waypoints

Navigation source for waypoints is controlled from toolbar or EFB interface app. Many planes synchronize their flight plan with MSFS base navigation system, in this case the app will detect next waypoint automatically and no further action is needed. Customized airliners like iniBuilds, Fenix or PMDG keep their flight plans inside their custom avionics, and they cannot be reliably detected. In this case the app provides 3 fallbacks. First, it automatically falls back to Track mode, where it can jump along current track to a predefined distance, controlled by user input (see screenshots). In this case you must ensure waypoints are not bypassed by choosing appropriate distance. The second fallback, which must be chosen manually (by clicking on the source button) is Simbrief. If you put your numerical Simbrief ID in the helper text box, the app will read current active Simbrief flight plan and detect next waypoint based on current plane position and direction. It provides manual override, you can choose waypoints manually by cycling through them just in case you get a shortcut. Finally, you can load a PLN file via helper “Load PLN …” button, which works exactly the same way as Simbrief, except the file is the source of the flight plan. Please note that Track mode is the least accurate due to airplane usually wobbling slightly around the track. You can execute multi-waypoint jump, i.e. select a waypoint target that is not the next one. In this case you have two choices: “Shortcut” where it just jumps directly, or “Follow plan”, where it will compute distance over all flight plan segments between you and the target waypoint. Please remember that such jumps may confuse autopilot. Known problem: cannot load PLN file created by MSFS EFB due to no coordinates, workaround is to convert to generic PLN file with Little Nav Map.

Speed

The app tries to preserve speed as much as possible, there are three choices: “Preserve [Legacy pre-SU5]”, “Preserve [SU5 EXPERIMENTAL]”, and “Set Current IAS”. Legacy way of handling speed after jumping does NOT work with SU5 and later (it sets speed to zero instead). Unfortunately, the method suggested for SU5 does not work either, it freezes or crashes sim at this time (may be fixed later).  I have implemented a direct setting of current pre jump IAS, and it seems to work well. All three methods are available in a pulldown “Speed handling”: "Preserve [Legacy pre-SU5]", "Preserve [SU5 EXPERIMENTAL]", and "Set Current IAS".  Please make sure "Set Current IAS" is selected.

Sometimes IAS is off by 10-20kts after a jump, it seems that IAS gets corrected for wind component (must be a bug somewhere in the sim), i.e. part of tailwind added, part of headwind subtracted. I have implemented an empirical fix, available by enabling “Apply IAS wind correction” on the helper. It corrects this behavior by adjusting target IAS appropriately. Works well for many airplanes.

Flight

The best way to use the app after starting and configuring the helper is to control it from toolbar panel. You can carry out takeoff and climb normally, reach cruise, then jump in 250 nm (or so) steps over to the next waypoint, overfly the waypoint, then resume jumps, unless something interesting is happening worth watching. This can continue until TOD, where normal flight should be resumed. Expect some small adaptive action from autopilot after the jump, typically the altitude isn’t exactly the same due to pressure variations and some minor corrections to heading (wind!) and attitude are also expected. The app has 15 second “cooldown” mode implemented to prevent immediate next jump and possible instabilities. If you use advanced ATC like SayIntentions or BeyondATC you may need to check in with the ATC periodically since it may lose you after jumping. Typically, 250 nm jumps are OK, but you may want to give the ATC few seconds after each jump to get oriented and communicate. I tested SayIntentions and found no problems.

Simrate panel

Simrate control needs to be enabled on the helper window, then you will get 3 buttons to control simrate (increase, reset to 1x, decrease). The simrate control works with Simbrief fuel sync (if enabled), when in high simrate it will decelerate to 1x, sync fuel, then accelerate back to previous rate. This feature helps with iniBuilds planes that do not update fuel for simrate greater than 4x.

Please let me know about any errors and bugs. Enjoy!

Known problems

·       I cannot update used fuel counter in iniBuilds planes, fuel-used counters do not include fuel consumed during jumps. This leads to a “FUEL LEAK SUSPECTED” warning in A350 (no such warning was observed in other planes). Optional workaround: go to “Situations”-> “Faults” menu on OIS EFB, “Fuel” section, and trigger “FUEL LEAK DETECTOR FAULT”, then clean it in EICAS (but keep it triggered for the flight). This disables simulated fuel-leak detection for the flight.

·       Cannot read PLN file created by EFB due to lack of coordinates. Workaround: convert using LittleNavMap.