Location Manager 2

Introduction: Location Manager 2 is now a full map application available only from the toolbar in flightmode. This is because MicroSobo disabled the ability to modify the MSFS UI in MSFS 2024.
Open it by clicking on the Map icon you will find on the toolbar, once installed. To intstall, see Installation section down below on this page if you need guidance on that.
Familiarize yourself with the program by reading the introduction and overview of the tabs in the left panel. Extensive help on major functions is available on the right panel. 

Map Features: Learn how to resize the map and toolbar by dragging the edges or corners. At the moment there is no UI scaling control in MSFS 2024 like MSFS 2020, so toolbar panels look a larger.Experiment to discover how you like to use it. See the screenshots above for different examples.Let me know how you use it, I’d love to see how different people discover uses for it.

The four main panel sizes you want to expose are as follows (reference the screenshots above):

1. Panel Completely Minimized: This is when you use the top right minimize button of the toolbar panel to “roll up” the panel and hide it completely, with just the header bar showing. Useful if you don’t want to completely close the panel and quickly reopen it. 
2. Minimum Map Size: This is when you drag the bottom of the location manager panel up as far as it can go. There is minimum size with a small map and a header controls bar and a footer controls bar with the wind direction. Useful for when you want to navigate with it, using different map layers.
3. Minimum Map Plus: This is only slightly bigger than #2, but if you pull the bottom of the panel down a little more you will get the real time aircraft data. Useful in some situations like teleporting to quickly see the altitude, pressure, and temperature.
4. Panel Completely Maximized: This is when pull the bottom of the panel down all the way towards the bottom of the screen to expose the location data grid. When you see the pagination control with number of locations then you’ve gone far enough. if you see a little white space between the map and the grid, you can drag the bottom up a little more. It’s not fully responsive yet, but I hope to work on that more if the sim expands on the UI controls for scaling. 

Save Locations: Click on the map to select a location. If you select a scanned airport, runway label, or gate, the teleport panel will open with the selected details. The map will open the teleport panel on the left, click on the save button and the location will be added to the bottom of the grid. You can then edit the name, tags, or notes as needed.
You can save locations while doing activities like following a flightplan and you see somewhere interesting you want to check later, or do it as a dedicated map exploration activity while on the ground as a form of pre-flight flight prep.

Manage Locations: Use the grid to view, filter, and sort your saved locations. You can edit or delete locations directly from the grid. Note: The grid size is limited to 3 or 4 lines at the moment (depending on your monitor). Please see the FAQ for a more detailed explanation for this design decision. All feedback is welcome though, please let me know how you use Location Manager 2 and what you would like to see. I can’t promise I can make it happen (yet) but it all goes into the mix. 

Export/Import Data: Use the export button to save your location data to a text file. Import data by pasting it into the provided text area and clicking the import button. Swap with friends!

Important!! Import Data Overwrites: Import is currently set to clean all existing data and replace it with the import data. Please use the export function first to save your current data before import. There is no data merge capability at this time, for various reasons, so approach it with a backup/restore mindset, and save your location data into well named files for certain situations so you can export/import anytime depending on your needs. 

Select a Location
From the grid: Click on a saved location in the grid (click the Alt column cell) to show that location on the map and open the teleport panel with the location details.
Click on the map: Click on the map in two ways. You can turn on the scanner with the Scan button above the map, wait a second to see MSFS airports populate (zoom out and scroll if needed), then click on any airport, runway label, or gate marker to select that marker highlighted with a yellow circle. Alternatively, click anywhere to mark the map with a red dot. In both cases, the map will open the teleport panel on the left with the location details. You can turn of the scanner to save resources if you’ve finished panning/zooming the map. 

Configure Settings: Adjust the position, distance, height, and speed settings in the teleport panel.

Teleport: Click the teleport button to move your aircraft to the selected location.

IMPORTANT #1: Pay attention to the teleport progress message at the top of the teleport panel. Do not interrupt the process. You can teleport any distance but long teleports take longer as the further away the target is the more work the sim needs to do to stream in the new location before releasing you back into the sim.

IMPORTANT #2: Turn off damage and realism in the settings if you are using teleporting. Also disable G-Forces.

Select a Runway Label: Scan for MSFS airports and click on a runway label marker to open the teleport panel.

Configure Training Settings: Set the desired position, height, and speed for takeoff or landing.

Start Training: Click the teleport button to move your aircraft to the selected position and begin your training session.

Read my blog post on The Power of Repetition and Interleaved Learning in MSFS

EFB: The new EFB for MSFS 2024 is a great companion tool for Location Manager 2, or perhaps vice versa! You should take the time to explore it when using it for training as it offers an additional level of customization that can expand your training options:  
Checklists: Comprehensive checklists for each flight phase you can use to guide yourself and learn in depth.
Flight Performance
Mass and Balance: Change the aircraft configuration to change the handling.
Environment: Useful tools for the different flight phase calculations Takeoff & Landing

Grid Settings: Adjust the grid font size and layout to your preference.

Map API Keys: Enter your OpenAIP and Bing Maps keys in the settings tab to access additional map data.
OpenAIP API Key: Sign up at https://www.openaip.net/ to get an API key, paste it into the settings and save.
Bing Maps API Key: Sign up at https://www.bingmapsportal.com/ to an API key, paste it into the settings and save.

Nearest Airports Search: Configure the refresh interval, number of airports, and search range for the airport scanner. Configure the number of gates shown to control performance. Stop and start the scanner anytime, especially useful for sustained flying in one location once you scanned the needed airports. Combine with OpenAIP data to uncover hidden airstrips. 

Support Tab: Refer to the support tab for detailed information and help.

Submit Requests: Use the support form at the bottom of this page here to contact me. Please read the requirements for submitting a support request, and please also read the tips, help, and known issues beforehand in case something there solves the issue or gives you some extra insight I can make use of. 

The MSFS 2024 UI has been secured by Microsoft/Asobo, rendering it unmodifiable. Unable to alter the Aircraft manager, I opted to revamp the Location Manager with a proprietary map interface since using the main map for location selection in MSFS is no longer possible. This overhaul was not trivial, especially with a persistent rendering bug in MSFS 2024 that causes severe map flickering.

Faced with no imminent fix, the choice was to abandon the project or forge a new path; I chose the latter. It required considerable effort, but it paid off with a superior map quality. Location Manager 2 now boasts numerous new features, and I eagerly anticipate your engagement with them to enhance your exploration and skill mastery in MSFS 2024.

Given the substantial work required to develop this version and the introduction of new benefits and features, it is not feasible to provide this as a free upgrade. However, I have exciting plans for it and will explore them further as MSFS 2024 becomes more stable.

Unfortunately, there’s some limitations on the UI side with MSFS 2024, lack of a scaling control being a big one. It’s also difficult to manage two applications such as the map and the grid together in the one panel. The grid is scrollable, and all the column headers are sortable and filterable so you can search and narrow down what you need. So, I made a design decision for V1 to limit the grid size and allow the map to be more resizable. However, I will continue to work on it to hopefully allow a bigger grid window, depending on what may be possible keeping in mind the different use cases and performance.

Unfortunately I can’t verify VR compatibility. It works as a standard MSFS 2D toolbar app, so if the toolbar apps are working in VR as per a normal 2D VR toolbar panel app it *should* work. It’s implemented the same way Location Manager for MSFS 2020 is.