SimBrief & AeroFly: Expert Insights on Planning, Profiles and Realism (via Startgerät)

    Hi everyone,

    I am opening this thread to gather insights from experienced AeroFly simmers who rely heavily on SimBrief for their commercial flight planning and know the platform inside out. While I hope this discussion becomes a valuable resource for all newcomers like myself, I am strictly looking for expert opinions from seasoned Simbrief users to help clarify these workflows.

    By way of introduction, I am currently migrating my operational flight planning (OFP) entirely into SimBrief. This move was inspired by Frank Böes aka Armitage, who recently launched and published his amazing new tool, Startgerät, for Windows, Linux and Mac. Up until 2020, I used PFPX on another simulator platform for all my flight planning. However, since SimBrief is free and works wonders, I am now fully integrating it into my AeroFly workflow.

    To help me and the community understand the synergy between these tools, I would highly appreciate your expert feedback on the following topics:

    • Aircraft Profiles & Weights: How well do SimBrief’s integrated aircraft profiles match AeroFly’s commercial fleet? Do the performance numbers, weights, cargo figures, and V-speeds add up realistically enough for accurate flight execution? (Note: I have already imported a custom A350-1000 profile found here on the forums, though I haven't tested it just yet).
    • Weather Simulation: How accurately does AeroFly reflect SimBrief's weather data? Do the wind prognostics and METARs in your flight plans correspond well to the actual weather conditions you encounter in the sim?
    • Route Generation & AIRACs: How usable are the generated routes in practice, keeping in mind that AeroFly uses the 1301 AIRAC while SimBrief operates on a modern cycle like 2503? Do these routes effectively take weather and winds into account within the sim environment?
    • Runway Selection: Based on the weather coordination, how realistically does SimBrief select active runways compared to real-life operations? Can the SimBrief auto-detect feature be fully trusted for your departures and arrivals?
    • Performance Calculations: How realistic and usable are the separate Takeoff and Landing performance calculations when applied inside AeroFly?
    • OFP Export Formats: What is your preferred OFP layout/format when generating your flight plan, and what makes it the best choice for your AeroFly workflow?

    I look forward to hearing your expert opinions on these matters so I can learn from heavy SimBrief users and better understand how seamlessly these two platforms work together.

    Thanks in advance for your time and expertise.

    These are my findings for the A350

    Aircraft Profiles & Weights: The default SimBrief A350 Profile needs fuel burn increased by around 15%, and MTOW slightly raised to reflect the Variant simulated by IPACS ( WV024 )

    The built-in Vspeeds (OIS and FMC) tend to be too high; this is very noticeable at heavy weights, built-in Vspeeds can be almost at max tire speed; the SimBrief Vspeeds are much lower, much closer to reality; they also match the V speeds on other A350 sims that won't be mentioned.

    SimBrief Flex temps work well (although you have to factor in that we are stuck at ISA temps)

    Weather Simulation: See above; we are stuck at ISA conditions for take-off performance; surface wind can be replicated, and no wind aloft data.

    Route Generation & AIRACs - I've built around 150 routes using the SimBrief flight plan as a template; obviously, lots of waypoints are missing, but in general, no issues building the route. Again, no real world wind data, makes fuel planning interesting; I take the average flight plan component and try to match that for the cruise winds in the sim.

    Runway Selection: Simbrief is spot on with with runway selection, since it's reading the latest real-world METAR; getting that to match in the sim is another story

    Performance Calculations: Simbrief calculations work better than the inbuilt calculations