Transmitter is a small Windows application we developed that transmits your position in Microsoft Flight Simulator to an online database where your last reported position is held for 5 minutes. The website then produces a "whazzup" formatted file that can be used by LittleNavMap to plot aircraft positions live on a map, and onto a live map on the VirtualFlight.Online website - "Who is Online?"

Transmitter

Download Transmitter

Click the link to download the application:

After downloading, just unzip, and run the EXE inside the folder. Please read the rest of this page to discover how the program works, and how to configure LittleNavMap to see everybody.

Why do we need Transmitter?

If you and your friends want to see each other on mapping software such as LittleNavMap to run your own air traffic control sessions for group flights, you will no doubt have discovered that Microsoft Flight Simulator only communicates AI aircraft to external mapping applications such as LittleNavMap - not users. The Virtual Flight Online Transmitter application addresses that.

How Transmitter Works

The desktop application connects to a running copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator via the SimConnect interface, and reads your aircraft's type, latitude, longitude, altitude, and airspeed. It combines the data with your callsign and name, and sends it to a server on the internet.

The server then provides a URL that outputs all aircraft that have been updated in the last 5 minutes in "whazzup" format - a data format commonly used with the likes of VATSIM and IVAO - and crucially LittleNavMap. The URL of the server can be used to configure LittleNavMap to show you and your friends aircraft on the map.

Running the Program

1. Launch Microsoft Flight Simulator.

2. Run Virtual Flight Online Transmitter

3. Fill out the text boxes for your callsign, pilot name, and group name.

4. Click Connect

5. After clicking connect, the application will begin broadcasting your location within the simulator to the database on the internet once a second.

LittleNavMap

Configuring LittleNavMap

If you would like to see everybody broadcasting their position with Virtual Flight Online Transmitter, follow these steps in LittleNavMap:

1. Click on the Tools menu

2. Click on Options

3. Select the Online Flying section within the Options panel

4. Choose the radio button for "Custom" within the Online Flying section

5. Fill the URL https://virtualflight.online/whazzup_ivao into the URL field (if you copy and paste it, make sure there are no spaces!)

6. Set the update rate to something sensible (e.g. 5 seconds)

7. Make sure IVAO is chosen in the format drop-down

8. Click Apply, and OK

9. While looking at LittleNavMap, make sure you have the "Show Multiplayer Aircraft" icon highlighted in the toolbar above the map.

Group Filters with LittleNavMap

To only pull back aircraft broadcasting a given group name in LittleNavMap, modify the URL in the Online Flying dialog within LittleNavMap to have ?group=xyz (use your group name) on the end of it - which implements the filter.

e.g. https://virtualflight.online/whazzup_ivao?group=xyz

Finding Out Who is Online

If you would like to see who is online without running LittleNavMap, visit the Who is Online? page (linked at the top of this page too).

Who is Online?

As mentioned above, there is a great interactive page in the website that shows everybody currently running Transmitter:

Just visit https://virtualflight.online/who to see who's online right now!