Volanta

Volanta is an easy-to-use smart flight tracker that integrates flight data across all major flight simulators including FlightGear.

Getting started

Windows

1. Download the Volanta installer from here and run the installer.
2. Open Volanta with administrator permissions (If already open, close Volanta completely by right clicking the Volanta icon on the right taskbar and pressing exit).
3. Once a Volanta account is created and logged in, Volanta will automatically search for available flight simulators and prompt to install the FlightGear plugin.
4. Press install and go to Settings > Simulators and confirm that the plugin is downloaded.
5. Fly!

Ubuntu

1. Download the Volanta AppImage from here.
2. Make the file executable by right clicking on it and selecting "Executable as program". After that run the file.
3. Once a Volanta account is created and logged in, Volanta will automatically search for available flight simulators and prompt to install the FlightGear plugin.
4. Press install and go to Settings > Simulators and confirm that the plugin is downloaded.
5. Fly!

Common issues

FlightGear randomly freezes for a few seconds

When the Volanta plugin is installed but Volanta is not open during flying, FlightGear will pause every few seconds. One workaround for this is to edit FGDATA/Nasal/Volanta.nas to this:

var openIoChannel = func {
  fgcommand("remove-io-channel", { "name": "volanta" });
  var connected = fgcommand("add-io-channel", {"config": "generic,socket,out,5,127.0.0.1,6746,tcp,volanta", "name": "volanta"});

  if (connected) {
    print("[Volanta] Connection successful");
  } else {
    print("[Volanta] Connection unsuccessful. Is Volanta running?");
  }
}

var volantaLoaded = func {
  print("[Volanta] Initialised");
  openIoChannel();
  var timer = maketimer(15, func() {
    openIoChannel();
  });
  timer.start();
}
if(getprop("/sim/use-volanta")) {
  _setlistener("/nasal/my_module/loaded", volantaLoaded);
}

When running FlightGear, passing --prop:/sim/use-volanta=0 as an additional setting will prevent this issue by disabling the plugin (change the 0 to 1 to enable it).

I press Install (plugin) in Volanta and it says installed but Settings > Simulators show uninstalled

Windows

Try opening Volanta as Administrator and try again. If it still does not work, try copying the following files and paste to:

%appdata%\Orbx\Volanta\plugins\volanta.nas → C:\Program Files\FlightGear 2020.3\data\Nasal\volanta.nas

%appdata%\Orbx\Volanta\plugins\volanta.xml → C:\Program Files\FlightGear 2020.3\data\Protocol\volanta.xml

Ubuntu

If FlightGear was installed from a repository or from a package, FlightGear files are located in the system directory. Volanta doesn't have permission to change or write here so you must install the plugin manually.

Open the terminal and enter the following lines:

sudo cp /home/USERNAME/.config/Orbx/Volanta/plugins/volanta.nas /usr/share/games/flightgear/Nasal/
sudo cp /home/USERNAME/.config/Orbx/Volanta/plugins/volanta.xml /usr/share/games/flightgear/Protocol/

You must change "USERNAME" into the username of your system.

Please note that directory paths in the code above are default locations where FlightGear would be installed. If you installed it in a different location, then you must use a directory path to that location.

Volanta plugin is "unable to be installed due to permissions" (Windows specific)

Exit Volanta completely (from taskbar) then reopen the program with administrator permissions.

Volanta can't recognize FlightGear and it doesn't prompt to install the plugin (Ubuntu specific)

This happens when FlightGear is ran from an AppImage file, and in this case you must install the plugin manually. Open the terminal and enter the following lines:

sudo cp /home/USERNAME/.config/Orbx/Volanta/plugins/volanta.nas /home/USERNAME/FGDATA/Nasal/
sudo cp /home/USERNAME/.config/Orbx/Volanta/plugins/volanta.xml /home/USERNAME/FGDATA/Protocol/

You must change "USERNAME" into the username of your system.

You must change "FGDATA" into the directory path where fgdata (the one you downloaded and linked to the AppImage) is located.

The plugin is now installed and even though the plugin cannot be found in Settings > Simulators, Volanta will work.

Related content

• FlightGear Tracker