Keyboard and text input

Action keys and shortcuts

Many shortcuts correspond to menu actions, likely referenced directly in the application menus. Others can be found in the list and tables below.

Ctrl: radio PTT key. Acts on all radios with "kbd PTT" ticked, and in solo for voice instruction recognition (works within major dialogs).
Alt: CPDLC key. Combines with mouse actions like vectoring, strip handover and instruction panel buttons (see "Mouse gestures" tab).
Single dot (".") in an airport input field: shortcut for base airfield. Fills the input with the current ICAO position (AD mode only).

	No modifiers	Shift+key	Alt+key	Alt+Shift+key
F1	Open quick reference	Open "About" dialog
F2	Create and open a new blank strip	Create and link to current selection
F3	Create and open a new flight plan	Create and link to selected strip
F4
F5/F6	Start a timer (two available)	Force restart if already running
F7	Raise navigator dock	Open world airport browser
F8	Raise ATC coordination dock	Raise ATC text chat dock
F9	Open CPDLC window for selection	Close CPDLC windows
F10	Flag/unflag selected radar contact	Forward time skip (10 s) in solo/teacher sessions
F11	General options	Solo simulation options	Location set-up	System settings
F12	Restore saved layout	Save main window dock layout & geometry	Reload background images	Reload FG aircraft models

	Alt+key
A	Record new ATIS
B	Runway boxes (raise dock)
C	CPDLC panel (raise dock)
D	Radar contact details (raise dock)
E	Environment information
F	Flight plans (raise dock)
G
H	Approach spacing hints (toggle)
I	Instructions (raise dock)
J
K
L	Notification log (raise dock)
M	Mute notification sounds (toggle)
N	Notepads (raise dock)
O	Monitor runway occupation (toggle)
P	Primary radar (toggle)
Q
R	Radios (raise dock)
S	Strips (raise dock)
T	Teaching console
U	Unit conversion tool
V	Tower view control panel (raise dock)
W	Weather (raise dock)
X	Radio text chat (raise dock)
Y	Select runway use
Z	Path/route conflict anticipation (toggle)

Point specification

In various occasions, e.g. to position your CTR radar centre or draw radar background images, you will want to specify location points. To specify a point, you may either:

write lat/lon Earth coordinates separated by a comma with no space, e.g. 35.8765,-90.567 or 48°51'24''N,2°21'03''E (you may replace the °/'/'' symbols by d/m/s respectively to avoid encoding problems);
spell a navpoint code (VOR, airfield...);
prefix a navpoint code with a parenthesed type, e.g. "(VOR)ABC", to disambiguate between navpoints with identical names, selecting by type (accepted types: AD, VOR, NDB, FIX, ILS, RNAV);
append an ICAO region filter to a navpoint code after "@", e.g. "ABC@LK";
use the "namedpoint~refpoint" syntax to choose between navpoints with identical names, selecting the closest to a reference point;
append a ">radial,distance" suffix to any base point specification to move it by a distance in NM along a true radial ("~" has precedence over ">").

For example:

48°51'24''N,2°21'03''E is the centre of Paris;
SULED>180,1.5 is a point 1.5 NM due true South of navpoint SULED;
IA~KIAD is the point named IA that is nearest to KIAD (with a 200 NM map range from KPIT, you see two points "IA" so the name alone is ambiguous);
(NDB)MEN~(AD)LFMT is the NDB whose code is MEN that is the closest to the airfield whose code is LFMT.