New Feature: Exclude Routes Already Flown on VATSIM
Stop repeating yourself. findsim.flights now integrates with your VATSIM flight history to surface only routes you haven't flown before.
🎉 What's New
A new option in the flight discovery form lets you automatically exclude any origin–destination pairs you've already flown on VATSIM. Sign in with your VATSIM account, check the box, and every result will be a route you haven't done before.
The Challenge
As virtual pilots, it's easy to fall into patterns — the same transatlantic crossing, the same regional hop, the same familiar pair of airports. findsim.flights is built to help you discover great flights, but until now it had no way to know which routes you'd already completed.
The new VATSIM route exclusion feature solves this by pulling your recent flight history directly from VATSIM and filtering those routes out of your results automatically.
How It Works
Sign In with VATSIM
Use the VATSIM OAuth login on findsim.flights. We only request read access to your public flight plan history — no passwords, no write access.
Enable the Option
Check "Exclude routes already flown on VATSIM" in the flight discovery form. The option only appears when you're logged in.
Discover Fresh Routes
findsim.flights fetches your last 50 VATSIM flight plans, extracts every unique origin–destination pair, and excludes them from your results. Everything you see is new.
Privacy & Performance
We take a minimal-data approach:
- Your VATSIM flight history is fetched in real-time and never stored on our servers
- We only access data you explicitly authorise through VATSIM OAuth
- The feature is completely optional — it only activates when you check the box
- If you're not logged in, the option is hidden and has no effect on results
Technical Details
For the technically curious:
- We call the VATSIM API endpoint
/v2/members/{member_id}/flightplansto retrieve your recent plans - The last 50 flight plans are parsed to extract unique route pairs (origin + destination)
- These pairs are passed to the core discovery engine as a
route_pairs_blacklistfilter - Filtering happens at the domain level, so it applies consistently across all data sources
- Errors fetching your history degrade gracefully — the search still runs without the filter
Who Is This For?
Route Explorers
Virtual pilots who want to systematically work through new routes without accidentally repeating themselves.
Challenge Seekers
Pilots expanding their experience by deliberately avoiding familiar territory.
Event Preparation
Finding unique routes for VATSIM events that you haven't flown before, so every event feels fresh.