HELICOPTERS engines won't start *SOLVED* - Default and Freeware Aircraft

[Navekgamer]

*NOTE:* THIS IS INTENDED FOR DEFAULT AND FREEWARE HELICOPTERS IN FSX ONLY! I DO NOT OWN NOR HAVE I TESTED ANY COMMERCIAL PAYWARE HELICOPTERS!

After years of building up my flight sim and countless add-ons, tweaking, etc... You tend to break things.

I found a common problem after you've modified the default flight to an aircraft that's all set up for 'cold & dark' start, then simply trying to start a flight in a helicopter is, that you can't start the engines, no matter how hard you try or how many switches/buttons/keys you mash.

Well after doing some playing around, I tried everything I could think of to do with fuel, fuel-pump, fuel switches, valves, battery power, magnetos, generators, etc... - the one thing I overlooked was the fuel tanks - and this solved my issues!

So see if this works for you!:

1 - Simply load a default cessna in a free-flight, at any airport, then hit 'Fly Now'

2 - On the floor (in VC or bring up the relevant 2D panel) you will see a tank selector switch. It is always set to 'Left Tank' or 'Tank 1' by default.

3 - Simply move the switch to select 'Both' or 'All Tanks' (They should be the same thing)

4 - You shouldn't need to change anything else, but now you can set the aircraft up to 'Cold & Dark' state if it loads with engines running, battery power on, etc...(If that's what you want) - BUT LEAVE MAGNETOS SWITCH TO 'BOTH'!--*IMPORTANT*

5 - Now click 'Flight' in the menu bar at the top of the screen and save flight as the default flight. Call it anything you want but make sure to check the box that says 'Make this the Default Flight'. If you can't see the menu bar, press 'Alt' or 'Right-Click' your mouse and click on 'Hide Menu-bar' in the pop-up menu.

And that's it! All you need to do now to make sure it works is to 'End Flight', then do a complete shutdown of FSX and any other software you may be running along-side it. Restart FSX, load up a flight with a helicopter, making sure you have fuel in the tanks, and see if you can now get the engines to fire up and the blades to turn!

I recognise this may not work for everyone, and this certainly may not work for paid 3rd-party add-ons. I only use simple freeware and default helicopters, and these seem to be the only aircraft affected. I hope this helps someone!

Happy Flying!!

NAVEKGAMER