flight with the cessna and turn the engines off. I've also read in other places not too and start with cold and dark situation that came with the aircraft, so whats the real scoop on this?

I always start with the Cessna. I turn off the two red swtiches to the left (sorry don't remember the name for them) and turn the key on the far left all the way to the left. I do leave the avionics switch on. I go the airport I want and slew to the gate. From the 2D cockpit, I select the PMDG plane and off I go. Works every time for me. This will give you a nice cold (or hot depending on the time of year) cockpit with engines off.

Hi, I follow the same procedure however I must confess I never slew. Could you please explain how to "slowly" slew to a gate in an airport without gaining altitude? When I attempt to slew my slewing is always too fast horizontally and difficult to control vertically. jack wilsonDell8300,PentR4,CPU3.0Ghz,XP-Pro,1.00 GB of Ram,256MB DDR ATI Radeon 9800 XT,SB Audigy,Dell 19" Monitor,Cable Modem,CH Yoke-Pedals

Hi guys why slew at all if we can choose a small medium or heavy gate?

Personally, I have FSBuild 2.2 and Gatekeeper that assigns the start gate to the flight plan - that works perfectly, but, as far as the Cessna and shutting everything off, that's the best way I have found to really start with a cold/dark cockpit. I think that's you best bet. Then, there are several checklists posted around for starting everything from that point. I've taken a couple of them and put the crucial points into a one page checksheet that also has the FSBuild flight information - but, that's my personal choice.