My head is spinning after hours of trying to troubleshoot this. I am no wiser now than when I began as to what is happening, so maybe someone can give a lead?I tend to start pre-saved flights (I have hundreds of them saved) by clicking on the .flt file but for some this is resulting in FS9 suddenly going to a black screen as it loads up (at around 45% - whilst loading terrain) and then the 'FS9 has encountered a problem' message. If I load the same flight through the Create a Flight window, with the same a/c at the same airport at the same time of the year and day etc. etc, there is no problem. No CTD. If I then save that, apparently stable flight and restart it by clicking on the new .pln file, back to FS9 crashing.If I replace the a/c with a default Cessna, but keep all other parameters the same, then I do not get a CTD (even though it seemed to crash whilst loading terrain), but I have tried a dozen other different addon aircraft (Posky, iFDG etc.), all of which have completely different panels, sounds sets etc. and I still get the crash, so I don't see how missing gauges/effects or whatever can be to blame. If I start the flight at a different location, I still get the CTD, so even though it happens whilst loading terrain (according to FS9), it's not a problem at any one particular airport. In essence, after two hours messing around with this I still haven't even been able to locate the variable that's causing the CTD, so I wonder if anyone has any ideas as to why I would get this crash when loading a flight from a .pln file, but not if I load up exactly the same location, weather, time & season, aircraft etc. via the Create a Flight interface. That might give a clue to what could be going on here.Thanks,MartinI should emphasis this is FS9(.1). I posted this here of course as it is the AVSIM CTD forum..

After more testing, it does seem to be the Aircraft= entry under Plane.0 in the .flt file that is crucial. I can alter everything else, including the panel details and get no crash, but changing the aircraft causes the CTD. (Not all a/c by any means, some work fine, others not).What is still very odd is that the .flt will causs a CTD if I click on it, or a link to it, but if I open exactly the same file via FS9 (Select a Flight) it loads perfectly.Any ideas folks?Martin

After more testing, it does seem to be the Aircraft= entry under Plane.0 in the .flt file that is crucial. I can alter everything else, including the panel details and get no crash, but changing the aircraft causes the CTD. (Not all a/c by any means, some work fine, others not).What is still very odd is that the .flt will causs a CTD if I click on it, or a link to it, but if I open exactly the same file via FS9 (Select a Flight) it loads perfectly.Any ideas folks?Martin

You have fetched me over here from another forum, so I'll do my best to help.To identify the cause of problems, you need more information. When you get the message from FS9 saying it has to close, it will tell you which module has caused the problem. If you are not sure how to find this information, take a look at my web at http://www.adventure-unlimited.org/faultfinding.php for detail. Maybe the answer is there too.If you get a flight.dll error, the chances are the airport you are loading at has changed (add-on scenery?) since the flight was saved.Do I understand correctly that you are editing your *.flt files manually? I would hardly recommend that - is there a reason you cannot create a fresh flight manually? And I'm wondering why do you not normally open a flight from the Select a Flight section?John

Hi John. Thanks for the reply!First, I load flights via a saved flt file because, with all my addons, it takes FS an age to load a flight - it simply saves time, I can go away and do something else for 5 minutes, and it works fine apart from a few exceptions! If I get continued problems, I could load from the Select a Flight screen - but it's partly habit too, after ten years of FS.I did look before at the 'report' after the CTD, I should have noted it here: the file says that the faulting module is terrain.dll - I found that odd as the CTD seems aircraft, not location specific. I can, for instance, replace my iFDG a320 with an Ilyushin 76 (just one example I tried) and the flight then loads just fine from the flt file. (I did look at your FS error page before posting back now - never seen it before. Useful, so I've saved it to my PC for future use). As far as Terrain mesh is concerned, I have a full set of FSGenesis world mesh, all LOD. (Just for info, pace your FS fault web page).I do sometimes edit flt files manually, but usually only for test purposes, like here. I know the layout of these files pretty well I should say, so am certain I am not doing anything silly! I normally create a new file from an open flight in FS9 though: in this case, as I say, that doesn't stop the crash. Only changing the aircraft does that (and yet the same a/c causing the crash here work just fine in 99% of my flights elsewhere).And, as I said, I don't see why a flt file loaded through the FS9 interface (Select a Flight) is just fine, but clicking on the file itself causes a CTD - it's exactly the same file.Thanks again,Martin

And, as I said, I don't see why a flt file loaded through the FS9 interface (Select a Flight) is just fine, but clicking on the file itself causes a CTD - it's exactly the same file.

Ta for the reply, Martin, and the reasons.I tried doing the same on my setup and a flight loaded fine although the default ones wouldn't as invariably they were trying to load at a default airport for which I had an add-on. I'm as intrigued as you that you get terrain.dll errors, as you suggest a faulty file might affect one location but it is odd that this occurs anywhere/everywhere.The only thing I can think is that Flight Simulator is struggling to load all the add-ons during startup because you are loading a flight at the same time and perhaps it gives up on reaching the terrain. For experimentations sake it might be revealing to temporarily disable the terrain but that won't of course give you the solution. Unless anyone else has ideas on this I think you are stuck with having to start up FS and then select your flight.It has to be said that many of us have far more add-ons than anybody at Microsoft could ever have thought of (myself included) and I never cease to be amazed at how well it usually copes despite the massive time the software takes to load.Best wishes,John

Martin -Just a long shot, but do you happen to have FS2004 installed on your machine also as I do?If so, when you are clicking on a saved FSX FLT, it may be attempting to start that Flight with FS9.exe instead of FSX.exe.As I have both versions on my system I have to be careful that the FLT files are not "associated" with either version. That way I can choose the correct exe to load it.As I said, a long shot but.................?

John, I have actually set things up so that all the scenery addons I have are disabled, apart from the ones I am using for any given flight. I use a little programme called Scenery Align to load the required sceneries (a very useful programme - on AVSIM, unless it's one of the 'missing' files). I don't think my PC is overloaded by the scenery - and in any case, I am sure you agree, that wouldn't accunt for the fact that a change of a/c and all works fine (I can change from the relatively simple iFDG a320 (CTD) to a PMDG 737, for instance, and the CTD will stop, so it's not that the a/c is simpler to load that stops the problem).This is all in FS9 David, not FSX. But I do have both FS9 and FSX on the same PC, it's true - though in different partitions and I load either one or the other at startup, since I have them as different user accounts in XP. It's an idea, but the links definitely go to the FS9 flight files, not any fsx flights (if indeed I have any fsx flights saved - I use FSX once for every 100 flights in FS9, I must admit).Thanks, as ever, for the input.Martin

John, I have actually set things up so that all the scenery addons I have are disabled, apart from the ones I am using for any given flight.

But something is putting a heavy load on your setup, as you said it takes around five minutes to load.John