I guess I've never thought to do this before.... 

I mainly fly PMDG 777/747 and QW787. I want to be able to save it so when I start a flight, the aircraft has the apu running, engines shutdown, nav lights on, etc etc etc. 

How can I make this happen? 

While I don't use PMDG aircraft, when I want to do something like what you want, is I set up the aircraft (at an airport of your choice), the way I want it, save it in a scenario and choose the "Default" option in the Scenario menu. Also, in the main "Options" menu, make sure "Enable Panel Serialization" is checked. I would do the Options selection before trying a save scenario.

Hope this helps!

P.

I don’t think it’s possible to save a cold/dark start pit without making the default flight the same...  Which means you would always start cold and dark?

 

If anyone knows how to save an additional cold dark start I’d love to know how!

With PMDG birds, you can set your aircraft up the way you want and then save the panel state via 'PMDG SETUP' in CDU main page. You can then set it as default panel there on the same menu and aircraft is loaded with that very state each time. Everything will load correctly with your exact saved state. With QW787, you can also save panel states but you can not select a default panel state. It will always start in running state, but with three clicks in CDU you can load your custom panel state. I have found that few items in QW787 won't load properly, namely strobes, anti collision and reciruculation fans. These are on when I load my cold and dark panel state.

Edited October 4, 20196 yr by Evros

I have found that there actually is a way to set default panel states for QW 787. You need couple of lines in the configuration file. User manual page 411.

LoadPanelStateonAcLoad=1

panelstate=insertyourpanelnamehere.pnl

Edited October 11, 20196 yr by Evros

The PMDG also come with SHORT GROUND TURN ( or some name simular) panel state that just fits your need