I have been on a long hiatus from the sim (other than for updates). Previously, all simple flights started at ground level by default. Now all flights start at altitude and I can't determine how to change it. I found one post that said to go into the flight log to change it there, but I found no means to implement the change there either. I just want to place an aircraft on a field and fly from there locally. How do I do that now? Thanks

Just click on an airport either the runway to start with engines on or on a ramp cold and dark

or.. World Menu / Select or Search for Departure Airport.

I think this might have something to do with the small airport I used to use in the sim since it was released - One I actually flew out of for ten years - It still shows up faintly on the map, but is no longer highlighted as it was in the early days. Is this what happens if you choose to fly from a location that doesn't have a highlighted icon on the map? Does that mean I can't fly out of an unimproved and un-highlighted location in the boonies?

1 minute ago, Bosco19 said:

Does that mean I can't fly out of an unimproved and un-highlighted location in the boonies?

Does it have an airport code, or a name?

Hello,

You could read this page !

and this one

Edited April 4, 20233 yr by ctdlg

2 hours ago, Bosco19 said:

I think this might have something to do with the small airport I used to use in the sim since it was released - One I actually flew out of for ten years - It still shows up faintly on the map, but is no longer highlighted as it was in the early days. Is this what happens if you choose to fly from a location that doesn't have a highlighted icon on the map? Does that mean I can't fly out of an unimproved and un-highlighted location in the boonies?

You can fly out of anywhere from the ground in MSFS, if you slew.

If the airport you want to fly out of doesn't have a spawning point (and it should have one, if it's a valid airport), you can always spawn at the closest point nearby (turn on all Nav Aids and waypoints on the MSFS world map, you can spawn from Nav Aids and waypoints). Then slew to the airport you want to start from on the ground. Make sure you increase the slew speed laterally, so that you can slew to your destination faster.

If you know how to grab latitude and longitude coordinates from Google Map, you can spawn anywhere in the world on the MSFS map screen, using latitude and longitude coordinates (MSFS takes in latitude and longitude coordinates in a specific format, but if you know how to grab the latitude and longitude coordinates from Google Map properly, they will be in the proper format when you paste it into MSFS).

In addition, even if you spawn in mid air, after you spawn in mid air, you can always cut all power to the plane, shut everything down, and slew to the ground.  Once you slew to the final place you want to take off from (and make sure you have slewed to the ground as well, or else the plane will just drop to the ground and crash), just cancel the slew, and you will start on the ground, cold and dark (because you turned off everything before).  You can also save this flight, so that you can load up up this exact starting point in the future from the ground.

Slew is your friend, if you want to take off from anywhere around the world.

Edited April 4, 20233 yr by abrams_tank

3 hours ago, Bosco19 said:

I think this might have something to do with the small airport I used to use in the sim since it was released - One I actually flew out of for ten years - It still shows up faintly on the map, but is no longer highlighted as it was in the early days. Is this what happens if you choose to fly from a location that doesn't have a highlighted icon on the map? Does that mean I can't fly out of an unimproved and un-highlighted location in the boonies?

That happened to me with a big airfield/civil and military, after su8 and until around su10, it vanished...

LPBJ

I could see it "un-highlighted" in the map view, but could not use it's ICAO designator to fly from there.

It was fixed later... but took quite a while.

 

Edited April 4, 20233 yr by jcomm

"doesn't have a spawning point (and it should have one, if it's a valid airport)"

LOL! All the residents who are still flying their home-builts and classics out of this field might beg to differ with the "valid airport" concept, especially since this field is designated as the relief airport for the major metro field 40 miles away.

Have never used the slew feature. Guess I should explore that. I was just going to accept the default 1500' starting altitude, land and taxi to a point on the field and just save the flight. I woulda thunk starting at ground level would be the best default for most users......but then I'm not playing on a console. Who decides these things anyway? And doesn't provide a simple menu option. Thanks for the suggestions.