How can you set the sim so you can start in "turnaround mode" instead of cold and dark?  I can't seem to find anything in the EFB settings.  

Is there a way to turn down the cabin lights for night flights?   

Are you supposed to arm the speedbrakes prior to take-off?  I don't see anything referenced in the checklists I've downloaded from the internweb. Or do they automatically deploy if you RTO?   Same for landing, I assume you would have to, but I don't see that step listed in any of the checklists out there.  

1.  Panel states exist but seem to not be fully debugged yet.  So, you can load at the gate and load a panel state but it won't have everything quite right.  But that's one of the things that is coming with SP1, if I remember correctly.

2. Yes, cabin lighting is controlled via the flight attendant touchscreen panel at the front of the cabin.  You turn it on as in reality - tap (click) in one corner and then the opposite corner.  It's modeled really well.  I know how to use the one in the work airplane because of the iFly haha. 

3.  Emphatically do not arm the speed brakes for takeoff in a Boeing.  Down detent.  They will deploy automatically if you reject when reverses are deployed, but you don't want to wait for that.  Rejected takeoff procedure is:  autothrottles off as you pull throttles to idle, speed brake pulled to full up, reverse as needed, monitor RTO auto braking or manual brakes as needed.  This is why the speed brake handle is where it is; the captain will always be the one executing the abort.

Yes the panel states are buggy. I tried a few but then I found I couldn’t start the APU or arm the autobrake. 
 

It’s one thing that keeps me from flying it more as it’s quite a lot of work to power it up from C&D when you don’t have much time. I hope they sort this one. 

25 minutes ago, bennyboy75 said:

I tried a few but then I found I couldn’t start the APU or arm the autobrake. 

Yup.  I found a kind of hack that worked pretty well in 2020, since I had the Parallel 42 Flow app: instead of loading at the gate, I'd load on a runway, and then use the "portal" function of flow to reposition myself to a gate, and THEN load my saved turn panel state.  Because the airplane loaded running and ready to go on the runway, this meant that the controls that a panel state wouldn't change - like the APU and auto brake - were already set correctly anyway.  

But I'm in 24 now and no Flow.  I miss it for, well, several reasons, but that's one of the biggest.

1 hour ago, Stearmandriver said:

 

3.  Emphatically do not arm the speed brakes for takeoff in a Boeing.  Down detent.  They will deploy automatically if you reject when reverses are deployed, but you don't want to wait for that.  Rejected takeoff procedure is:  autothrottles off as you pull throttles to idle, speed brake pulled to full up, reverse as needed, monitor RTO auto braking or manual brakes as needed.  This is why the speed brake handle is where it is; the captain will always be the one executing the abort.

Thanks for the info.   What about on landing?   Speedbrakes armed or left in the standard position and they deploy automatically upon landing?

On approach, you should set the speedbrake lever in the armed position after extending the landing gear. 
 

Speedbrake armed is one the items in the landing checklist. 

18 minutes ago, 11bee said:

Thanks for the info.   What about on landing?   Speedbrakes armed or left in the standard position and they deploy automatically upon landing?

What Sylle said.  On takeoff they're not armed because an accidental deployment could be catastrophic and a high speed abort is pretty unlikely.  If it happens, though, spoiler deployment is crucial to stopping performance, like it is during landing, so it's drilled hard in the sim during captain training.  The auto speedbrake function is often failed to verify that the captain is manually backing up the speed brake the way we want.  When a guy is good, he'll never even know the speedbrake failed because he'll be grabbing the lever himself at the same time ;).  

1 hour ago, Stearmandriver said:

Yup.  I found a kind of hack that worked pretty well in 2020, since I had the Parallel 42 Flow app: instead of loading at the gate, I'd load on a runway, and then use the "portal" function of flow to reposition myself to a gate, and THEN load my saved turn panel state.  Because the airplane loaded running and ready to go on the runway, this meant that the controls that a panel state wouldn't change - like the APU and auto brake - were already set correctly anyway.  

But I'm in 24 now and no Flow.  I miss it for, well, several reasons, but that's one of the biggest.

Interesting! So when I load the iFly it's in a C&D state. How do I load it running? Also, I imagine you could use GSX to reposition it, or does GSX do weird stuff to the state that portal doesn't do?

8 hours ago, bennyboy75 said:

Interesting! So when I load the iFly it's in a C&D state. How do I load it running? Also, I imagine you could use GSX to reposition it, or does GSX do weird stuff to the state that portal doesn't do?

Dunno about GSX, never tried it.  The key is to load the iFly on a RUNWAY start, not at a gate.  It should load up with engines and APU running, ready to take off.  If it isn't, I'm not sure why... Is there a setting somewhere that forces all starts to cold and dark?

9 hours ago, Stearmandriver said:

Dunno about GSX, never tried it.  The key is to load the iFly on a RUNWAY start, not at a gate.  It should load up with engines and APU running, ready to take off.  If it isn't, I'm not sure why... Is there a setting somewhere that forces all starts to cold and dark?

I don’t think there is. So spawn on the runway, shut down to a gate appropriate state and save that as a panel state? I’ll give it a go. 

3 hours ago, bennyboy75 said:

I don’t think there is. So spawn on the runway, shut down to a gate appropriate state and save that as a panel state? I’ll give it a go. 

Yeah, but that's not the whole thing.  If you spawn cold and dark at a gate and try to load that panel state it won't fully work.  What I would do is load on the runway, reposition to a gate using Flow, and then load my saved panel state.  Hacky, yeah, but it worked ok.

EDIT:  ah, I see your post in the other thread now, you got it.  I'll leave this in case anyone reads it but not the other one.  Yeah, it's better than nothing until they get panel states fully working.

Edited July 29, 2025Jul 29 by Stearmandriver

5 minutes ago, Stearmandriver said:

Yeah, but that's not the whole thing.  If you spawn cold and dark at a gate and try to load that panel state it won't fully work.  What I would do is load on the runway, reposition to a gate using Flow, and then load my saved panel state.  Hacky, yeah, but it worked ok.

EDIT:  ah, I see your post in the other thread now, you got it.  I'll leave this in case anyone reads it but not the other one.  Yeah, it's better than nothing until they get panel states fully working.

What is "Flow" ?

35 minutes ago, jcomm said:

What is "Flow" ?

A Parallel 42 app that contains a ton of shortcuts, including an easy way to teleport anywhere within a flight.  It made it super easy to load on a runway and reposition to a gate.  I don't believe it's supported in 24 yet.  Sounds like GSX works well for this too though.

Speaking of the MAX, I don't do Discord.   Have these guys released any news on the status of SP1 (what it will contain and an ETA on it)?