[PLANE HAS AN INVISIBLE EXTERIOR]
If you have a transparent exterior on a new plane installation, then you either have a corrupt SP1 update in FSX, or you need to update your Edition of FSX to SP1 (and also SP2 if SP1 doesn't do it). Sometimes, rarely, SP1 will go corrupt and you will need to uninstall and reinstall it.
The updates are free and available at www.microsoft.com and www.fsinsider.com on the Downloads page.
If you installed FSX Gold (that comes with the SP1 and SP2 updates) but you didn't install Accelleration (on Disc 2), then you do not have the updates. The SP1 and SP2 updates are on CD2 of FSX Gold.
When installing the updates, remember, install SP1, run FSX once, 'then' install SP2. You must run FSX once after installing SP1.
[bLACK AIRCRAFT]
If you install a new plane and the parts are visible but pure black, try rebooting your computer. After a new install, your plane's graphics might not sink into the system at first. Rebooting the computer usually fixes this.
Also make sure your FSX is set to run textures greater then 1024. Some Lionheart Creations planes have textures that are 2048 in size. Your computer must be able to run these. Some aircraft (none of ours, at least yet) have 4096 sized textures. You can adjust FSX to run these.
Note, no updates are required for Prepar3D. Build 1.4 has all of your updates already in its system.
[PLANE TURNS BLACK]
When you are flying along and parts of your plane begin turning pure black, then later, clumping to the center of the plane, this means your computer is running out of memory and about to crash. Lowering your settings will fix this. Sometimes really intense scenery will take up your computer memory. Lowering settings like 'resolution' will help lower this depletion of RAM.
Bill
LHC