About starting the engines in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
To start the engine in Flight Simulator X or in Flight Simulator 2004 - A Century of Flight for your virtual airline flight, press and hold CTRL+E. Do not let go of the keyboard commands until you hear that the aircraft's engine has fully started. On multiengine aircraft, engine commands affect all engines unless you first select an aircraft's engine by pressing E + engine number (1-4). To revert to controlling all of the aircraft's engines, press E + all engine numbers in quick succession (E, 1, 2, and so on). You may be able to start the aircraft's engines even if you follow these steps in a different order. Your virtual airline may also provide you with manuals on starting the engines for more sophisticated types that they operate. Depending on conditions in the flight simulation in your flight simulator, you may not have to complete all these steps to start the aircraft's engines. Flight Simulator 2004 - A Century of Flight includes the Flight Simulation Learning Center. This Flight Simulation Learning Center is a good source for information about how to use Flight Simulator 2004 - A Century of Flight and Flight Simulator X for your virtual airline flights.
More information about starting the engines and pre-flight in Flight Simulator X and Flight Simulator 2004.
You can view the Flight Simulation Notes for each aircraft to learn how to start the aircraft's engine at your virtual airline. For example, to learn how to start the aircraft engine for Boeing 737-400, start the Flight Simulation Learning Center, click the Index tab, locate Boeing 737-400 aircraft, and then click Flight Notes. The aircraft engine startup information for flight simulator will be available in the document. The Flight Simulator Insider page provides more information about the keyboard assignments for Flight Simulator 2004 - A Century of Flight. To review the keyboard assignments for Flight Simulator 2004 - A Century of Flight, visit the Microsoft Flight Simulator X or Flight Simulator 2004 Web site. The first thing to do is start the avionics in the plane. If you look you will see two red switches to the bottom left on the panel in the Cessna 172 aircraft, and a white in the bottom center. These are your avionics switches, or aviation electronics. These are what control all of the electrical works in the flight simulator plane. Set them all to on at the beginning of your virtual airline flight. Battery power is used when the aircraft's engine is not running, and alternator kicks in whenever the engine is running at around 1000 rpm or more. It is a good idea to not let your aircraft sit with avionics on while the engine off for too long, because a battery in your aircraft will die just like in a vehicle.
Now that we have electrical power in the aircraft, this would be a good time to set the radios in the aircraft. First and foremost you should check ATIS (Automated Terminal Information Service) for the altimeter setting as well as other information needed for your virtual airline flight. ATIS stands for Automated Terminal Information Service, and is something you will be checking often as a virtual airline pilot. You can find this frequency by opening the world map and clicking on your current airport in flight simulator. Take the frequency next to ATIS and enter it into COMM1 or COMM2, in your flight simulator it makes no difference, as the inactive frequency. Once set, switch it into active and you should start hearing a recorded flight simulation voice. Listen for “altimeter two niner niner zero”. Obviously the numbers may be different depending on current conditions at the airport. With this information you should now locate the knob on the altimeter in your flight simulator and use it to set it to the correct position. Altitude is read by using barometic pressure to get a reading over MSL, or mean sea level, and if atmospheric conditions have changed since the last time the altimeter was set, your altitude will not read accurately. Now you should adjust the trim for takeoff on your aircraft. Trim is your best friend in the world, and is something you need to get comfortable with as soon as possible. The trim is a small flap like surface located on the back of the elevators of your aircraft that change the orientation to oncoming air. It will have a major influence on the amount of pressure on the yoke needed to maneuver your aircraft, and is worthy of another flight simulator lesson by itself. For now, let’s set it to takeoff position in our fight simulator by clicking and holding the trim wheel until the notch on the wheel is aligned with TO for takeoff. If this is done correctly, the aircraft will lift off without any pressure being applied to the yoke on your virtual airline flight's takeoff.
Now that your trim is set, and we have checked ATIS for our altimeter setting and other airport information, it’s time to start the aircraft's engine. First, make sure the parking brake in your flight simulator is set, and that your mixture is set to full rich by pushing the knob all the way in. The fuel shutoff knob should be OFF, again by pushing the knob in. Flip the fuel pump on and let it run for a few seconds to get some fuel into the engine. 3-4 seconds should be enough. Apply 1/4? to the throttle, and turn the key to “start” under magnetos. The engine should start. In a real plane we would stick our head outside the plane and yell “CLEAR THE PROP” before starting the engine. This isn’t necessary in FSX. :) With the engine started, pull the throttle to idle and let the engine stabilize. Next, turn the magnetos to R and make sure the engine continues to run, then do L next. The magnetos are designed to run independently of one another, and should always be checked before a flight. It is now time to contact ground and request clearance to taxi to the runway from ATC. Runways take on the number of the direction they are facing, for example runway 36 is due north, for 360. The 0 is assumed. If you wanted to fly south, you would contact the Air Traffic Control tower and request taxi for a southern departure, and hope for runway 18, for 180 or south. Ground controllers will always do their best to accommodate you, but if you don’t get the runway of your choice it is for a good reason. Ground will assign a runway and taxiway to follow, and then hand you over to the Air Traffic Control tower when you are ready for takeoff. In a real aircraft you would stop in the runup area to do final checks before taking off, but we don’t need to do this in Flight Simulator X or Flight Simulator 2004, so just taxi straight to the runway and hold short. Contact the Air Traffic Control tower and request clearance to takeoff. Once cleared, do a final visual check for incoming virtual airline traffic and head out. Some virtual airline pilots apply full power while still turning onto the runway, others get aligned with centerline first. Me personally, it is recommended to get aligned first, but it’s all up to you and what you feel most comfortable with.
