ISSUE DESCRIPTION
Description of the issue:
The default C172 (Classic/steam-gauge variant) has an electrical circuit of type CIRCUIT_GEAR_MOTOR (shown as gearmotor / circuit.1 in the Developer Mode electrical debug panel) that is connected to a powered bus and draws current continuously whenever the battery master is on — even though this airframe has fixed landing gear and no gear motor.
Measured with the aircraft parked, engine off, alternator off, all avionics buses de-energized, and every circuit breaker reset:
ELECTRICAL CIRCUIT AMPS:1= ~8.3 A (this is the gearmotor circuit)CIRCUIT GEAR MOTOR ON= 1 (true)IS GEAR RETRACTABLE= 0 (false — confirms fixed gear)- Toggling this one circuit off drops total battery load by ~8.3 A, verified by before/after readings of both
ELECTRICAL CIRCUIT AMPS:1and total battery load. For a light aircraft sitting cold with the battery on, that is a very large continuous parasitic draw from a circuit that should be inert on a fixed-gear airframe.
Per the SDK, a CIRCUIT_GEAR_MOTOR consumer is meant to draw only while the landing gear is in motion, if electrically operated. On this fixed-gear aircraft it should never be powered. Writing GEAR HANDLE POSITION from 0→100% has no effect on the circuit’s draw and GEAR POSITION:1 never changes, confirming this isn’t gear-transit logic — it’s an orphaned consumer left connected and defaulting to on, most likely from a shared electrical-system template that wasn’t cleaned up for the fixed-gear preset.
Effect: the battery discharges faster than it should when the aircraft is left powered (battery-on, engine-off), which can leave the aircraft unable to start.
If applicable, which aircraft is experiencing this issue:
Cessna 172 Skyhawk — Classic/steam-gauge variant (default/in-sim content).
[PC Only] Did you remove all your community mods/add-ons? If yes, are you still experiencing the issue?
Yes — reproduced on the stock aircraft with no community add-ons. The circuit is defined in the default aircraft’s electrical system; no mod is involved.
FREQUENCY OF ISSUE
Every time — it’s present on every flight/session with this aircraft, across multiple liveries of the variant.
REPRODUCTION STEPS
- Load the default C172 (Classic) at any parking spot, cold and dark.
- Turn the battery master ON (engine off, alternator off).
- Open Developer Mode → the aircraft electrical-system debug panel (or read the SimVars below via SimConnect).
- Observe the
gearmotorcircuit (circuit.1) is ON and drawing ~8 A.IS GEAR RETRACTABLEreads false for this airframe. - Toggling that circuit off (SDK key event
ELECTRICAL_CIRCUIT_TOGGLEwith the circuit index, or the debug panel’s off button) drops total load by ~8 A and stops the phantom drain.
YOUR SETTINGS
What peripherals are you using, if relevant: N/A (issue is systems-level, not input-related).
[PC Only] Are you using Developer Mode or have you made any changes to it?
Yes — Developer Mode’s electrical debug panel and a custom SimConnect client were used to measure and isolate the load. To be fully transparent: that tooling is how the circuit was identified, but the underlying defect (a powered CIRCUIT_GEAR_MOTOR on a fixed-gear aircraft) exists in the default aircraft independent of any tooling — Developer Mode only made it visible and measurable. No changes were made to the aircraft’s files.
[PC, MSFS 2020 Only] Are you using DX11 or DX12? N/A (MSFS 2024).
[PC Only] What GPU (Graphics Card) do you use? AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT
[PC Only] What other relevant PC specs can you share? AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, 32 GB RAM, MS Store version, MSFS 2024 v1.7.35.0
