MSFS 2024 - Realism or Annoyance

Yea the vision jet shouldn’t start, but running the starter might be enough to suck the cover into the engine which would likely damage it. Don’t know and don’t want to find out

Yes it seems that the sim ties the engine cooling intake covers with the engine intake which isn’t correct. Maybe they didn’t know but they did state they spoke to real pilots during development. Since they got this wrong on the most popular aircraft ever produced it brings into question which pilots did they speak with and how can I expect something more complex like the king air 90 to be accurate if they mess up the 172. Honestly not a huge deal overall though, there are far more egregious errors in the sim.

Remove your covers and chocks and get flying :airplane:

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This is not necessarily true.

If there is a bug, and all the people suffering from it have a particular option selected, that immediately reduces considerably the area of code where the bug lies. Similarly if that option is not selected by all those affected.

If an option is always on by default, it is not immediatly obvious where the problem lies, and hence more work is required.

In my experience - I had to pan CJ4 due to no speed reading (pitot cover) and couldn’t get the engines to start up - forgot to remove the engine covers.
So that’s it. I kinda like the walkaround, if there are no bugs ar jitters.

When you say “I had to pan” is that “pan pan pan”? As in an emergency?

In an original (German) flight manual for a C172 S, I found no indication that the covers on the openings to the cylinders (engine cooling) must be removed, they are not even mentioned. I have never seen such red covers and you cannot buy them in Germany. The manual only requires removing the pitot cover.

However, the manual does require that another important pre-flight check has to be carried out: draining some fuel to see if water has collected in the tank. This is as important as checking the oil level, which is also not simulated in the sim checks.

My conclusion: You can spend hours discussing which walk-around checks are useful in the sim and how relevant they are in reality. The solution is simple: Make the FS 24 pre-flight checks optional.

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The covers aren’t mandatory, they’re just covers to prevent anything getting into the engine bay. I’ve never flown anywhere but the US but I’ve seen plenty of planes parked on the ramp without them. Here they’re viewed as a simple preventative measure, like a pitot tube cover. I believe cessna provides them with new aircraft but other than that they have to be purchased by a 3rd party seller somewhere.

You technically don’t need to use a pitot tube cover when parked but it is a best practice for safety and to not have to deal with removing FOD or bugs from.the system.

No A330, but just a few days ago I saw this irl^^ I’ve also never seen that before.

I do agree in the point that the pre flight check should be optional.
I sometimes struggle with them myself, because on some models i found it hard to remove the wheel chocks, for example.

the one that got me the best was the nose gear lock on the CL-415, took off and couldn’t retract the gear, landed and upon closer inspection there is a remove before flight tag behind the nose gear in the wheel well.

Why is walking in first person so awkward?

Those covers are usually only put on if a plane is stored somewhere for longer parking, but not after every flight or for overnight parking at a gate.