Option for randomizing switch positions

Official Microsoft Flight Simulator Wishlist
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1

Many checklist items in aviation are about ensuring that no one’s left a switch in an incorrect position by mistake. This includes making sure that things such as weather radar, hydraulic pumps, engine starters and beacons don’t turn on until it’s time to use them. Even though doing these things isn’t absolutely necessary in a simulator, it still adds to the immersion to use real life procedures.

Unfortunately, since both MSFS 2020 and 2024 seem to default to the exactly same panel settings every time, there’s no actual reason to do any of these checks. You’re essentially just pretending to check something that you already know to be set correctly with total certainty. After hundreds of flights I’ve started to feel a bit dumb doing these “checks”, but I still find them important for immersion.

I think it would be great if there was an option to have the sim occasionally mess up a switch or two in a way that makes sense. Then doing these checks would have some actual meaning.

2

I hear where you’re coming from. Flight sim by nature presents you with a consistent experience each time. But I have found that every now and then I do miss something that a checklist would have caught. Real pilots follow the checklists over and over and most of the time, it all goes as expected. That’s the experience. You do the checks just in case.

Now I agree that some random events could make things more engaging. It’s a delicate balance. Some simmers don’t fly enough that they would naturally encounter an anomaly. We wouldn’t like it to be unrealistic about the defects either.

I think devs are starting to build in more elaborate maintenance systems and failures and we will start to see more of this.