Start at Altitude

Official Microsoft Flight Simulator Wishlist
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1

Maybe I missed this, but FSX let you start the sim at a selected altitude instead of on the ground.

9

You can select a random point on the map as a starting point and this will let you start in the air. I did the same when trying to spot the pyramids.

2 Likes
10

Unless I completely missed it and unless you choose to fly High-Altitude IFR - I think there’s no way to choose your starting altitude nor the direction you want to spawn.

It would be nice to have those options.

1 Like
11

Yes I agree.

For now, I spawn in. Skew mode. And alt F4 to desired altitude

12

Oh I didn’t know they kept skew mode!
How do you enable that?

13

On the globe
Select your chosen start point
select a custom point in the direction you wish to fly and make it the destination
open the nav log and enter your chosen altitude.

enjoy the flight

1 Like
14

You can currently select any non-airport location, such as a fix or empty ground or GPS coordinates, as the departure point for a flight and you will start airborne.

Based on the selection, the interface will adjust the FROM information. If you select a point on the ground the interface will show “-AIRBORNE-1500 Ft”. If you select a fix or navaid it will simply show “-AIRBORNE-”. It is not clear how the sim determines what altitude to start at when a fix is selected. Over bare ground it appears to start around 1500 ft as advertised.

For example, I wanted to fly an approach starting at the IAF. I should be at 5000 ft. The sim started the flight at 8500 ft.

If you specify an arrival location, the sim appears to set an appropriate heading for the defined flight plan. However if no arrival is specified then it appears to default to North.

I think we need to have the ability to specify a few additional parameters to make an airborne start more useful.

  1. Option to start airborne or on the ground.
  2. If airborne, Starting Altitude with choice of MSL or AGL
  3. Starting Heading (even when arrival is specified)

I currently see no way to adjust any of these settings in the current interface. If I am missing something please let me know. (And yes
 I searched)

15

You can change altitude in the flight log and can set the heading by selecting a destination point (fixed or custom) that is the desired direction from the starting point.

16

I did know about the heading
 when an arrival is defined. But did not notice the NavLog altitude.

Wonder what happens if you put 0? Would that be a ground start?

17

give it a try. what’s the worst that could happen? ;p

18

It won’t start on the ground
defaults to 1500 feet. Don’t know how useful that would really be anyways.

Since other options can be achieved with current functionality i think this request can be withdrawn.

19

It would make sense for planes that can start from a grass strip. In that case you could take off from just about everywhere.

20

See HawkMoth9135 reply below. It works!!

21

‘Y’, just as in all previous flight simulator versions. :+1:

22

HI there, I would like to have as a default where you can actually start at an actual starting altitude say 30000ft
etc


23

mind the aircraft limitations depending on what you choose