For OnAir specifically, the ones I believe it cares about are:
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Beacon (and only Beacon) on before engine start. Some planes have Beacon labeled as something else, look at the in-game checklist to see what light goes on before engine start.
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Landing lights OFF below xxx altitude. This is different between props and jets. For jets it’s is 10,000ft, I forget what it is for props but I believe it is low 000s. The error message from OnAir will give you this. As long as you turn them on before take-off you are good. If you fly high enough where you need to turn them off (see below), you need to turn back on during descent.
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Landing lights ON above xxx altitude. Again, this is different between props and jets. For jets, you need to turn off above 12,000 feet (yes, you have 2,000ft to act, which with the bizjets, is like ~30-40 seconds). I believe the buffer on props is more forgiving. Thia can also hit you if you turn them back on too early in your descent.
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Lights at shutdown - Once you are parked, you need to shut every light off except Beacon before shutting down the engine.
Cadence I try to follow (on cj4, happy to take feedback from people if any on this is incorrect):
- Electric on
- Beacon On
- Engine on/avionics on
- Nav and logo on
- Do clearance and request taxi
- Taxi lights on
- Taxi to runway
- Taxi and Logo off, Strobe and Landing lights on
- Take-off, fly, and land, obey rules on landing lights above
- Turn-off Strobe and Landing lights as departing runway, turn on logo and taxi
- Taxi to parking
- turn off all lights except Beacon
- Turn off Engine (OnAir should say flight completed
- Turn off avionics/electronics (msfs should record flight)