I fly a weekly group event with multiple stops in the flight plan. I fly with people that use 2020, 2024, and P3D simulators. We fly from and to smaller airports and almost every time we are going to a new airport, the MSFS 2020 person says he sees the runway lights a long way out from the airport. In MSFS 2024 we see nothing? Is there a reason for that? It makes it much more difficult to see the airport I’m landing at. Is there something I need to do differently?
Hi @ElevenDoubloon5
Could you list a few of the airports in 2024 that you’re not seeing lights at and I’ll double check and see if I’m seeing the same thing.
I flew around an area with a lot of airports and saw mixed results. It “seemed” like the ones that were “VFR” only, didn’t have runway lights, and the others did. But it was a very small sample, so I can’t really draw any conclusions from that flight.
But I can check some of the ones you’re specifically not seeing lights at and see if I’m seeing the same issue. If I’m seeing lights at some of them, then I can double check my settings and see if there’s a difference in our settings that might be causing the issue.
Regards
Here are a few we flew on Wednesday. He saw runway-identifying lights, and I didn’t. I don’t remember which ones, but he would comment and say where. None of the runways had identifying lights of any kind for me. I try to keep track next time. Airports: 159 Sand Canyon, S23 Ione Mun, CAD4 Trail, R49 Ferry Co, Wo1 Tonasket Mun, Thanks Bill
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Here are some shots from the airports you mentioned. I’ll put one last to show a potential issue…
I didn’t see any lights on CAD4:
CAD4 with me sitting on runway:
On R49, W01, and 1S9 I had lights and beacons:
But notice on S23 when I was perpendicular to the airport, it was difficult to see the lights, although I could see the beacon. I believe there was an issue identified at one point about not seeing lights when you weren’t straight on to them. Don’t remember if that was ever addressed and has come back for some airports.
Regards
I’m looking for beacons and lights that can be seen in daylight, My fault I should have said in daylight. Thanks
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No worries. I’ll try to go back and see if I can see the lights at the various airports during the daylight.
One thing came to mind for 2024. If some folks in your group are seeing them and you’re not, I’m wondering if you have “dynamic settings” turned on, and what your desired framerate is set to hold (Settings/General/Graphics). If you do have that turned on and your system can’t hold that framerate when you get closer to some airports/scenery/plane you’re using/etc, whether the system is turning off those lights to help maintain your framerate. Just a random thought.
Regards
The people seeing them are on msfs 2020. none of the people on 2024 are seeing any lights, so identification is easier. I hold frame rates at 65 and have no trouble holding that. Thanks for your help
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Well here’s some interesting information:
CAD4 has no runway lighting at all, even though the sim shows has an RNAV and several RNAV Circling approaches listed. The only FAA (U.S.) information I found, said there may be RNAV approaches into unlit runways, but will identify higher minimum visibility and ceilings than approaches into lit runways. Yikes. Don’t think I’d like to fly a night RNAV to an unlit airport. I’ll have to go back and see what the approach charts actually say for that airport. It may prohibit night RNAV operations there. (P.S. Flightware doesn’t even list the RNAV approaches into CAD4, although it’s not the definitive source). So in this sense, if it makes sense that you’re not seeing lights there during the day.
All three of the other airports had runway edge lighting and at least one of them had REILs. I could “sort of” make out the REIL during the day once I got fairly close.
But the lighting was off during the day, and would come on as it grew dark!
Here’s R49 at 2011 hours, and the lights are off (although it doesn’t show real well in the screenshot):
Here’s R49 at 2013 hours, and the light comes on! The other airports matched this process, although the time the lights came on varied very slightly.
In this sense, 2024 seems to be more accurate than 2020, in that many airports do not run their lights during the day unless required by local authorities, or to meet other mandatory approach lighting requirements, e.g. CAT2/CAT3 approaches.
Regards