[Resolved] In the Dark about Lights

[wombat32]

I have had a couple of flights recently where although I thought I had my lights sorted I clearly have not as I was ‘penalised’ for ‘Lights not set properly’.
My understanding (probably wrong) is as follows :
1. Beacon ON when aircraft ‘occupied’ – stays on throughout flight.
2. When ready to taxi – taxi lights ON also strobe lights ON.
3. When ready to enter runway taxi lights OFF, landing lights ON.
4. Landing lights stay on all the way up to 10,000ft then OFF until descending back below 10,000ft.
5. When landed and off runway landing lights OFF taxi lights ON.
6. When at the gate taxi lights OFF, strobe lights OFF.
7. All shut down beacon OFF.
Can anyone put me right please ? Thanks.
Mike

[Travis]

Mike,

You are absolutely correct in your understanding, although you have missed one set of FS lights: the Navigation / Position lights.  These are the red and green wing lights, with possibly a white tail light.

Your Nav Lights need to be ON when your Beacon is ON, and OFF likewise.

FSCaptain will ding you if...

• You do not have Beacon and Nav lights ON when your engines are running.
• You do not follow your airlines' Landing Lights rules for ON and OFF.

... and that's it.

Many older FS9 aircraft did not distinguish between Taxi and Landing Lights... and some actually didn't light up anything... so we've made it okay for you to use either Taxi or Landing Lights to fulfill any Landing Lights requirements.
-----

If you want to know what's happening, open your \FSCaptain\Data\Logs\ folder and ZIP all .log files and email that ZIP to me. 

When I'm back on my feet... and I'm getting better... I'll let you know what's causing your penalties.  But I'll take a guess that it's not having your Nav lights ON with a running engine.

Best,

[wombat32]

Hi Travis,
Thats interesting.
In the Caranado Baron 58 there is no switch on the panel for the red/blue nav lights even though they are specifically included in the aircraft.cfg file

[LIGHTS]
//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landing
light.0 = 2, -6.55, -18.07, 1.58, fx_strobecarb8 ,
light.1 = 2, -6.85, 18.00, 1.58, fx_strobecarb8 ,
light.2 = 8, -3.30, -13.40, 1.70, fx_icelightcarb8,
light.3 = 10, -11.30, 0.00, 2.90, fx_vclightcarb8,
light.4 = 10, -6.50, 0.00, 3.40, fx_vclightcarb8,

However, IF I use the FSX default hot-key for ALL lights (L) I then get the NAV lights - along with every other light !
Do you know of a way to set up a new FSX hot-key to activate 'light.3' above when required ?

Mike

[wombat32]

I meant to say red/green nav lights.
I have found a 'clumsy' workaround.
When ready to start engines use 'L' to turn all lights ON then straight away turn Taxi and Landing Lights OFF.
That leaves me with Beacon, Strobe, and Nav lights ON.
Mike

[Travis]

Mike,

I had a quick look, and the bit you copied from the aircraft.cfg file controls: two strobes (2), a wing light (8), and two "headlights" (10).  The other lights may be built into the model and not visible here.

If there's no switch in the VC to affect a light system, what we ask Captains to do is to declare the system as INOP on its Aircraft Characteristics file.

Certainly your workaround will work as well.  But on the days when you forget to use the "All On" keystroke to set your lights, you'll get that penalty again.
-------

And please don't forget to email me those Admin / FCDU / FSCaptain log files.  I'd really like a look at them!!!

Best,

[wombat32]

Hello Travis,
I wont forget the "All On" keystroke - I make a point of having a rigid hard-copy procedure for prelims on each of my airctaft - less catastrophies that way !
You wont be happy with me though !
What with my lengthy 'exploration' of FScaptain during the last week or two, plus flying etc, I accumulated a huge number of log files - pages and pages of them
I am afraid I had a big clean up and deleted most - certainly the early ones.
There may not be anything wrong though at your end as all my issues were fixed immediately after I followed your instructions with the "MRROOT=F:\MyFSX\" entry and also setting "run with Administrator" for all FSCaptain and FSX itself.
I will probably have to post another question though re a few things about Aircraft Set-Up in FS Captain. But at the moment I am studying again the relevant parts of the User Guide.
Mike

[Travis]

This topic is currently resolved.

Best,