Starting in fs 2004

A caveat to Bruce’s excellent suggestion – to set your “cold start” default flight, do it from either the Cessna default conditions flight *as it opens from FS9*, not from a previously saved flight, etc. You want as “pure” a set of conditions in FS9. If you’ve made a long flight through weather, icy conditions, etc., some of the aircraft post flight conditions may be saved, and even if your next flight starts in a bright and sunny environment, the conditions are “remembered”. This is why some developers advise to first switch to a default flight before loading their models.

So, to set a new default “cold start” flight, first load up the Seattle Cessna 172 default flight, shut everything down, … adnn follow Bruce’s suggestions above..

It should be easy.

Set the location (airport and stand) you want. Swap to a simple aircraft such as the default Cessna 172 and shut everything down (Battery, Alt, all light switches etc) then swap back to the aircraft you want to start in. Save the flight and make sure you check the box marked ‘set as default flight’

Hope This Helps,

Bruce

As far as I’m aware it cannot be done – I’ve scouted through the FS9.cfg file and can’t find anything to change to make it this way.
What I do is as soon as I have the flight loaded I hit CTRL & F1 to cut all the engines together (actually it cuts the fuel flow) then, when ready for startup, I hit CTRL & F4 to start the fuel flowing again ready for starting.

I’ll carry on hunting for the definitive cold & dark setting but I hope this helps for now…

Cheers
Mike

Cesare.

Try selecting your starting position from this screen. Not entirely sure you start with a “Cold Cockpit” though.