Removing individual Exterior Elements and a thing about the external power unit.
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First off let me say I'm really thrilled with this unique aircraft. I've had her for over 2 weeks now and have only flown it once! I'm a firm believer in getting to know an aircraft before flying her and man, there's a ton to learn (exactly like a good woman!). I bought the plane through MSFS 2024 Marketplace and it's on a PC (please don't be too harsh - I've had a bunch of XBox gift cards given to me over the years for birthdays and Christmases!).
A question and an observation....
Is there some way you can make the exterior elements individually removable? I think it would be nice to have to walk around the plane to remove each item. Yes, it's handy to be able to stand in one place outside the plane, simply swivel around, and with a single touch on any one item you can remove all the related items - pitot covers, gear pins, wheel chocks, and engine covers. It'd be nice to do that on the real plane!
About the external power unit: I notice that the only way to have the external power unit attach is to have the chocks in place. If you place the ground unit then remove the chocks the unit disappears and cannot be placed until the chocks are. I'm currently using the logic that the crew on the GPU would remove the chocks for me but how would they get them inside the plane? Or, perhaps more realistically, why would they bother?
It'll take me a while to get all the controls mapped to my hardware and this is part of my learning process. When it all gets done I'm looking forward to many hours of flying this wonderfully individual aircraft.
Have a great day.
Bob
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Glad to hear you're enjoying the aircraft! You made my day with your description of learning all the details first, because I think that's how my aircraft were most meant to be enjoyed.
I've been experimenting with individually removable exterior elements in my latest aircraft (still in development), but I think the final call on this one will have to be the community. We will see how they like it, and if they do, then I will make things consistent across my fleet.
In order to keep the GPU deployed without the chocks, just ensure that your parking brake is on. That should do it! I hope that's an acceptable answer. It seems to satisfy your requirements, but perhaps you have something else in mind.
Let me know if you have any more questions as you're learning Starship! I'm always here to answer them.
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Glad to hear you're enjoying the aircraft! You made my day with your description of learning all the details first, because I think that's how my aircraft were most meant to be enjoyed.
I've been experimenting with individually removable exterior elements in my latest aircraft (still in development), but I think the final call on this one will have to be the community. We will see how they like it, and if they do, then I will make things consistent across my fleet.
In order to keep the GPU deployed without the chocks, just ensure that your parking brake is on. That should do it! I hope that's an acceptable answer. It seems to satisfy your requirements, but perhaps you have something else in mind.
Let me know if you have any more questions as you're learning Starship! I'm always here to answer them.
@Black-Square I think individually removable would be pretty cool. Anyone who couldn't be bothered with the walk around can just toggle exterior elements off in tablet either way.
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@SadBucket I think the option (and I'm a great believer in options!) to simply remove by tablet is great for those that maybe think they have a ground crew for doing those things.
That actually brings up something I don't know: do biz jet pilots remove the covers and things? How deep a preflight do they do? I had a buddy who flew in east Africa for the Red Cross for years and he told me about the flying but never once mentioned doing a preflight. I drove school bus for 30 years and my stories never mention the 10 minutes doing the pretrip inspection that we all had to do every morning.
@Black-Square I guess I'm missing something when setting the park brake - I'll try that ASAP.
edit: Got it!!
A small possible wrinkle would be having to be within a certain radius of a removable element; it would lend more credence to walking around doing the preflight. Why be able to reach 20' to remove a cover? Okay, we can't jump up on the wing (can we?!) to remove the intake covers so there has to be a compromise.
Have a great day.
Bob
