Question About External Power Behavior After First Flight
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I’d like to report and clarify something I’ve noticed regarding the external power behavior in the Bonanza Professional.
After completing a flight and shutting the aircraft down at the parking stand, the external power appears to work normally at first. However, if I wait a few minutes and then attempt to start a new flight without reloading the aircraft, selecting the external power option on the tablet results in it being immediately deselected. In other words, external power will not stay active.
I’m not sure whether this is intended behavior (for example, related to electrical logic, battery state, or GPU availability), or if it might be an unintended issue.
Could you please clarify whether this is normal system behavior or something that might need further investigation?
Thank you in advance.
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Could you please provide some clarification between the lines of "However, if I wait a few minutes and then attempt to start a new flight without reloading the aircraft..."?
If I read this literally, then you do nothing but sit on the ramp, and after a given amount of time, the external power stops working, but I find that hard to believe. Is there something in between? Moving the aircraft? Opening the pause menu? Any details would be helpful. Thank you.
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I noticed this myself too, and was wondering why, after 3-4 seconds the external power gets disabled "automatically". But I never really thought deeper about it and closed the case "internally" concluding I will need to read the manual. When I notice this the next time, I will take notes and report back.
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I noticed this myself too, and was wondering why, after 3-4 seconds the external power gets disabled "automatically". But I never really thought deeper about it and closed the case "internally" concluding I will need to read the manual. When I notice this the next time, I will take notes and report back.
@kityatyi I know there are some spots where external power is not available. Could you load a new flight at the same spot and verify whether or not external power is available?
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Could you please provide some clarification between the lines of "However, if I wait a few minutes and then attempt to start a new flight without reloading the aircraft..."?
If I read this literally, then you do nothing but sit on the ramp, and after a given amount of time, the external power stops working, but I find that hard to believe. Is there something in between? Moving the aircraft? Opening the pause menu? Any details would be helpful. Thank you.
@Black-Square Thank you for the quick reply — I’ll try to clarify the sequence more precisely.
What I mean is the following:
I complete a normal flight at MDPP airport.
I park on the ramp and perform a full shutdown (engine off, avionics off, mixture cutoff, etc.).
I then remain parked without reloading the aircraft or returning to the main menu.
After a few minutes (without moving the aircraft and without opening the pause menu), I attempt to start a new flight from the same parking position.
When I select External Power on the tablet, it activates briefly and then immediately deselects itself.
I am not moving the aircraft, not changing parking positions, and not reloading the flight. I am simply attempting a second start after the previous shutdown.
Please let me know if you would like me to test a specific configuration or procedure to help narrow this down.
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@kityatyi I know there are some spots where external power is not available. Could you load a new flight at the same spot and verify whether or not external power is available?
@hangar_101 Hi, the external power is available only the first time.
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Okay, so you're not activating external power after shutdown. It's just that you want it for the second engine start and it's not available. This is because external power is only available at designated parking spots in MSFS. I bypassed this whole system for other reasons with Starship, such that external power was available everywhere. I've been asked with some frequency to do the same for all my aircraft, but it's no trivial change. It's on the list, though.
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Okay, so you're not activating external power after shutdown. It's just that you want it for the second engine start and it's not available. This is because external power is only available at designated parking spots in MSFS. I bypassed this whole system for other reasons with Starship, such that external power was available everywhere. I've been asked with some frequency to do the same for all my aircraft, but it's no trivial change. It's on the list, though.
@Black-Square Thank you for the clarification — that makes perfect sense now.
I didn’t realize external power availability was tied specifically to designated parking spots within MSFS.That explains the behavior I was seeing.
I understand that implementing a broader bypass like you did with the Starship is not a trivial change, and I appreciate that it’s at least on your list.
Thanks again for taking the time to explain it.
