Flight setup

Start positions

WhereStart tab of the airport panel, or click directly on the airport diagram.

1. 01

   Open an airport and go to the Start tab, or click a gate, stand, runway end, helipad or water runway on the diagram. Click a selected start again to deselect it.

2. 02

   Each stand shows its size class (narrow, wide, heavy, super) and operator type (airline, cargo, GA, military), so you can pick one that fits the aircraft. Search filters the list.

3. 03

   Runway starts have three options. Threshold puts you on the numbers. Approach puts you on final at the distance you choose. Tow starts a glider on a winch or behind a tug (a Cessna 172 SP).

4. 04

   Water runways are drawn as lanes and work as starts, so seaplane bases work from the Start tab and the map.

• Gate starts are the normal choice. They also feed the taxi planner, which routes you from that gate to the runway. See Taxi routing.
• The active runway in the Info tab is picked from the wind. The Start tab marks it so you do not take off downwind.

Start Anywhere

WhereStart Anywhere in the toolbar, or right-click the map > Start anywhere here.

1. 01

   Right-click any point on the map and choose Start anywhere here, or click Start Anywhere in the toolbar and then click the map. A marker appears with the coordinates; edit them for an exact spot.

2. 02

   Ground: you start parked there, with the heading from the marker.

3. 03

   Air: set the altitude and a speed (short field approach, normal approach, cruise, or a number you type) and you start flying. Final Approach lines you up with a runway.

4. 04

   Carrier: pick catapult 1 to 4 or the deck. Frigate: the helicopter deck.

• Start Anywhere is the tool for repositioning, demos, bush strips that are not in the airport data, and practising approaches without a taxi.
• The coordinates follow the format from Settings > Units. Copy coordinates in the right-click menu copies the same point.

Aircraft and livery

WhereFlight setup dialog, left column.

1. 01

   Press Launch (Cmd+L or Ctrl+L) with a start selected to open flight setup.

2. 02

   Filter the aircraft list by type (fixed wing, helicopter), engine (jet, prop), category or manufacturer, or search by name or folder path. Star the aircraft you fly most and show favorites only.

3. 03

   Pick a livery from the row at the bottom, or step through them with the arrows either side of the preview. The preview is the aircraft in that livery, with a counter in the corner. X-Dispatch remembers the last livery per aircraft.

4. 04

   The header shows the empty weight, MTOW, fuel capacity and tail number read from the .acf file, and the add-on studio and file path, so two installs of the same aircraft are easy to tell apart.

Weather and time

WhereConditions card in the flight setup dialog.

1. 01

   Live uses the real time at the airport and real weather. The card shows the local time, how long until sunrise or sunset, and a preview of the sky.

2. 02

   Choose time picks any time: Now, dawn, sunrise, noon, sunset, dusk, night, or a custom time.

3. 03

   Real weather shows a summary of the METAR at the departure airport (wind, temperature, flight category). The presets are Clear, Cloudy, Rainy, Stormy, Snowy and Foggy.

4. 04

   Custom weather opens a diagram of the whole weather stack. Add cloud layers (type, coverage, base, tops) and wind layers (direction, speed, gusts, shear, turbulence), then set visibility, precipitation, temperature, altimeter, runway condition from dry to ice, waves, thermals, and whether the weather improves or deteriorates during the flight.

Weight and fuel

WhereWeight & Fuel card in the flight setup dialog.

1. 01

   The card shows your takeoff weight against the maximum, with empty weight, payload and fuel on a bar and the spare margin, or how much you are over.

2. 02

   Press Edit for the detailed dialog. Fuel is Auto, or Manual with a slider per tank. Payload is set per station. Everything is read from the aircraft's .acf file, so third-party aircraft work too.

3. 03

   Choose Ready (engines running) or Cold & Dark.

• Weights follow Settings > Units.
• With a SimBrief plan imported, payload and block fuel can come from the OFP. See SimBrief.

Launch or change flight

WhereLaunch X-Plane button at the bottom of the flight setup dialog.

1. 01

   Check the summary above the button: aircraft, livery, departure and start position.

2. 02

   Press Launch X-Plane. X-Dispatch starts any companion apps first, then X-Plane with your flight loaded.

3. 03

   If X-Plane is already running, the button reads Change Flight. X-Plane moves you to the new aircraft and position through its web API, no restart.

4. 04

   A disabled Launch button means a start position or an aircraft is missing. The button's tooltip says which.

• Close after launch and the extra X-Plane launch arguments live under Settings > X-Plane. The arguments have a browsable list of every X-Plane flag.
• Every launch is kept in the logbook under Launch history, the last 10 setups. Load this setup starts the same flight again.
• If Windows refuses to start X-Plane, run X-Dispatch as administrator once. If it still refuses, antivirus or Controlled Folder Access is blocking the X-Plane folder. See Troubleshooting.