Engine shutdown in flight

[1st Shirt]

Hello all!, Here's one I've never seen with user aircraft:

While in flight (and sometimes while in taxi) all engines shutdown. This only started about a week ago; I have not installed any new FS9 add-ons, or outside software (other than windows auto-updates); this happens with all default aircraft as well as 3rd party (freeware or payware).

At first I suspected a gauge, so uninstalled all panels except default and reloaded all fs gauges, no help. Next I uninstalled my flight yoke, throttle quad and pedals, no help. Thinking maybe some file in fs9 was corrupt I uninstalled fs9, purged every fs-related directory and file, cleaned the registry and defragged; I then re-installed fs9 and the 9.1 patch. Now completely vanilla, fs9 ran smooth with no problems for about 2 days and then bang - engines shutdown in flight, then after an airstart they would shutdown again, randomly within 5-10 minutes of each occurrance.

Here are my particulars:
Intel Core i7-3930 @3.2GHz
windows7 pro 64bit w/SP1
32GB RAM
dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti
fs9 with 9.1 patch
ch products flight yoke, throttle quad and pro-pedals
logitech G510 game keyboard
logitech 2-button mouse w/thumbwheel

Now here's the kicker:
After a complete uninstall for the 2nd time, I installed FSX (for the first time ever) and after about an hour of use: a complete engine shutdown while in flight!

I am completely stumped and while not a programmer type in any way, I am not a novice with computers or software. Has anyone seen anything like this? or any ideas? I sure can't be doing an airstart every 5-10 minutes and it wouldn't do if it happened while on short final!

Any help appreciated.

Forgot to mention, I also checked the in-flight failures settings and all were unchecked.

[Firebird]

This rings a bell. I believe that it is something like the aircraft battery runs out of juice as the generators are not working. You may have them switched on but FS9 thinks that it isn't and you engines fail when you run out of battery.

I seem to remember that it happens after you use and and save a flight with one of the very accurately modelled cockpit procedure aircraft. By default if you switch the engine master on it switches the generators on but these complicated cockpits remove that link and make you switch he generators on manually.

Of course I could be off on some details as it was some time ago. I seem to remember a couple of fixes, one being that a registered version of fsuipc had an option for the gens to be online all the time and I think that there is also a parm that you can add to an aircraft.cfg.

There may be a way of clearing out your default.flt file but i am not sure about this.

Hop this helps and that I am not off the mark here.

*EDIT* Just checked my default.flt and found this entry under the Systems section:-
[Systems.0]
BatterySwitch=True

Try checking to see if this is what yours is set to.

[1st Shirt]

Steve, now that you mention it it does ring a bell, I've had the wilco airbus series installed for some time but only recently started toying with it and that could very well be the culprit! I'll give that a check. Thanks for nudging the old noggin! I'll check and let you know.

[1st Shirt]

Well I've reinstalled FS9 and so far no problems, it's completely vanilla with no add-ons, not even the 9.1 patch. I haven't a clue what caused it but I do think you are right about the battery issue.

I am not able to open and/or edit a .flt file however, have I missed an app that does that? I found a website that explained every item in the file but did not offer any links to editors.

I seem to remember a fix for the battery/generator problem without resorting to the registered version of fsuipc, does that ring a bell with anyone?

[Stewart Pearson]

Allen,

Check out this thread at Avsim. I believe this will solve the problem;

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/231073-wha ... y-problem/

[1st Shirt]

Thanks Stew, I checked the referenced thread, some possibilities there. What I can't get my head around is even if I'm experiencing an issue within fs9 concerning battery/generator config, why do the engines cut off and spool down. It seems to me that even if I lose all electrical power, the engines would continue to run, no? or is it because the fuel pumps crap out?

At any rate I've never bumped into this issue in my 25 years of fs experience - very frustrating!

[Firebird]

The .flt files can be opened with any text editor, even notepad. They are just text files not a binary or anything.

[1st Shirt]

Ah, well, that shows what 25 years of experience with something means
you learn something new every day! At any rate I've been operating with a new install for a couple days now using default aircraft and no problems noted so I'll move on from here with your advice in mind.

Steve and Stew, many thanks for your replies and assistance; it's why this loyal lurker hangs around

Happy New Year to you and all the MAIW crew!