How do I disable damage and engine failures in FSX?

In FSX and FSX: Steam Edition, open Options > Settings > Realism, select Ignore crashes and damage, and clear Aircraft stress causes damage and Engine stress damages engine. Then open Aircraft > Failures and cancel any active or scheduled failures. This disables FSX’s built-in damage and failures, but not custom add-on or mission logic.

Which FSX damage settings should I switch off?

Three Realism controls and the separate Failures menu determine whether stock FSX can damage the airframe or deliberately fail an engine.

1. Open the Realism settings. From a flight, press Alt if the menu bar is hidden, then choose Options > Settings > Realism. From the main Free Flight screen, open Settings and then Realism.
2. Ignore crash damage. Select Ignore crashes and damage. If Detect crashes and damage is presented as the alternative, make sure it is not selected.
3. Disable airframe stress damage. Clear Aircraft stress causes damage. This prevents excessive speed or aerodynamic loading from producing an overstress failure. Our explanation of FSX stress damage and the aircraft-overstressed warning covers that setting in more detail.
4. Disable engine stress damage. Clear Engine stress damages engine. This stops FSX damaging an engine because it has been operated beyond its modelled limits.
5. Remove configured failures. Open Aircraft > Failures, inspect each engine, instrument and system category, and clear or reset anything marked as failed, active or scheduled.
6. Apply the changes. A Realism preset selected later can overwrite individual choices, so recheck these controls after changing presets.

If you do not want contact with AI or multiplayer aircraft to trigger a collision event, also clear Allow collisions with other aircraft where that option is available. The crash-tolerance slider is not an engine-failure control and has little practical effect when crash damage is being ignored.

Why does my FSX engine still shut down?

An engine can still stop because FSX treats fuel supply and cockpit controls separately from damage and programmed failures.

• Fuel has run out. Enable Unlimited fuel in the Realism settings if that is what you want, or check the aircraft’s actual fuel quantities. Our FSX refuelling methods and fuel checks explain the available ways to replenish it.
• The engine is being starved of fuel. Unlimited fuel does not make every cockpit control irrelevant. Check the tank selector, mixture or condition lever, fuel cutoff and any aircraft-specific fuel controls.
• The aircraft was loaded in a shut-down state. A saved flight can restore cold-and-dark controls, empty tanks or an existing failure state. If the engine will not start or stops immediately, work through our engine-start and unexpected-shutdown checks.
• A failure remains scheduled. Stock FSX does not normally create unexplained random engine failures without a configured cause. Reopen Aircraft > Failures and check every category rather than only the engine page.

Engine stress damages engine only disables damage caused by operating limits. It does not force an engine to keep running when its mixture is at idle cutoff, its fuel supply is unavailable or its normal starting procedure has not been completed.

Do add-on aircraft obey the FSX damage settings?

Default aircraft generally obey the global FSX settings, but a complex add-on may run an independent failure, wear or maintenance system.

Check the aircraft’s own panel, configuration utility or in-cockpit options for failure probability, service condition, engine wear and persistent-state controls. Disabling failures there may require reloading the aircraft or starting a new flight. Changing the FSX Realism page alone cannot override failure logic coded into an add-on gauge or module.

Can missions or saved flights override these options?

FSX missions can script damage and engine failures, while saved flights can restore the fuel, controls and failure state recorded when they were saved.

Test with a fresh Free Flight using a default aircraft. If that aircraft runs normally with the settings above, the remaining failure is tied to the mission, saved flight or add-on rather than FSX’s global damage model.