by tdammers » Tue Nov 20, 2018 10:27 am
Starting from a terminal: it depends on the airport, but the larger, well-developed ones all have starting positions at some terminal that you can select, either from the launcher or from the in-sim "Go to airport" menu option. For example, at EDDF, the "A", "B", "C" and "D" startup positions are terminals, whereas the "F" and "V" positions are on open aprons.
When parked at a "nose-in" stand, as is the case with most terminals, you need to use a pushback truck to get out - all the developed airliners have one, and smaller aircraft that don't wouldn't typically park at a nose-in stand IRL, so I suggest starting those on an apron position.
Preflight inspection is something that's only meaningful in a handful of very well-developed aircraft. Off the top of my head, the DHC-6 "Twin Otter" and the Cessna 172p have quite extensive modeling of things like engine covers, tiedowns, chocks, etc., and there's probably half a dozen or so other aircraft that offer some level of detail there, but most focus on the cockpit experience and internal systems.