Your first X-Plane flight

1. Check your scenery. Open the panel. Is the detected scenery the one you are flying, and did Publisher match it? If not, pick the right one (see below).
2. Connect to VATSIM with your pilot client - xPilot, swift or XSquawkBox. Bars only appear while you are online. If your client is not detected, use Force connection.
3. Descend below 1,000 ft AGL. Above that the plugin idles and shows nothing.
4. Look for a controller. With one online, bars light when the controller switches them. Without one the stop bars stay dark

A dark light is never a clearance

Dark only means XPGuard sees no restriction. Your clearance always comes verbally from ATC. This is true of stop bars, THL and REL alike.

No controller, no lights

THL and REL come entirely from the controller’s ground-radar picture. A stop bar with nobody online stays dark too. With no controller - or none with that light armed - you see nothing. That absence is not an all-clear.

Nothing showing?

Check in this order:

• Connected to VATSIM
• Below ~1,000 ft AGL
• MSFS connected (top of the app)
• The package in your Community folder
• A controller online