That's one of the few reasons why one should never delete the MS default flight with the C-172 at Seattle. It's the sure fire way to reset all panel and aircraft gremlins to load that flight first and then if a cold and dark start with another aircraft is desired simply shut down the Cessna and then move on.
On the other hand I have used a saved "Last Flight" now for about 3 years, including a migration to a new PC. I land and taxi to the ramp and shut down my current ride and then save that flight as "Last Flight" which is my startup flight. The only exception to that is when ever I use one of a few payware aircraft such as the AWX KA-200, the DA Piper Cheyenne's or just about any of the FSD aircraft in my hangar. All of which have one or more problems if they are loaded as startup flight. In those cases I will switch to a simple aircraft such as the C-172 before saving the flight.
I have rounded the globe a number of times in that fashion, always starting off from where I arrived last. But I do change aircraft on occasion
The easiest way to see if it is an electrical problem is to either reload the aircraft and see if you can start it, turn on radios etc .... or press CTRL+E for a dummy start and then see if the lights work.
IF all that still leaves you in the dark I would indeed see if you have the required effects AND the associated bitmaps in the effects and effects\texture folder of FS.
For the default C-172 the light section looks like this:
[LIGHTS]
//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit
light.0 = 3, -2.88, -18.11, 2.95,
fx_navred
light.1 = 3, -2.88, 18.11, 2.95, fx_navgre
light.2 = 2, -3.15, -18.31, 2.95, fx_strobe
light.3 = 2, -3.15, 18.31, 2.95, fx_strobe
light.4 = 1, -20.60, 0.00, 6.33, fx_beacon
light.5 = 4, -2.27, 0.00, 1.45, fx_vclight
The red nav light highlighted above would require the file fx_navred.fx to be present in the effects folder. Once you examine that fx file in a text editor you find this section establishing the "particles" of light as:
[ParticleAttributes.1]
Blend Mode=2
Texture=
fx_2.bmp
Bounce=0.00
Color Start=40, 5, 0, 255
Color End=40, 5, 0, 0
Jitter Distance=0.00
Jitter Time=0.00
uv1=0.00, 0.00
uv2=0.50, 0.50
X Scale Goal=0.00
Y Scale Goal=0.00
Z Scale Goal=0.00
Extrude Length=0.00
Extrude Pitch Max=0.00
Extrude Heading Max=0.00
So now you know that in order for the light to be visible you need the file fx_2.bmp in the effects\textures folder.
Cheers
Stefan
