Red Arrows Hawk T1 smoke not working in FSX (I key)

A couple of things to check with FSX smoke (it’s a bit picky)

You’re thinking of it the right way — default smoke is toggled with the I key — but there are a few common “gotchas” with addon smoke effects like this.

1) Make sure it’s actually the FSX “smoke system” being toggled
Some military addons use their own custom smoke via gauges/key commands, but since your aircraft.cfg has a [SMOKESYSTEM] section, FSX should at least try to draw those effects when you hit I.

First quick test:

1. Load the Hawk on the runway (engines running).
2. Go to an outside view.
3. Press I.
4. Advance throttle a bit and see if anything appears.

(Some effects are coded to be very faint at idle or only look “right” with some airflow.)

2) Confirm the effect filenames match exactly
FSX is very literal here. In your config you’ve got:

[SMOKESYSTEM]
smoke.0=-9.0, 0, -.25, fx_AB_JetRun.fx
smoke.1=-8.0, 0, -.25, fx_AB-Grey-Smoke_.fx

Two things jump out:

• The second one has a trailing underscore in the filename: fx_AB-Grey-Smoke_.fx (easy to miss).
• Make sure the actual file in your \Effects folder is spelled exactly the same (including underscores, hyphens, and capitalization).

I’d double-check the Effects folder and confirm the second file isn’t actually named something like:

• fx_AB-Grey-Smoke.fx
• fx_AB-Grey-Smoke_1.fx
• fx_AB-Grey-Smoke_.FX (different extension case normally isn’t an issue, but the name must match)

3) Make sure the smoke is not being drawn “inside” the model
Those coordinates (-9.0, 0, -.25) etc are relative to the aircraft’s reference point. If they’re off for that model, the smoke can end up hidden/clipped.

Easy test:

1. Temporarily change one smoke line to something very obvious, like behind and above the aircraft.
2. Save aircraft.cfg and reload the aircraft in FSX.

Example (just as a test):
smoke.0=-30.0, 0.0, 5.0, fx_AB_JetRun.fx

If you suddenly see it, then the effect works and it’s just a placement issue.

4) Check if the effect depends on other textures/effects
Some third-party .fx files call textures that may not have been included with the download (common with older packages). The .fx file can exist, but if it references missing textures, you may get “nothing.”

If you open the .fx files in Notepad, look for any referenced textures (usually .bmp/.dds). Then verify they exist in the right place (commonly \Effects\texture).

Quick questions so I don’t send you down the wrong path

• Which FSX are you on (boxed/SP2 or Acceleration, or Steam Edition)?
• Do you get default smoke working on any other aircraft (if you have one installed that uses it)?
• When you hit I, does anything at all appear (even a tiny puff), or is it completely dead?
• Can you confirm the exact filenames in your \Effects folder for those two .fx files (especially the one with the trailing underscore)?