2) Can an aircraft failure happen at any time without you setting a failure? (such as engine failure at a random time)
The default FSX planes will suffer from the following failures, but they won't be random:
- pitot will stop working if you forget to enable the pitot heat
- the liners will fall from the sky if you forget to set the anti-ice systems
- the piston engine of the Mustang will start to loose power and eventually catch fire if you keep the manifold pressure too high. This feature can be adapted to any piston engine aircraft in the sim, with a simple line in the aircraft.cfg. This works ONLY with FSX Acceleration.
Other addon planes, payware or freeware, might have some specific damage modelling implemented. The payware planes made by A2A with the Accusim extension are today the absolute best of the best in terms of damage and wear simulation, Aerosoft also has a very realistic GA aircraft, the DA20 Katana 4X with Accusim-style wear and damage handling. For freewares, search for the damage and wear mod that has been discussed recently in the FSX section, this addon brings a (very) simplified damage model to some planes, like the default C172, Baron and C208.
Other planes which have so special gauge or failure-handling-mecanisms will NOT suffer from ANY failure at all, until you diecide to set some random ones in the game menu.