Yes, your plane is 'auto placed' on airfields.
I've never unnderstood the logic of how it does this but if you place statics over some of the grey circles on the airfields you will spawn in one of the unoccupied ones. if you fill them you will spawn on the edge of the airfield.
There's no comprehensive manual, but this is a good start
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.ph...si#Post3423371
This might be a good start with AI levels
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.ph...ex#Post3720343
This is something that trips up alot of people