Hey fellow simmers
That would be mainly concerning the A320nx, but is applicable to any airliners, and even GA TBM in my experience.
I like to input the FMC manually, starting the sim at a gate with no prerecorded destination.
I can then request IFR clearance and start my flight, ATC following it.
There is only one thing that’s not taken into account: the cruise altitude I set in the FMC. I would typically stay at the altitude ATC gave me for take-off, and I would repeatedly request for altitude increase until I’m satisfied.
Do I need to do something specific for this to be transmitted along the rest of the flightplan ?
In my experience, each time you change the flight plan (in the FMC), the ATC will include an option to file the plan with the ATC. Clicking on this should update accordingly, and this will include any change in flight level.
Unfortunately ATC often gets confused about the flight level, as if it has not got a single value in memory but several. In theory these should be in sync, but in practice they sometimes aren’t (especially if you request a change in flight level directly). So be prepared for occasional conflicting messages from the ATC.
That is precisely what I’m talking about.
Blank flight plan at start.
Make it manually into the FMC, then ask for IFR, according to FMC.
ATC gets all information, excepted the flight level.
So before reaching first flight level from ATC, push Increase flight level in the ATC window like a clown haha.
So I’m asking myself… maybe I should be doing something special about flight level, who knows ?
I do not set anything in the world map, except gate departure.
As I said, I am planning my whole flight from the FMC, and then request IFR clearence from ATC.
Hence the problem I described: FMC gets everything but cruise level.
ATC completely ignores cruise altitudes that are entered into the FMC. It also will give you a new cruise altitude upon every change in your flightplan if you file it again.
And it chooses the new altitude to its liking and doesn’t tell you about it in any other way than asking you to climb or descend.
So you’ll have to keep asking for the “new” (or the old) cruise altitude whenever you file a new flightplan after making a change.