ATC continuous descent and climb fix

I’ve noticed ATC assigns a step altitude during climb or descent, but, waits until the aircraft is level at that altitude prior to assigning a higher or lower altitude. Can you change the parameter be be within 2000 ft as opposed to the assigned altitude?

Example-

I file FL380, ATC assigns initial climb to 12000. Instead of waiting for me to level at 12000 before assigning say FL280, the ATC should assign higher if I am above 10000 and it is safe to climb to FL280 and do the opposite during descent, assign lower when approaching withing 2000 ft from above.

I am not sure if the assigned altitudes take traffic into account or not, but it is annoying to level off at every step and push the aircraft into managed or VS mode every time.

Thank you.
V3

That seems to be designed in (to give you more “hands on” involvement). If they clear me to 12000, I set 13000. That way, they will clear me to 20000 (or whatever) before I level off. If they don’t send me higher immediately (rare) I can just say oops and reset for 12000.

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In real life, pilots wouldn’t be happy if they kept getting leveled off without traffic or airspace restrictions. I have tried doing what you suggested and for the most part it works, but every now and then ATC refuses to issue further climb or descent even if I come back to the cleared altitude. It is a good workaround until they can fix it.

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I really like this idea… For most of the time, I just set my altitude to target straight through to the cruising altitude. That way, by the time I pass the ATC assigned altitude, they’re gonna assign me the next altitude while I keep climbing without levelling off.

That is, if I’m not unlucky where there’s other traffic in the chatter making me overshoot the altitude, or when they’re handing me over to another ATC as I go through the assigned altitude.

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Option to request a CDA from ATC. I only ask because I assume it would not be overly difficult to implement, but I could be very wrong of course.

I also wonder if it would be rather trivial to have the ATC to run altitude clearance routine prior to aircraft reaching the previously cleared level? I’m assuming it already checks to see if the aircraft is within ~200ft of the cleared level, then checks for conflicting traffic(maybe?) then clears to next level. Can this altitude range be increased to 2000ft? Or better yet, a suitable factor of the aircraft’s current vertical speed?

I’m glad I found this request, and I completely agree this is something we will need here in the near future. With some hopeful “study level” airliners coming out soon-ish in the form of PMDG 737, Ini A310, Fenix A320, MD80, etc, this will start to get more annoying. Hopefully, a little bump will give it more traction and more votes. I like the idea of looking at the aircraft’s current speed and giving clearances 1-2 minutes out on both climb and descent, but really any solution would be nice.

IRL, clearances seem to come well before you reach the previously cleared FL. The exceptions are of course SID/STAR relationships and very high traffic areas, and SID/STARs need more respect from the current ATC too. On the whole though, it doesn’t make sense to make an airliner like an A310 level out at 9,000, 15,000, FL210, FL290, and then final cruise of FL350. Small changes like this would go a long way with the ATC in game.

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I agree 100%. ATC slowing down decents or climbs where it is not necessary is really annoying.

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ATC should be issuing climb/decent altitudes before you’re within 200’ of assigned. In a jet doing 3000fpm climb you’re already leveling before ATC issues higher/lower. IRL a controller would be verbally beaten for such poor technique.

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the clearance to next altitude comes at around 250 feet before you reach the altitude. while this might be fine for a cessna it is way too late for a jet that is climbing at 2000 fpm. so you end up in this situation where your autopilot is leveling you off every time, and you have to intervene, rather than just doing a nice efficent continuous climb like would be pretty normal in the real world.

ideally i would expect the next clearance to come 1000-2000 feet before i reach it to give a nice cushion.

fly a jet like the 737, climb out, watch your autopilot start to level off as you get close to the next altitude but you haven’t been cleared past it yet…

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During a climb I set the altitude to about 500ft above the ATC assigned alt. Usually you get a new altitude before you level out and it stays in VS/CLB mode. Remember when you reach the final crz alt, only set this to the correct alt. Another trap is to forget to set std pressure through the transition alt. (18000Ft un the US)

yeah this is how i do it also but it’s not a very consistent workaround. quite frequently they will be giving instructions to someone else or do a handoff when i cross the altitude and then they will sit there telling me to reduce my altitude so i have to descend, wait, then ascend again which is arguably worse than just waiting for the level off. either way it’s completely unrealistic and i’m sure it’s just a variable in code somewhere that says 250 feet instead of 1500 feet.

i’m not expecting many changes though, the atc copilot voice doesn’t even work correctly most of the time so it’s clear that making the atc better isn’t very high on the priority list.

in the meantime i think i’m gonna start investigating some of the 3rd party ones

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Yeh your right. Sometimes they hold you at that altitude, next thing you are in trouble for busting your assigned altitude.

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Voted, I’d really like to see this fixed. It’s a holdover issue from FSX ATC. It’s annoying enough in an airliner with full VNAV but very much more annoying in an aircraft where your climbing in IAS mode like the CRJ or Bae-146.

I’d like to see some variability in when you get your next altitude clearance and even some ”pilot discretion” clearances on descent. Listening to ATC around my home medium sized airport airliners almost always get a clearance to FL230 once they contact departure. At minimum though, changing the trigger to 1500 or even 2000 feet would be a nice quick fix.

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Apparently the system bumped this. Does that mean there’s been a change? This is really frustrating a lot of the time, especially on descents where it’ll hold you and then permit you to drop all at the last second.

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No, no change. ATC will only assign a new altitude within you reaching 300ft of existing assigned altitude. ATC overhaul not expected till 2024.

The workarounds described above are still the best solution - just set your selected altitude to what you desire and keep climbing/descending and ATC will catch up. Or manually request higher or lower - you can stack these requests too: eg I want to go from FL360 to 6000ft, I would select the ‘request lower10000’ option 3 times in succession. You would end up getting the instruction ‘Descend and Maintain FL260, expect 6000ft’ .

If there are restrictions on the SID or STAR then you will have to respect those.

I’m not in the SU14 beta yet, but it sounds like this one is finally fixed, at least some of the time.