I expect there should already be a thread for this, but a search of the forum didn’t turn up what I’m after. And even if it does exist, it is probably dated, and I’m after a solution post SU16. So apologies if this post duplicates another existing and current one.
The Scenario: I’m exploring all the POIs in NZ at the moment. So I’ve planned a series of succesive short flights between two airports, typically using ‘IFR - low altitude airways’, and starting from the airport I finished at the time before. I start each flight from a ‘cold and dark’ cockpit, go through the startup procedures, communicate with ATC to obtain clearance, follow instructions to taxi to active, obtain take-off clearance, communicate with ATC all along the way, and land at the target airport.
Sometimes, after parking in my assigned box at the destination airport, I realise I still have sufficient virtual fuel and actual time to hop over to the next aiport on my ‘must see’ list. Except there is no ATC option to file a new clearance, or even to request/announce taxi back to the runway, take-off clearance for a VFR flight etc. Instead, I have to end the flight, return to the main menu, load up the next flight, and start again. All of which takes considerable time.
And yes, I’ll add the obligatory ‘this always worked directly from the ATC menu back in FSX’ which is why the lack of this ability in FS2020 is annoying at best.
Am I missing something? Or does this vary on an airport-by-airport basis? I mainly fly smaller GA aircraft in short hops to small custom-designed airports, both World Update and Community based destinations, often un-towered.
@DementedCorn327. Thank you. I did see that post, and it’s close. But my hops are so short I don’t always use the flight planner. I just need the ATC options to let the tower/unicom followers know ‘I’m starting to taxi’ or ‘taking off to the east’ etc. like you can do when you’re starting a new VFR flight from scratch.
I’ve been in a few situations where I had time to continue to another destination without needing to generate a PLN file, wanting the ATC options to taxi and take off again, and ‘select nearest airport’ while in flight. But these don’t appear to be available anymore after the flight has completed an existing plan.
So I typically taxi back to the runway, manually check for traffic, and then take off without any clearance or instruction, and just fly the next hop. But it feels wrong not being able to use the radios at all for that second leg. And then, in another related glitch, the flight log records 2 take-offs but only 1 landing, even though I landed twice and both times right on the centre line within the touchdown zone.
Thanks for the extra info.
As a test, I did a short flight between LFQQ and LFQT, around 20NM, both controlled airports. Once arrived at parking position I had the taxi for takeoff option available in the ATC window:
Basic ATC is still very buggy! Yes you can hear it more than pre-SU15 but still.
I recently was approaching an airport (I cannot remember which sorry) and ATC responded that “Airport is currently IFR, request denied”.
After that I had no more blue buttons in my ATC window showing Nearby Airport or anything at all. Even after landing no buttons re-appeared!
@DementedCorn327, I tried the exact same flight (NZNP to NZWU) just now, to see if I could reproduce my results. For some reason, the expanded “taxi to parking / taxi for takeoff” options did appear this time after I landed and had parked in my spot. The one odd thing that did happen is that when I requested the “Taxi to parking” option, I only received a “say again” response, with no “acknowledge” option. I didn’t have time to click it (I was capturing screenshots) so after a couple of “Did you hear me?” questions from ATC, my radar service was terminated, and it went back to the full set of VFR ATC options.
Note that whatever happened during an identical flight yesterday, there were zero options in the ATC menu after I parked. I even tried manually switching frequencies, and the ATC menu picked up clearance, and then Whanganui ground as I swapped back and forth, but none of them provided any options. So maybe it was a one-off glitch. If it happens again, I’ll be sure to capture screenshots.
A few more observations: For the second leg, there is no ‘progressive taxi’ indicator once you get cleared to the active, even if it worked on the first leg. And the AI assistance for radio calls does not work, so you have to make/acknowledge all calls yourself. And at the end, you don’t get credit for the full number of landings and take-offs.
Yeah, those arrow get “disabled” if you start your second leg. Clearly a bug…
I also get the “Say Again” message if I switch from tower to ground too fast(need to let the current comms finish before switching to ground)…
@DementedCorn327, here’s another glitch. Not sure at this stage if this is specific to NZ airports, or the result of needing to pause the sim for a while, or another one of those ‘second-leg’ bugs. After flying the second leg under VFR for some time (and then pausing to take care of some errands before returning to the computer) when I try to access any airport from the ‘Nearest airport’ list, none of them present any options.
I select the airport, and I only get one option: 1 - [ – BACK --] which takes me back to the airport selection list.
This is possibly related to the fact that automatic radio calls stopped working, and when ATC instructed me that I was ‘leaving my airspace, frequency change approved’ there was nothing that it automatically switched to. However even when I manually changed the radio frequency to the Unicom for another nearby airport, the ATC menu options did not change. This is regardless of which nearby airport I choose, including Wellington International, one of the largest airports in this immediate region.
At this stage my only option was to land at my next airport with zero ATC communication or clearance. And once I landed, the menu did not change or provide additional “taxi to parking” or VFR take-off options.
It’s like at some point the ATC menu reaches a dead end of available options, and stops offering any more. Or ATC is unable to recognise a manual comm frequency change, in which case it’s still an ATC menu bug, because it should offer you relevant next frequencies to change to.
So in summary, ATC support for correctly completing a second leg (or third or other ongoing leg) under VFR or other conditions is broken.
