simbrief uses the best optimum FL with wind info and more…
Ingame ATC is broken af
Not a bug and not a problem. During the flight, you can request ATC (via ATC menu) an increase or decrease altitude in step 1000 ft.
In RL aircraft operate very near to the max performance limited flight level for efficiency reasons. In case of relative low aircaft weights (so shorter flights with less fuel) the optimum flight path consists of a more or less continious climb followed by a descend. For passenger comfort and ATC workload (high cruise level means many levels to cross) often a somewhat lower level is choosen. Business jets usually operate even highter than big airliners. So not a bug IMO.
There is…Foreflight application/website will provide you with wind direction and speed at given altitude to assist with flight planning.
Read the manual. 
Every aircraft comes with performance tables. Using the tables you will be able to calculate the climb and cruise setting best suited to the conditions of the flight including weight.
Reading through the thread, there are a few things that need clearing up. I use the default ATC quite a bit. Although it is a bit clunky and is lacking some of the options a normal pilot would have, it really does work just fine in most cases.
The default ATC is simply going to look at your flight plan and direct you accordingly. If you neglected to adjust cruise altitude to something appropriate for you aircraft, you will have issues. Don’t plan hi altitude airways if you are going to be flying IFR in a 172. The ATC will not allow you to fly below the MEA (Min Enroute Alt) for the airway you have planned. If the MEA is FL210 then even if you planned the flight at 7500, ATC will instruct you to ascend to the MEA.
Watch out for control zones and terminal airspace. There are airspace altitude restrictions depending whether you are arriving or transiting. Best bet is to ensure you are not passing through an airspace that has an altitude restriction. Either go over it or around it unless you want ATC changing altitude instructions every 5 minutes.
When planning, avoid departures and arrivals that require “Vectors to…”. MSFS ATC is not reliable when it comes to vectors. If ATC tells you to “expect ILS 23R VIA ERTEL, Expect vectors to ERTEL Transition”, you better know how to get from your current location to ERTEL. When cleared to ERTEL, just turn and go, do not wait for ATC to give you a heading.
In short, plan!. If you just pick a departure and an arrival and jump in the plane, ATC will cause you nothing but grief. Quite honestly, it is not ATC’s responsibility to direct you on your way. They are simply there to keep you out of the path of others and keep your patch of sky clear of other aircraft as you follow the flight plan that you provided them. They will, of course, restrict you from flying in airspace that you shouldn’t be in, regardless of what you planned. That means making sure your FP conforms with the restrictions of the route.
Also noticed some references that were made about cruise altitudes and service ceilings. While I am pretty sure the users that brought it up did not intend to confuse anyone, new pilots may misinterpret the references. Just as clarification for those new planners, “service ceiling” has nothing whatsoever to do with “cruise altitude”.
Service ceiling is generally (some variation occurs depending on aircraft) defined as the altitude at which an aircraft cannot maintain a 100 fpm climb. Cruise altitude is defined by the performance tables in the “owners manual”. I strongly suggest that, unless your performance tables tell you otherwise, do not plan a trip anywhere near the service ceiling of the aircraft you are flying.
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What? What is that, never heard of it, something to eat?
With regard to cruising altitude, control zones, terminal airspaces, restrictions etc, personally I use a combination of Little Navmap, Simbrief (when applicable) and Pilot2ATC (in the rare occasion I’m not flying in VATSIM).
I haven’t used the in-game ATC or flight planning tool for over a year now, as in my opinion they’re both severely lacking and inconsistent in several aspects. The only thing I’m doing in MSFS world map when starting a flight is to select the starting point. Everything else is done externally simply because it’s done better 99% of the time.
I’ll agree that planning is the key to everything, not only before the flight but also throughout its duration. If nothing else, it makes things much easier. But I think the main gripe with in-game ATC is not that it’s not telling you exactly what to do. It’s that it often gives contradictory or nonsensical instructions/advisory/whatever. Perhaps some of this stuff has been fixed between 2020 and now, but like I said I wouldn’t know as I haven’t used it in more than a year.
I wish MSFS (or some 3rd party addon) had some sort of mechanism to enforce restrictions for airspaces, flight levels, speeds and the like (or at least penalize you somehow for not complying), giving a bigger incentive to those who aren’t RL pilots to get to learn this stuff.
ps: good advice about the manual.
Good stuff. Sadly not free but at least it’s an option.
Check out FltPlan Go or the website Windy.
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Even then that doesn’t fit unless you’re turning across 0 - 180° at the same time. I would think it should be 2000ft increments.
Well, yes and no. Check out RVSM (FL290 - FL410).
Well that just confirms my point
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For example, if the route changes direction west-east, then the flight level usually changes by an odd number of thousands of feet. You can select and request the necessary altitude/FL change in the ATC menu. This is my way to follow rules (IFR). According to my observations, real-time online traffic also follows the IFR in terms of flight levels.
That’s what I said but you’d be following a fightplan and should not need to request a level change from ATC, surely they would know already?
Don’t remember ever changing my altitude based on a heading change. True, East = odd (+500 if VFR) and west is even (+500 if VFR), but that is determined by the “base” course. If I am flying a route where my heading varies from 195 to 175 depending on the leg, but in general if a line drawn from departure to arrival is 185 then my flight is travelling west and therefore I will plan an even altitude. Maybe things have changed or are different outside of N/A, but when I fly from CYDQ to CYVR (fairly regularly) I fly west going and east coming home. The baseline is nearly due south/north but the airways are a bit variable. Nobody has ever told me to adjust altitude as I adjust heading.
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In the VATSIM network, sometimes I got instructions to change the FL when entering certain segment of route. But automatic ATC in MSFS not send instruction to change FL, only late traffic alerts. So my tactics is requesting change FL from automatic ATC.
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This is absolutely wrong, flying at the maximum operational altitude on short flights is not more fuel efficient nor faster! You have to factor in the long, more fuel consuming climb to reach that altitude, also above change-over altitude (constant Mach climb), TAS reduces with increasing altitude.
Flight at maximum certified altitude is also not permissible at higher gross weights as maneuver margin is reduced, there isn’t much margin when encountering turbulence or icing. Or you would simply never get there before top of descent.
And then there are operational reasons why this isn’t done in real life. It would be a mess if everybody climbs through each others level with 300 ft/min rate of climb instead of cruising at a level the aircraft is capable of reaching in an appropriate amount of time.
Usually on longer flights aircraft perform step-climbs, where altitude is increased with 2000 ft increments as fuel is burned off and the optimum level increases. Its standard to climb 1000 ft above optimum level, wait until optimum level is 1000 ft above current level, then climb 2000 ft as to fly 1000 ft above optimum level again. This way as much of an optimum climb / cruise is maintained.
On short flights rule of thumb is → 50% of time is spend in climb and descent, the other 50% of the flight time is spend in cruise flight. That is usually what is planned for.
Maybe interesting:
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That’s very useful to know, thanks for the hint.
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