[IFR] ATC Asks for Higher Altitudes than Aircraft is Capable of

[WildeMulqueen]

ISSUE DESCRIPTION

Description of the issue:
ATC requesting inappropriate cruising altitude prior to landing. I was cruising at 6,000ft 47.7 .NM from the destination when ATC requested that I climb and maintain 15,000ft and expect vectors for ILS approach into Runway 26, at EGQL. Bearing in mind that I was flying a C172, with a much lower service height.

If applicable, which aircraft is experiencing this issue:
Cessna C172 Skyhawk in my instance.

[PC Only] Did you remove all your community mods/add-ons? If yes, are you still experiencing the issue?
No Mods

FREQUENCY OF ISSUE

How often does this occur for you (Example: Just once, every time on sim load, intermittently)?
Intermittently

REPRODUCTION STEPS

Please list clear steps you took in order to help our test team reproduce the same issue:

1. Career Cargo flight from EGXD into EGQL RWY 26 ILS
2. Fly to destination
3. ATC instructions given prior to approach.

YOUR SETTINGS

If the issue still occurs with no mods and add-ons, please continue to report your issue. If not, please move this post to the User Support Hub.

What peripherals are you using, if relevant:
Thrust Master TCA Airbus

[PC Only] Are you using Developer Mode or have you made any changes to it?
No

[PC, MSFS 2020 Only] Are you using DX11 or DX12?
N/A

[PC Only] What GPU (Graphics Card) do you use?
N/A

[PC Only] What other relevant PC specs can you share?
N/A

MEDIA

[END OF FIRST USER REPORT]

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[DementedCorn327]

Which altitude did you setup prior the flight in the EFB ?

[WildeMulqueen]

I used the default flight plan for the Career Mode mission. It may have been set to 0FL but I can’t say for sure, as the Steam game recorder overwrites after a certain time period. I didn’t make any changes to the flight plan and was set up for a visual approach into RWY 08 (Recommended).

After take off, I was instructed to climb to 15,000ft, when usually they request 11,000ft for cruise. I requested 11,000ft which was accepted, and I continued cruise at 11,000ft for the next hour.

Due to a head wind of 30kts at 345*, I requested 8,000ft, 95.9NM from the destination, where the headwind was considerably slower. This again was approved and I maintained this altitude for another ~40NM. At this point I changed my flight plan to cruise at 8,000ft and sent this to ATC and Avionics.

For unknown reasons ATC told me to expect ILS approach to RWY 26 and instructed me to climb to 15,000ft again, 47.7NM from the destination. RWY 26 was not recommended due to weather and it wasn’t in the flight plan.

This meant I had to change my approach on the EFB and configure for ILS RWY 26, via ILU10.

After reaching ILU10 and turning left towards RWY 26, ATC then cleared me to land RWY 08 as originally planned, meaning I then had to change my procedure once again and intercept the left pattern for a VFR approach (the original flight plan).

Upon landing on RWY 08, I was then pinged for “Aircraft entered taxiway without an announcement” whilst intersecting RWY 04/22 (which should be a closed runway). To kick me whilst I was down, I also got pinged for taxiway speeding whilst landing on RWY 08.

I’m not a pilot and this is my first experience with MSFS, so I’m still learning, but these constant issues don’t make it at all easy. Is this something I’m doing wrong or is this just more of the many many bugs?

[CasualClick]

This is usually the consequence of having no or zero cruise altitude in the plan.

You can cheat a little and if you notice this early enough in the flight, preferably before you take off, you can force another reload of the plan with a cruise altitude. Set it, and then synch to Avionics and ATC one more time.

Imo, this is not a bug.

[WildeMulqueen]

I did exactly that, though. I refiled a flight plan with a cruise of 8,000ft, with a VFR approach to RWY 08, prior to receiving instructions for 15,000ft ILS approach to RWY 26. If it’s not a bug and it’s related to the default flight plans cruise altitude value possibly being 0, then why the deviation from the VFR flight plan to RWY 08? I’ve never had this issue before with default flight plans either, so why now? I’m not entirely convinced that is the cause, but I might well be wrong.

[Speed1994]

Another way this could be avoided would be if ATC checked the aircraft’s config files before automatically assigning altitudes. The C172’s service ceiling is 14,000 feet and this is included and displayed when selecting the aircraft.

The Dev’s would need to add a check so ATC can’t automatically assign an altitude above your aircraft’s ceiling. i.e. in this case 14,000 feet or FL140.

Emphasis being on automatically assign, if someone manually sets higher then that’s their responsibility