I am finding on most occasions that by the time the pilot asked air traffic control permission to land I am literally a couple of hundred metres from touch down and committed. Air traffic’s generally response is you are cleared to land on selected runway and as soon as I touch down they say you are not cleared to land. does anyone else experience this please. it would be nice for initial contact to be made quite a few miles out.
I find that when flying a VFR route that the ATC passes me between units along the route pretty well and then doesn’t hand me off to tower for landing at the end, seems I have to cancel flight following around 10 miles out and tune in/select the tower from the nearest airfield list to get a runway allocated and permission to land.
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I haven’t noticed this problem at all. In VFR or Flight Following there is usually plenty of time to get landing clearance. Are you appropriately slowed down?
Also, Flight Following doesn’t “hand you off” to tower because ATC doesn’t know where you are going. It’s up to you to contact the airport and ask to land.
And you don’t have to cancel Flight following. Just call the airport. This is normal
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Some more detailed information including screen shots would be helpful. But my guess is that you are doing something wrong
The AI Traffic Logic (I play mostly Offline) and ATC do not interact well.
Using Little Nav Map, I was on final and committed on an RNAV approach. I confirmed ATC was telling an a/c traveling parallel to me that he was No. 2 to land after me - callsigns matched.
What does the AI traffic do? It accelerates, intersects itself directly in front and below me, manages to hover for five seconds, disappears and reappears on the runway (magic!) and subsequently makes ATC call me for a Go-Around. I said eff it and landed right behind him.
The best of intentions are sometimes ruined by the lack of polish in the various system interactions underlying the sim. 
I see what you’re saying, however in the real world I tell the ATC who I am and where I am and where I’m going, so I’d expect the last approach controller at my destination airfield in the chain to hand me off or tell me to free call tower prior to landing. The sim ATC leaves a lot of gaps in the flow of information between pilot and controller so I can see why it’s very rigid.
In the UK we don’t actually have flight following as such, a basic service, or a traffic service these days, but this is a USA based sim so a lot of procedure is different.
Well I’m not a pilot but I gather that Flight Following is more a VFR service. And the sim seems to behave pretty much like examples I’ve seen in streams using PilotEdge. Have you tried filing an IFR flight plan in the sim and seeing how it treats you?
This will happen if…
You land on the wrong runway
ATC call “Go Around” before touchdown
AI Traffic or Real World Traffic? Real World traffic can’t be altered by the ATC since it’s happening in the real world. Sim is just tracking the flight.
Thanks, yes, the IFR plan and ATC is more representative of the real (USA) world within the limitations of the sim with allocations of STARs, approaches etc.
You’re right ‘flight following’ is the very basic VFR service, ie…someone listening out for you. Replaced here in the UK with a more specific service in recent years.
In real world flying in many parts of the world including here in the UK there is no requirement to file an actual flight plan for VFR, but most airfields require a ‘PPR’ (prior permission required) telephone call to book in to the destination so they know who you are and what you require in terms of fuel, parking, customs etc.
As an example when I’m flying from say EGMC (Southend) to EGUW (Wattisham) in the UK under VFR, I would telephone EGUW prior to setting off to get permission and book my arrival details. Prior to start I would tell EGMC what I’m planning to do. After take off I would be told to change from EGMC tower to Approach where I would request a Basic Service (flight following), approaching EGUW I would tell EGMC I was changing to EGUW Approach and they would terminate my Basic Service and either clear me to free call EGUW or hand me over.
EGUW Approach would have my details if I’ve been handed over and give me the requested Basic Service, or if it’s a free call I would have to give them all of my details and confirm my intention to land at the airfield, as I near the airfield they would tell me to call the Tower who would give me the joining instructions followed by landing instructions and finally permission to land.
It should be a smooth flow from one airfield to another, but in the Sim it seems that EGUW forgets that they’re your planned destination and Approach ATC forgets to hand you over to tower. The only way around it is to cancel flight following (you don’t have to but you’d be receiving a one way interview without coffee after landing in the real world if you left the frequency without cancelling the service)
then bring up the nearest airfield list, choose the tower frequency of the ATC you’ve just been talking to, and request a landing (not realistic).
Good to know
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Hi, Thank you for your responses I clearly am doing something wrong. I am new to this and I create a flight route with departure airport and arrival and I pick a runway choice. Can you guide me as to what I need to do please when I am close to airport there is clearly more I need to do.
could be a wrongly set baro meter, then your not on the expected flight level and atc will wait till your on the correct height…
I don’t believe this is exactly true.
The ‘live traffic’ setting populates the world with AI planes based on their real flight paths and positions, but it’s still an AI plane in the sim.
I always fly with Live traffic, and I’ve heard many calls for AI craft to go around due to another AI craft lingering on the runway too long.
edit: yesterday I was overtaken by a Delta flight. He moved past at a correct pace. After a while I think the plane got updated with fresh data, and he accelerated to mach 1.5 for a bit until he was caught up to his correct position.
When you get close to your destination, maybe 10 -20 miles or so, use the ATC menu and look for something like “Contact Nearby Airports”. You’ll have to scroll through the list to find your destination. Then contact them and ask for landing clearance.
With Flight Following you won’t get any guidance for an approach or anything but you can follow an approach if you want.
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