I’m a Skyvector bible thumper myself. Although, a lot of sim players don’t realize, Skyvector is the real deal and make mistakes trying to file flight plans. My high school classmate flies the real deal for American a 777 on some long haul routes and he uses Skyvector for cross check all American Airlines company routes for fuel reasons.
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That is pretty much what I do. I realize ATC in a virtual world will never be flawless. Although after playing X Plane 11 for years waiting for MS to release a new flight sim and it is now hear, I can put up with a little faulty ATC. X Planes ATC is a so bad I wouldn’t refer it to my worst enemy. Really the only thing I miss from X plane is the ability to control almost 90% of the planes in cockpit switches. MSFS really drops the reality of the cockpit controls and goes to a more 50/50 game/sim approach. MSFS graphics puts X Plane to the grave for me.
I always fly with ATC and I am not unhappy with it - at least most of the time.
Lately, it seem to me that climbs and descents mandated by ATC are ok. They never coincide with the flight plan in my FSC, but I could imagine this is how things go in IRL too.
So as long as it’s reasonable, I follow ATC instructions and amend the corresponding entry in my FMS. For unreasonable altitude requests, I simply ask ATC for an alt. Increase or decrease to bring things in line again with the flight plan.
I would not want to fly without ATC because of the added immersion.
I usually fly the CRJ550 and use Navigraph.
Join VATSIM…
Just because ATC tells you do do something, you DO NOT have to comply, if you have a good enough reason to believe that what they are telling you to do is incorrect - You are PIC – but you better have a very good reason for not complying.
Unfortunately,
(1) MSFS ATC does not give you the option to tell ATC you cannot comply,
(2) MSFS ATC often tells you thing that are totally incorrect
Hopefully, that will improve over the life of the sim
In most case, in MSFS there are way to work around the Unreasonable ATC directives.
Then there is always Vatsim , or better still PE, if you want a more realistic ATC experience.
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Apologies for my ignorance: What is PE?
In those cases I often just cancel IFR (and re-file later)
Yeah, graphics are pretty awesome… I just can’t stop admiring the vistas like these during flights
FBW a32nx and the CRJs are the current as close to study level in MSFS at the moment, and since this german a320 captain and trainer seems happy with the former, I have no reason no to be.
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I regularly have ATC telling me to climb to FL350 when I’m on a suitable descent passing 9000ft.
I also have ATC telling me to descend to 8000ft while still over 13,000ft mountains sometimes.
Basically, ATC at this stage of development is unreliable at best, bordering on a gimmick. You simply cannot trust it to talk sense.
I usually end up canceling IFR flight at some stage during decent or arrival.
It would be nice ti see this working properly in line with what a real world controller might instruct.
It’s really very good isn’t it.
Although it does show that the touchdown and runway roll is a lot more bumpy than in the sim. We need some more of that.
Muah, I wouldn’t call Skyvector the real deal. It doesn’t have all information needed for real world, in-flight use. When I was a flight instructor students used it to crosscheck tracks and distances, nothing more. I have never heard of any airline using Skyvector for flight preparation or cockpit use. Jeppesen, NavBlue and Lido are the big three. I’ve also never heard about crosschecking long-haul routes using Skyvector. Don’t really see the purpose of that. Besides there are better ways of doing that.
Oh man, SimBrief + Navigraph is where it’s at. Unless I’m flying to one of my closed airports that’s not in the database, I use them on dang near every flight!
PilotEdge. It’s a paid ATC service that covers roughly the western half of the Continental US. They have scheduled hours of operation, too!
PE = Pilot Edge, an online ATC system for Flight Simulators.
I was not unhappy with it untill recently really.
The last couple of weeks it doesn’t start my descent in time and i will be late and have to do a steep descent. It does work when i ask for a first step of descent, then it will call at appropriate times the rest of the descent.
What i also notice is that most of the time it will break from my simbrief flight plan and set up a arrival which always goes straight over the airport. And then 9 out of 10 to an other runway as i have planned, and one i cannot divert to in the ATC page of MSFS.
Also when ATC does give me vectors it does that ONE time only. Go left or right so many degrees and then noting… until i ask for vectors, then it will turn me in.
What plane do you fly?
I also noticed that ATC often want’s me to use an approach and runway different from my flight plan (and what I set up in my FMC).
As a solution, during cruise I usually dial in the arrival airport’s ATIS frequency into the Nav2 radio, so I get early info on weather and the runway in use. If there is a change, that gives me time to reconfigure my flight plan, first in the Navigraph Charts window, after that in the FMC.
Another option is to request a different runway from ATC, i.e. the one that is in my flight plan and in the FMC. Usually they agree 
My only grievance lately is that during some approaches ATC simply quits on me, no more instructions. Nothing - just silence. I don’t know yet how to fix that…
But yes, I love to use ATC! Nothing beats that radio call when on final: “You are cleared to land…”
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Depending on the airport and your flightplan, (VFR/IFR) this will often result in a clearance to fly your chosen approach with a, “Circle to land”, on the runway they assigned you in the first place.
It is always best practice to plan your flight to a STAR transition and “expected” approach. Follow that with a familiarization of the alternates they may throw at you. Have the charts queued up and be ready to update the nav system when, not if, they change it on you.
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I know a lot of time even in the real planes ATC will change runways just as you enter the STAR or even a command to circle and remain in pattern. My friend flies the real 777 for American Airlines. He told me all to often this happens even after the FMS is programed with a runway. He told me when he lands at LAX this happens and the funny thing is the new assigned runways they give him aske him to do turn on a dime turns. He was telling me how it gets him irritated when ATC in real life gives him altitude changes that are unrealistic to achieve in a 777. He once told me while approach to KDEN “Denver” they asked him to descend from FL 210 to FL130 in less than 25 NM’s. He told the ATC unable and the guy told him that it was not a option. My friend Mike, told him to get up in his seat and try it himself. Even in real life they have crazy ATC’s
This is exactly how its done in real life. You punch in the arrival, transition and approach you expect (with a discontinuity since you are not cleared for those), then listen-out the ATIS. ATC will usually also tell you far in advance.
Question about the discontinuity (at STAR):
In the CRJ FMS, on the Legs page, the altitude for the waypoint before the discontinuity equals cruise level, but the first waypoint after the discontinuity is much lower, in tune with the approach pattern that follows.
If I wait too long with the decision to eliminate the discontinuity, I end up too high and I can not descend fast enough to properly fly the approach. In case I do not have ATIS yet (i.e. I am not yet sure about approach and rwy), should I anyways start requesting lower altitudes from ATC?
Do you know how that works IRL?
With a discontinuity in place, the FMS of the CRJ does not correctly calculate remaining fuel, and the descent calculations on the DirTo page do not work either…