I’m not sure if this is even possible but I’m going to ask anyway.
So I like to fly the longitude and file my IFR flight plans through the default ATC after I enter them into the flight computer.
ATC will assign an altitude usually between 7 to 10 thousand feet after takeoff. After this I have to request a flight level change in increments of 10 thousand feet all the way to my desired altitude.
Can I make my IFR flight plan in the flight computer in the longitude in such a way that ATC will clear me to my desired cruising altitude using the method described above filing through the ATC window?
Also the default ATC seems really bad at stepping me down in altitude to my arrival airport. When I get to my planed ToD ATC after some time maybe 30+ miles past ToD will get me descending. However I always seem way to high before intercepting my final approach fix. Often ATC will clear me for a roller coaster decent from like 11 thousand to 2 thousand in 10 miles. If I ignore ATC and follow my flight plan ATC will constantly tell me to climb to the last cleared altitude. This usually results in never getting landing clearance.
So to help with the landing issue should I request clearance at my ToD to descend before I get into approach clearance because once you are in approach you can no longer request a flight level change. At which point you are forced to ride the roller coaster or flat out ignore ATC.
Any idea’s here would be appreciated.
Personal Comments and Observations
The more reliable way to ensure cruising altitude is understood by ATC is to file a plan less Departure and Arrivals through an external EFB like Little Nav Map. Save it as a .PLN file, load it into the World Map in the sim. Once in the cockpit, it’s already in the FMS, receive ATIS and dial in a SID if desired (ATC really doesn’t understand SIDs and STARs anyway, and can’t assign it to you).
It’s not as rote as actually plugging it into the FMS by hand, but it does guarantee that ATC understands your planned cruising altitude and step-climbs you accordingly. Those step climbs may not be in 10,000’ increments. I don’t think you can interrupt the ATC flow to request a custom step climb until you’ve reached your original cruising altitude. Usually within 200’ of the last assigned step climb, ATC will tell you to keep climbing until you reach ENR height.
As far as descents, ATC’s gotten better, but you could still be plus or minus 10 nm of a calculated TOD based on an EFB plan export. I personally follow my own out-of-sim plan TOD, using the Vertical Situation Display in my EFB, I make note of the waypoints remaining as a rough altitude request value and start requesting descents to those heights manually from ATC. During that time, you’ll likely get assigned your Approach and you can do the negotiation round or accept.
Regardless of whether you pick a STAR, you will always reach an interim altitude either at or just above IAF altitude constraint, and ATC will nag you to go higher until you reach the magic distance threshold from the IAF. At that point the descent instruction timing and altitude will start to align again with the charts (more or less) and you can fly the Approach to the threshold.
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That is honestly a real bummer in the immersion department. The ultimate reason I want to do it this way is because I want to at some point make a persistent save. Where I load into where I left off then punch in my plan and file through ATC. I can deal with the requests up to my desired cruise but the arrival is often a total disaster if I follow given clearance.
So I guess my next area to explore is a payware ATC or just give up on ATC all together which is a real bummer.
Alright well I’m going to start playing around with this and see if I can find some kind of middle ground. I purchased a touch screen specifically to enter flight plans into the FMC. However I am going to start with exporting a .PLN from simbrief and examine the file. I’ll then run the flight and see if this works better then manually entering the flight plan. If this does work better I wonder if Working Title could do something to make the default ATC understand the flight plans as if they are being entered from the world map. I guess for now it’s time to start tinkering.
I just request a lower cruise altitude when I reach TOD, and I let VNAV do its thing.
Do you cancel your IFR flight plan or just let ATC complain at you for not being at the correct altitude? Do you just request the altitude set in your FMS?
I ran a flight made in Simbrief exported to a .PLN and it did indeed clear me from 9,000 to 21,000 then to cruise. Approach was also handled better. But this is not really an option for me because I want to program the FMC. I ran into a bug when trying a second flight where ATC audio cut out. Anyway I reloaded and tried to add my cruise to the first fix after the SID. No dice. I’m thinking that way of filing a flight plan is buged. Seems like it only looks at way points and not altitude.