This may be obvious but I’m new so I’ll ask it. If I file an ILS approach on say runway 19 on an airport via Navigraph and load into MSFS 2020, will ATC at the destination airport know what I am doing? I noticed that if I just do a free flight, and carefree approach an airport, ATC will choose an approach (a lot of time a traffic pattern or vectors) for me. If I file the flight plan beforehand, will the simulator abide by it? Thanks!
It should follow your plan as you entered it, including which runway to land on.
However, typically you don’t select your landing runway as part of your plan, as once you get to destination, the wind could be different and a different runway than the one you selected is active. Then you’re stuck landing with a cross or tail wind, which can be rather unpleasant, and potentially dangerous in the real world. In game ATC will follow your plan, where IRL, ATC would assign you the active runway based on wind.
Select your departure, route and arrival, and let ATC assign you the active runway for approach.
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So I shouldn’t choose an approach? I guess then I am at the mercy of the ATC. I usually like to perform an ILS approach if possible. Would shaking of the aircraft during landing procedure be because of wind? When I was doing adhoc flying, I chose a different runway than the ATC stated. My plane was shaking but I don’t know it’s because I did something wrong, or maybe the AP, or the wind.
It’s a game. You can do as you wish.
But in reality, you always land and take off as into the wind as possible. Cross winds can be very dangerous, as can tail winds. They make the aircraft much harder to control.
Airports have runways laid out based on prevalent windws in that area, and the active runway is based on the wind direction at the time to give you as much of a headwind as possible.
Actually, you are at the mercy of the weather. ATC designates the active runway based on wind direction and speed. ATIS is updated with runway info such as “ILS runway 31L in use.” Approach Control vectors incoming aircraft according to the active runway in use. You may want the ILS Rwy 4 instead. You can ask ATC for a different approach but they may not grant it. If your flight plan has an arrival and approach set up for Rwy 04 but ATC clears you for runway 31L, you need to update your flight plan. There is a button “PROC” somewhere on the Garmin. PROC menu has options to select an arrival or select an approach. Select “approach” and press enter. The next screen shows the Destination Airport and fills in an approach. If that approach is not the one ATC gives you, select it and the list of approaches is displayed. Select the approach ATC gave you. Each approach may have one or more transitions. ATC provided a transition with the approach clearance. When everything is filled in the screen will ask Load? or Load and Activate? Select Load and Activate and press Enter. The flight plan is now updated with the new approach and if you are using the AP, the AP will follow the updated flight plan. The specific knobs and buttons to turn or press vary with the Garmin model. The newer Garmin models use the mouse to select the various items.
It is possible in MSFS to do things that cannot be done IRL. If you want to practice ILS approaches, turn off all other aircraft and ATC. And enjoy!
Ah I didn’t think of just turning off ATC. That should force the issue while practicing. I know the garmin g1000 has the PROC button if it works in the simulator. But what is you sre stuck with just a GNS on a base cessna 172 or the like? I doubt it has this feature. I guess you have to do it by hand.
If I want to take a scenic route using SimBrief as a planner, what are the steps? Say I want to fly around the Statue of Liberty. I make a flight plan in SimBrief to take off from NY LaGuardia, go to the statue and land again at LaGuardia. When I load the plan into Navigraph, what do I adjust in it? Do I add approaches or anything like that or is that done in SimBrief? Thanks.
You wouldn’t do that IFR. That’s a VRF plan. You can make a rough plan of your overall route, but with VFR, you can divert all you want.
So what of what benefit is it to load it into Navigraph? For just the Airport layout diagrams maybe? I’m trying to figure out what you would do in Navigraph if you create the VFR plan in SimBrief.
There’s no advantage to using Navigraph if you’re doign a sightseeing tour.
If you want to add points of interest like the Statue of Liberty, do you do that in SimBrief? Or do you not even note it on the flight plan? Sorry for asking so many questions.
SimBrief and Navigraph are for IFR flight planning only. No sightseeing, no VFR flight plans.
When I create a VFR flight plan for sightseeing, I use the MSFS World Map with POIs enabled. Put in the departure and destination airports then click on the points-of-interest such as the Statue of Liberty, and select ADD. I’ve used the World Map to create several tour and sightseeing flight plans. Works great!
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If you’re doing a VFR sightseeing tour, your best bet is to just use the flight planner in the sim vs external tools. It shows the landmarks and will let you add them as waypoints. This isn’t realistic in a real world scenario, but does what you want it to in sim.
In the real world, you don’t file a VFR flight plan. As long as you respect the different classes of airspace and all the rules and obey any restrictions (all listed on sectionals), you’re pretty much free to do as you wish. Sure, you still plan your flight ahead of time using a sectional chart or SkyVector or something similar so you know where you can and can’t fly, altitude restrictions, what radio frequencies you’ll need if you need to transition controlled airspace, etc, but otherwise, it’s like a free flight.
And also, you wouldn’t be relying on your autopilot to fly said sightseeing tour for you IRL. When flying VFR, you’re not permitted to have your AP / FMS be your source of guidance. You VISUALLY guide yourself. Sure, you can use AP for flying VFR, but it shouldn’t be your source for navigation. Pilotage and dead reckoning will be how you find your way.
IRF is a different story. You plan your flight ahead of time, file with the FAA (or the equivalent in other countries), and you’re expected to follow that plan to the letter, only deviating if told to by ATC or asking permission from ATC first. You definitely wouldn’t file an IRF plan for a sightseeing tour.
So if I want to do a ILS approach for landing at the end of a site seeing tour, I load it via a unit like the g1000 if possible? I don’t think you can specify approaches on the MSFS 2020 world map. Thanks!
If you have a start and end point in your FMS, then yes. Hit the PROC button, load up the procedure, and activate it. It’s that simple.
Although again, IRL, you wouldn’t be using instrument approaches with a VFR flight plan. You’d be flying a visual approach. Instrument approaches are reserved for IFR plans. THat’s why you can’t select instrument approaches from the world map unless you create an IFR plan.
If you select a IFR plan on the MSFS 2020 world map with an approach to the destination runway, can you still click on a siteseeing point of interest to add the plan? So if you reach the site seeing point, you could turn off AP for a while, and then turn it back on when you are done with the sight. I know you wouldn’t create an IFR plan usually if you are doing some siteseeing, but I am curious if you can add the statue of libery or whatever to the world map in IFR mode and also select an approach. Otherwise I guess I can add the approach during flight using the garmin g1000 as you suggested. Thanks in advance for filling in the gaps in my knowledge.
I think you can. I’ve never tried it myself.
There’s only one way to find out for sure.
I tried flight planning IFR on the main map and included the Statue of Liberty as a waypoint and it worked. I set the approach on the map and landed following the approach I chose.
I also tried not setting any legs beforehand and just setting the departure and arrival airports (the same, LaGuardia) and started flying. Even if you have already begun flying, it seems you need to first set a departure leg in the g1000 or else the “select approach” option will have blank entries. Once I set a departure, the “select approach” data is loaded and I can choose an ILS approach. Does this seem correct? It seems you cannot just choose an approach at anytime if you don’t have a departure.
That’s right. As I said a couple of posts above…
You FMS doesn’t know or care if it’s an IFR or VFR. It just follows instruction from start to finish of the entered plan. You need at minimum those 2 points in order for procedures to work.
Yes, it makes sense. One other thing I found is that when I file a specific approach on the World Map, the ATC follows it. But if you choose one on the fly with PROC, ATC may request some other approach. This makes sense too since ATC doesn’t know what you entered into your g1000.
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