I flew from KSAV to TXKF in the Cirrus SR-22 today/tonight. A long five and a half four flight. I flew IFR and made a Low Altitude flight plan inside MSFS World Map. I use ATC and most of the trip was between 5000 and 11000ft (trying to avoid weather) with all Atitude changes cleared through ATC. Somewhere between WTHRS and DNSTN, ATC instructed me to climb and maintain FL190 (Cirrus has a ceiling of FL 170). While contemplating that, ATC quickly came back on and instructed me to climb and maintain FL240. Needless to say this wasn’t happening. I canceled IFR and reinstated the flight plan several times after this, each time with ATC giving me a crazy altitude to climb too. I finally caught them assigning me 12000 and put in a request for 9000 which they told me to expect after reaching and maintaining 12000. Finished up my flight and came into Bermuda as the Moon was just over the island.
All in all I probably cancelled and reinstated my flight plan 5 or 6 times after ATC started going crazy. While I don’t believe you can do it if you don’t start with a flight plan, it’s very doable if you did.
On a side note, my AP behaved beautifully. It didn’t miss a beat the whole flight and flew the RNAV approach like a champ. Usually it shuts off 2 or 3 times on a 1-2hr flight, but it handled this long flight just wonderfully.
And the range on the Cirrus is very nice. After dodging weather most of the flight, dealing with the ATC problem climbing and descending, etc, I parked with approx. 13 gals. to spare
Today was the first full day I’ve had to fly since MSFS launched. Usually have to sneak in short flights between life.
