I recently atempted a one hour IFR flight in a heavy. My question is what procedure do you guys use to initiate a decent early enough to intercept ILS without having your flight plan cancelled. MS seems to direct you to descend way too late.Thanks

Take three miles for every thousand feet of altitude.

If I start descent say 90 miles out, will ATC cancel my flight plan (I'm assuming I wil get repeated requests to return to assigned altitude)?Thanks

With the FS ATC is hard due to the fact that its so inflexible.If you are talking about the initial decent then there is not alot you can do. When I use to use the FS ATC i would tend to crack open the spilers about 1/4 and let this increase my rate of decent witout having to pitch the nose downwards. This will inable you to decend quicker.If you are talking about the final decent stages then you will just have to be quicker in your decents to get down to the assigned altitues given by ATC. Usally ATC will have you lined up on the LOC before you have to decend on the Glideslope. In summary I think the only way you can get around this problem is by being quicker on your decents by using the spoiler and a slower airspeed. As FS ATC doesnt require a certain airspeed fly slower. You will desend much quicker this way. To start with desend at about 300kts untill 10,000ft. Hope this helpsSimon

Thanks for the advice.Happy flying

Adding to what Simon said, I descend at 300 KIAS maximum (above 10,000') and a descent rate of 2300 fpm if I expect a straight-in approach (you are often beyond ATIS-range when you begin the letdown). Use spoilers as required to limit your speed.After I receive an expected runway notice from ATC or ATIS, then I adjust the descent rate as needed. R-

A good rule of thumb is to multiply by 3 the total distance to be descended in thousands of feet. (i.e. going from 20,000 asl to a 3,500 asl way point to enter your approach route is 16,500 descent - multiply that by three and divide by 1,000 = 49.5 miles). To calculate your descent rate, multiply your ground speed by 5 (i.e. if you are going 500mph ground speed, multiply by 5 - 2500).You will need to recalculate the descent rate as you slow down a couple of times during the descent - but its easy math. I spoke with the product manager for MSCFS at the AVSIM conference. He flew Fokkers for Horizon for a number of years with very minimal automation. He said this rule was one he used these calcualations all the time, and that they were especially valuable in complicated airspace where you had to cross intersections at certain altitudes. Colin

Hi Guys,I hate to sound petty on this one (grin), but if you would use Radar Contact version 3, you would not get into this problem. All of those calculations are done for you.Going into a complex airspace like KORD, RC gets you down from FL350 about a 100 miles out. Flying the PIC/POSKY 767, I start down with a IAS of 280knots, 1800 feet descent rate. The PIC767 will hold that airspeed with no spoilers. If I increase the rate of descent to 2200 feet about a 1/4 spoiler position is needed to maintain my 280K.Just for kicks I did fly a FSATC flight from KATL to KDEN, found it to be just terrible after using Radar Contact to fly all over the world. Who ever heard of being cleared from departure straight out to your cruise altitude around Atlanta? The ONLY good thing about FSATC was hearing the name of the real airports, other than that it was "trash".Needless to say I have a little prejudice(grin), but RC really is that good.CheersBob