Contacting ATC from a farther distance

[SpeedPilot 0]

I find that that the ATC airport list option when I bring up my ATC window has a limited radius for the airports in relation to your position. When I fly jets and start a descent from 35,000', I want to know what runway I'm suppose to land on and I find that 32-35 miles using the ATC window and choosing from the list of airports is just not far enough from 35,000'. I did set the ATC frequency but I still don't know how to contact the ATC without bringing up the ATC window. Is there a way I can contact ATC without bringing up the ATC window and having to choose from the list of airports in the radius? I want to contact ATC from 90 miles away, not 32-35 miles away when I'm at 35,000'.

[Sekstifire 10]

Tune in the frequency on your com2 radio. Im not sure about the exact range on the various frequency types tho.

Edited January 11, 2012 by Sekstifire

[Guest jahman]

COM1, 2 are VHF radios. Without solar flares to ionize the ionosphere and bounce signals back to Earth, VHF is strictly limited to "line of sight" communication. In practice this means bothe antennas must be able to see each other.Since Earth is round (we can thank FSX for that!) the higher you fly, the turther away the horizon, thus the greater the range.Range formula here.Cheers,- jahman.

[vc10man 732]

I find that that the ATC airport list option when I bring up my ATC window has a limited radius for the airports in relation to your position. When I fly jets and start a descent from 35,000', I want to know what runway I'm suppose to land on and I find that 32-35 miles using the ATC window and choosing from the list of airports is just not far enough from 35,000'. I did set the ATC frequency but I still don't know how to contact the ATC without bringing up the ATC window. Is there a way I can contact ATC without bringing up the ATC window and having to choose from the list of airports in the radius? I want to contact ATC from 90 miles away, not 32-35 miles away when I'm at 35,000'.

In FSX,open up your Map from the FSX menu.Fast forward to the airport you are thinking of landing.It will then show you the ATIS comm frequency(ies) for that particular airport.Using your Comm Radio(s), then input either one singular ATIS comm frequency or two ATIS comm frequencies,and when you are at a distance that still enables you to descend from 35k, you will,hopefully,receive a scrolling ATIS message across the top informing which Rwy is the designated landing Rwy.

[curt1 79]

This has long been an FSX shortcoming. In real life, airline pilots can access the ATIS from 150-200 miles from the airport; in FSX it's more like 70- miles if lucky. That's not early enough to plan a proper descent, so I would proceed without FSX ATIS, and get the destination winds by using the Map feature mentioned by Rick.

[sincronicity 0]

I wanted the same thing of having more distance than just the short 30 miles to decend and line up on whichever particular runway is assigned for landing. I went searching through forum after forum until it dawned on me how I could get the distance. It was a very simple fix and works great with the PMDG and Level D Simulation models where you're entering the flight information into a FMC. I use FSBuild to create a flight plan from one location to another and have it saved in the PMDG, Level D, and FS2004/FX format. Then I log onto FS and select the .PLN. I don't ask for it to create a route, that's already been done by FSBuild. All that is left to do is to start up with the particular aircraft I want to fly and enter in the route on the FMC. Since they're both the same routes, FS doesn't interrupt me with turning left or right to stay on course. I do get the proper flight level stepping both up and down as well as lining up on the runway. Usually I'm anywhere from 70-80 miles from an airport before the ATC takes over and does its guiding. Once I'm lined up, it's a simple matter of hitting the right button for a safe landing. But just in doing so, I got an extra 50 miles to get things in order.

[NikkiA 7]

This has long been an FSX shortcoming. In real life, airline pilots can access the ATIS from 150-200 miles from the airport; in FSX it's more like 70- 80P miles if lucky. That's not early enough to plan a proper descent, so I would proceed without FSX ATIS, and get the destination winds by using the Map feature mentioned by Rick.

 

Of course, if you're using AS2012 (and perhaps ASE?) you can get the destination ATIS from pretty much anywhere in the world by tuning to 122.020 (requires a flight plan filed, presumably with AS itself).

 

Of course, if you're using AS2012/ASE you can just use the mouse-over or ICAO search features of it's map system to see the METAR anyway :)

 

Edit: Also, for some reason I forgot that FSCaptain can query the destination METAR from FSX's weather system, or from an external weather source.

[bud7h7 1]

This has long been an FSX shortcoming. In real life, airline pilots can access the ATIS from 150-200 miles from the airport; in FSX it's more like 70- 80P miles if lucky. That's not early enough to plan a proper descent, so I would proceed without FSX ATIS, and get the destination winds by using the Map feature mentioned by Rick.

 

I don't have a problem with the ATIS distance. 70 miles out works fine for me. My problem is not being able to reach a controller until you're practically in the pattern. So what I do is file an IFR plan, then once I get to cruise altitude I don't contact center anymore until I'm ready to descend. Then I have ATC for the approach, or at least until I get my runway assignment.

[Chock 17,769]

The best solution I've found, is Flight Keeper, and specifically the ACARS gauge it allows you to fit in your aircraft. Among the things it can do, is let you search for an ICAO code and then get information about the airport, and you can get weather reports from different stations with it too, much like a real ACARS or SELCAL capability. I stick it in all my FS airliners, it adds some additional realism when ACARS and SELCAL is not simulated on an airliner for FS (which it never is). Has a nice moving map on it too, with TCAS. Just one of loads of cool things Flight Keeper has, which is why it is one of the best FS add ons.

 

Al

[ray hughes 165]

I got excited there for a minute about flightkeeper - then I see it is 34.95 EURO's - that is over $70 dollars to me - so I guess I will stick with the earlier suggestions of tuning COM 2 ( I have spent waaayy too much on this hobby and it is time to rationalise)

 

 

Ray

[Chock 17,769]

To be honest, Flight Keeper has been around for so long, I thought almost everyone already had it.

 

Al

[vc10man 732]

I got excited there for a minute about flightkeeper - then I see it is 34.95 EURO's - that is over $70 dollars to me - so I guess I will stick with the earlier suggestions of tuning COM 2 ( I have spent waaayy too much on this hobby and it is time to rationalise)

Ray

+++1 could not agree any more

 

As the default ATC is trite, I tend to use Aivlasoft's EFB to give me all the approach info after I've got the info from tuning the arrival airport ATIS a long way out, frequencies provided by EFB. And the AI element of EFB displays the AI traffic to confirm that I've selected the correct landing runway, STAR, etc.

[SQUAWKIDENT 3]

If you have a smart phone running Android download AVIATION TOOLS FREE. It's a great little app that contains aerodrome information, PDF download links to charts, aerodrome information and the latest METAR and TAF data.

 

I use it all the time when flying in FSX.

 

Regards,

 

Adam

[vc10man 732]

Adam, is this Aviation Tools available for a straight download as I detest anything to do with Google and would rather download the app separately without having to go through Google Market/Pay, and install it on my Android via another means?

[regis9 3,999]

Thanks for the heads-up on that app, Adam, very cool!