Flying in the Swiss Alps area at 12000' and 180 knots in the Mooney, ATC asks me if I have the airport (6000') in visual only 9 miles out from the airport. It's impossible to slow down and get down from that height in 9 miles. Anybody else experience this?There was a another thread about this and I thought that maybe the problem was caused by incorrect cruising speed figure and/or autopilot descend figure in the aircraft.cfg file . But I can see now that this is not so.Any ideas?Thanks Barry

hi barry, i had the same experience somewhere over that way, i think. don't remember for sure BUT it wasn't to long ago! actually almost exactly the same thing. at first i started doubting they would even vector me or acknowledge that, HEY wake up!! i'm almost there! i mean i was almost right on top of the airport when they contacted me with these crazy instructions to land. not sure if ATC will vector you over mountains or not, from what i remember i had to request an altitude increase. that was something i remember also. memory's fading fast here, i can remember most of what happened today but if you ask me about yesterday? forget it...it's GONE forever. william

Hi BarryYes - I have experienced this. If you fly to Innsbruck you get this very problem. I understand that FS9 does take into account terrain in the ATC, whereas FS8 didn't.Anyway - I always put this problem down to the type of aircraft I was flying - which is usually the PMDG737NG or PSS A320. I have seen programs on Discovery Wings about London City airport, and how the approach is very steep, and how the only jet that can handle it is the BAe146. This steep approach is modelled like that in FS9 - and I assumed that Innsbruck also had a steep appraoch IRL and they moddelled the FS9 version appropriatly.I could be wrong...?Gary

My understanding is that ATC has a minimum safe altitude for each grid segment on the planet. I've often performed approaches where ATC will instruct me below the mountain level - and as I approach the mountains, it will instruct me to climb to a level above the mountains. It's not too intelligent - it certainly won't route you down the wide valley into Innsbruck. If you take off from Innsbruck, ATC will often vector you (and other AI traffic) north into the mountain slope. The AI traffic commit suicide this way. The prblem with Innsburck is that ATC sets you up for the approach too high due to the mountains raising the safe altitude level. You and other AI traffic never get to intercept the approach glideslope.The best way of tackling these mountainous airports in IFR conditions is to download charts for the airport (navdata.at has link to lots of countries) and follow the published procedures (without ATC).Anthony Dyer

Yeah - thanks Anthony - I crashed into a mountain shortly after takeoff from there the other day! When i land there I tend to circle down to the airport after I've told them that the runway is in sight (which is usually a lie)!Gary