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Scottish Wings

A Few Basic Questions

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Hello folks,

I have a couple of basic questions on what to expect during a flight.

1. So I set up my IFR flight plan, validate it, file it and off I go.  On route I get various messages telling me to do various things, so far so good. What I wanted to ask is what happens near the destination. Should the system guide me in to line up with the active runway, or is there something I have to manually do myself? A couple of times I seem to just sail on by...

2. I also wanted to ask about the flight plan and what ATC tells me to do. Should I expect ATC to possibly tell me to do something different to what I file with respect to altitude, direction etc  Is this a live system that changes depending on what is going on around or should it exactly follow the flight plan?

3. Last one, after take off, I turn to the heading to fly in the general direction of my destination, is that typically good enough? Will ATC work out where I am and guide me accordingly, or should I be following the exact location of the line shown and adjust my position to match myself?

Sorry for all the basic questions, but my only reference is X-Plane's ATC, so don't have too much to go on.

Many thanks...

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As in real life, ATC are there to help you, but they expect you to help them too, which is why you file an IFR flight plan, that way they know what your intentions are and can steer you along your intended route and know in advance where you will be, so they can keep other aeroplanes a safe distance from one another. So, you plan your route with all the waypoints, let's say we're flying to Narnia from Cloud Cuckoo Land International Airport for example. Having planned the route to Narnia, we are ready to file it with ATC...

Get the ATIS info at the airport by tuning the ATIS frequency, and find out which runway is in use, the altimeter settings etc, and note the ID Letter for the info (it changes each hour as the recorded ATIS info is updated). So, you'll hear something like: 'Cloud Cuckoo Land International information Zulu, winds calm, clouds broken at 4,000 feet, temperature nine, dewpoint nine, landing and departing runway 27, all aircraft say direction of flight blah blah blah.' So now you have your 'information' and can contact clearance delivery to file your IFR plan.

Contact ATC clearance delivery and tell em: 'G-ABCD is at stand 20 with information Zulu (or whatever the letter was), ready to copy IFR to Narnia'. ATC will then say something like: 'G-ABCD is cleared as filed to Narnia via the Never Never Land beacon etc, squawk 1234.' You have to read this back to them to confirm you understand your instructions. They will then say something like: 'G-ABCD, readback correct, contact ground on 123.5 when ready to go.'

Next you get your aeroplane ready to start and put 1234 in the transponder so ATC know it is you since they assigned you that squawk code, then contact ground and ask them for permission to start up. Then you contact them again when the engines are running, with: 'G-ABCD at stand 20, ready to taxy, IFR to Narnia'. They will give you your clearance to taxy and hold at the active runway and tell you to contact the tower when you get to the runway holding point. 

When you are at the runway, you contact the Tower and tell em you are ready to go. They will say something like: 'G-ABCD cleared for line up and take off, fly runway heading until at 1,000 feet, contact departure on 123.2'. So, you take off, then switch over to departure on that frequency and they will either tell you to proceed as filed, or vector you in the direction you are supposed to go, depending somewhat on whether you filed a SID as part of your plan. You can if you like and know where you are going ask them if you can go direct to one of your filed plan's waypoints. Either way you'll end up on your route and being cleared to your filed cruise altitude. And away you go until you initiate the descent.

When you get near the airport and you are descending down from cruise altitude (say within 100 miles or so), you tune the ATIS for that airport and find out what runway they are using for landings and what the altimeter setting is etc. Now you can plan your approach and be fairly sure it will bring you to the correct runway. On an airliner, you would put the runway in use into the arrival bit of the FMC and choose a suitable STAR which takes you from a point on your flight plan route, to the final approach fix for that runway, that is if ATC have told you how they want you to arrive (i.e. via a particular STAR or whatever), or if you are not using STARS, you can simply fly to near the end of your flight plan and contact the airport approach frequency and say something like: 'G-ABCD is XX miles south/north (whatever) inbound for landing' and ATC will vector you for the runway by telling you what height to be at and what course to follow. When you get near the runway and are lined up, they'll switch you over to the tower frequency and you'll make the landing. Then you switch to ground frequency and get taxy clearance to parking or a stand or whatever. Done.

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Alan Bradbury

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Now I finally know what the C C stands for in EGCC. Cheers Alan! :biggrin:


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7 hours ago, Chock said:

As in real life, ATC are there to help you, but they expect you to help them too, which is why you file an IFR flight plan, that way they know what your intentions are and can steer you along your intended route and know in advance where you will be, so they can keep other aeroplanes a safe distance from one another. So, you plan your route with all the waypoints, let's say we're flying to Narnia from Cloud Cuckoo Land International Airport for example. Having planned the route to Narnia, we are ready to file it with ATC...

Get the ATIS info at the airport by tuning the ATIS frequency, and find out which runway is in use, the altimeter settings etc, and note the ID Letter for the info (it changes each hour as the recorded ATIS info is updated). So, you'll hear something like: 'Cloud Cuckoo Land International information Zulu, winds calm, clouds broken at 4,000 feet, temperature nine, dewpoint nine, landing and departing runway 27, all aircraft say direction of flight blah blah blah.' So now you have your 'information' and can contact clearance delivery to file your IFR plan.

Contact ATC clearance delivery and tell em: 'G-ABCD is at stand 20 with information Zulu (or whatever the letter was), ready to copy IFR to Narnia'. ATC will then say something like: 'G-ABCD is cleared as filed to Narnia via the Never Never Land beacon etc, squawk 1234.' You have to read this back to them to confirm you understand your instructions. They will then say something like: 'G-ABCD, readback correct, contact ground on 123.5 when ready to go.'

Next you get your aeroplane ready to start and put 1234 in the transponder so ATC know it is you since they assigned you that squawk code, then contact ground and ask them for permission to start up. Then you contact them again when the engines are running, with: 'G-ABCD at stand 20, ready to taxy, IFR to Narnia'. They will give you your clearance to taxy and hold at the active runway and tell you to contact the tower when you get to the runway holding point. 

When you are at the runway, you contact the Tower and tell em you are ready to go. They will say something like: 'G-ABCD cleared for line up and take off, fly runway heading until at 1,000 feet, contact departure on 123.2'. So, you take off, then switch over to departure on that frequency and they will either tell you to proceed as filed, or vector you in the direction you are supposed to go, depending somewhat on whether you filed a SID as part of your plan. You can if you like and know where you are going ask them if you can go direct to one of your filed plan's waypoints. Either way you'll end up on your route and being cleared to your filed cruise altitude. And away you go until you initiate the descent.

When you get near the airport and you are descending down from cruise altitude (say within 100 miles or so), you tune the ATIS for that airport and find out what runway they are using for landings and what the altimeter setting is etc. Now you can plan your approach and be fairly sure it will bring you to the correct runway. On an airliner, you would put the runway in use into the arrival bit of the FMC and choose a suitable STAR which takes you from a point on your flight plan route, to the final approach fix for that runway, that is if ATC have told you how they want you to arrive (i.e. via a particular STAR or whatever), or if you are not using STARS, you can simply fly to near the end of your flight plan and contact the airport approach frequency and say something like: 'G-ABCD is XX miles south/north (whatever) inbound for landing' and ATC will vector you for the runway by telling you what height to be at and what course to follow. When you get near the runway and are lined up, they'll switch you over to the tower frequency and you'll make the landing. Then you switch to ground frequency and get taxy clearance to parking or a stand or whatever. Done.

Many thanks for this great explanation, this makes things much clearer. Sounds like I have been missing the step at the end, so will try it out.

Thanks again! 

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