Forgive me if this is a stupid question, I've been flying FS since Bruce Artwick's FS2 but in the past I've not used comms or navaids too much due to difficulty of remembering the right keystrokes, or the fiddling with the mouse in the VC. But last week I got a nice rack full of GoFlight goodies and finally it is easy to tune the comm/nav radios! But I must be doing something wrong, I hope someone can help me figure it out.(Bear in mind I'm not a real pilot...)I departed out of KSEA tonight, bound for KMWH and as I approached KMWH I tuned 126.4 on Comm 1 for KMWH approach control then opened the ATC window. Only options there were:Choose an option for Seattle Ground on 121.700....Tune Seattle Ground on 121.700....Tune Seattle ATIS on 118.000:-hmmmDon't understand this, I'm nowhere near KSEA, not tuned to any KSEA frequency, I can hear KMWH talking to traffic, but I've got no option to talk to KMWH :(What am I doing wrong? Same thing has happened at at least 3 or 4 airports, no matter whether I tune approach, departure, tower, ground or whatever when flying out of KSEA, the only options I have are as listed above. Now, if I tune ATIS, that works at least ;)Appreciate any help, now that I've got a radio stack I want to learn how to use it! Is there a tutorial on FS ATC online somewhere? The "learning center" hasn't been much help...

Just guessing here, but I think you have to do things in the order that ATC expects. When you departed Seattle did you start at the gate or on the active runway? If you started at a gate you should have contacted Seattle ground for permission to taxi and instructions about what runway to use and how to get there. Then when you reach the threshold you contact the tower and get takeoff clearance.If you started on the active runway you generally still have to contact ground first and acknowledge their intructions before you can contact the tower for takeoff clearance.Now, if you're manually tuning the tower frequency, that might change things and you might get clearance, but I still think ATC expects you to follow the steps. ATC can be quirky at times.Jim

>>Choose an option for Seattle Ground on 121.700....Tune Seattle Ground on 121.700....Tune Seattle ATIS on 118.000<

Jim, I've got a feeling you're right, I tried contacting ground at KSEA on that assumption when starting on the active. Normally I start on the active, time is fleeting ya know, and 5 minutes spent taxiing is 5 minutes I don't get to fly ;)Only prob was, after contacting ground when starting on the active, I could only get taxi instructions to the runway I was already on (when I turned on Progressive Taxi, there was a line leading way off the end of the runway behind me into infinity!!!) Never got handed off to the tower, never got takeoff clearance.Yes, I'm manually tuning the frequencies, 1st I tune the frequency then I open the ATC window, and the only options (typically) are for Seattle Ground or ATIS. On a few occasions I've instead had a list of "nearest" airports to choose from when I open the ATC window, don't know what I did different to get that, but that involves auto-tuning which I don't want to do, what with my new radio stack :DSpeaking of "steps", what I want to do is learn this stuff right. I'll never be a pilot due to health issues, sims are as close as I'll ever come. Do you know of an online resource that will teach all the proper procedures and steps for ATC comms, that would be applicable to FSX?Thanks for the input, I'm gonna try flights from different airports, starting both from gate and active, and see if there's any difference!