I'm on an around the world trip with FSX, flying various airplanes. So far so good, i've only encountered a few minor glitches in either the flightplanner or ATC.Until now...Created a flightplan with the flightplanner going from Des Moines to Denver (Colorado) via High Altitude Airways.Flightplanner comes up with a plan which not includes a single intersection and at a flightlevel of 18.000 ft. Flight goes over a few VOR's from KDSM to KDEN.KDSM, VOR DSM, VOR OBH, VOR HCT, VOR DVV, KDENI fire up, contact KDSM tower which sets me up for a RWY 5 departure. After departure, ATC let's me climb to 18.000 ft in 2 stages and sets me on a course to 210

Hi Lange,I'm not in a position to look at a map of Des Moines now but let me tell you what I think is happening. I suspect that the DSM VOR is SSW of the KDSM airport on a heading of about 210 degrees. I'll speculate further that you are flying a jet or, at least, some high performance aircraft. You take off on Rwy 5 to the NE (heading about 50 degrees) and at some point ATC tells you to turn toward the Southwest. Because the VOR is very near the airport and because your high performance plane can't turn on-a-dime, you never get near enough to your first waypoint (DSM VOR) to trigger the second leg of yor flight.If this happens, the FS ATC does not recompute the heading that will get you to the DSM VOR; it becomes very single-minded. If you turn away from the heading that they gave you initially, they keep repeating, "Learjet N12345, please expedite your turn to heading 210." And they will say it over and over, all the way to Mexico, as you said.What you must do to prevent this is ignore ATC's pleas to turn to the initial heading that they gave you and turn instead to whatever heading is required pass over DSM VOR. Or do what I do and, if the first waypoint is very near the departure airport, just delete that first waypoint from your flight plan. It only happens to me if the first waypoint is very near the airport. I hope that this helps.R-

You get my Steely-Eyed Flight Simmer Of The Day Award, or you would if I hadn't just invented that just this minute. I've had the exact same thing happen to me, but from Vancouver to Calgary. This has been driving me nuts for years. My hope was that MSFS would eventually have some way that you could "negotiate" your next waypoint with ATC the same way you can call for changes in altitude. This trick might tide me over until then. Awesome!Jeff ShylukAvsim Product Reviewer

KDSM, VOR DSM, VOR OBH, VOR HCT, VOR DVV, KDENIt's been recommended on forums for a long time to look at the flight plan before accepting it and taking off.I first got the message back when FS2002 was new.The FS Flight Planner will create a flight plan with the entry point to an airway closest to departure airport, and closest to the arrival airport.The DSM vor is the entry to the J144 airway, with OBH a transition to the J128 airway and HCT a transition to the J60 airway with and exit from the airway at the DVV vor on the airport property at KDEN.Unless you are willing to fly over the VOR's in bold above - your flight plan will never be completed. It was strongly recommended to me to Delete waypoints that close to departure and arrival airports before saving and loading a flight plan.I'm willing to bet the ATC told you to turn to course 210 and continue your own navigation.So YOU have to navigate to the DSM VOR before starting the next leg of your flight.That VOR is six miles south of the KSDM airport. You have to pass within 1.5 nm of the VOR before the next leg of the flight is activated.I'm certain you did not use the GPS to control the aircraft navigation. That is fine, but checking the active leg of the flight in the GPS will quickly identify any problems such as a missed waypoint on your flight.MSFS would eventually have some way that you could "negotiate" your next waypoint with ATC You cannot negotiate a waypoint unless it is in the flightplan.You can select "Direct to" a waypoint - the most used button on real world FMS/GPS systems. The FS2004 default GPS does this very well.You can also skip a waypoint on your flight plan. Taking the above flightplan as an example.If I were to takeoff on Rwy 31 at KDSM, I would not want to turn back east and south of the airport to the DSM VOR.I would open the GPS before takeoff,Click FPLClick Push CRSRClick the large cursor knob two times to the right to advance the cursor to the OBH VOR/WaypointClick MenuClick ENT to activate the DSM-OBH legClick FPLThe GPS now shows the active leg of the flight is DSM -> OBH and my ATC heading after takeoff will vector me to intercept the J144 airway, and it will be my responsibility to trun to 266 once I intercept the airway.

Gol'darn, Reggie! You're GOOD!. :-bigangelRegards,pj

Indeed, very good! I would like to add that it's not so much the navigation of the waypoints that's mystifying (although to sim pilots new to MSFS, there's a learning curve), but rather the lack of constructive feedback you get from the ATC when you've done something wrong. A real-world ATC would be able to help you get back on track if you somehow got lost, although they may or may not be nice about it. They wouldn't keep vectoring you to the South Pole with repeated messages. That's where I would like to see more interactivity with the ATC. Jeff ShylukAvsim Product Reviewer

>I'm willing to bet the ATC told you to turn to course 210 and>continue your own navigation.>Nope he did not, i checked the ATC log to see if i missed the "continue your own navigation" phrase but ATC only told me to turn to course 210. Even if was 400 nm off the track and i would turn to the correct heading, ATC would almost directly interphere and tell me to turn back to 210.But anyhow, deleting the first VOR directly after take-off did the trick... :-)Thx for the tips!!