I rarely fly jets so generally cruise at 15k or below, always IFR, using Nav 3.0 for my flight plan with FS 2002. I already know that RC does not take terrain into account. As a result, I am frequently directed to descent to 4k in mountainous terrain. Requests for higher altitude are NEVER approved once the descent phase is started. I checked the NOTAMS box thinking that would solve the problem but no go :(. My flight plans include the "beginning of descent" location and is usually 25-30 miles from destination. I am still being directed to descend 60-70 miles from destination. I really like RC but too many of my flights end up forcing me to deviate from ATC directions. About the only way around it (so far) is to declare an emergency. Can anyone help me here? I must be missing something that needs to go in the RC controllers info section.

the only thing notams do, is change the phraseology.instead of descend and maintain 9000, it says when able descend and maintain 9000. so you don't have to descend to 9000, unless you want to, and it is safethat was our best effort to alleviate flying into terrain.in v3.1 which i'm working on now, i actually will know the highest point within 20 miles of your arrival airport, and will never descend you below that.still some considerations to work out with this method, but nothing a lot of testing won't fix.so try notams again, on arrival, and listen to the phraseology, and don't descend until you want to.jd

1. On the site where you got NAV 3.0, get the 3.1 beta. It works fine and there are a number of revisions. Make sure you set up and use an aircraft profile under flightplan options so it will correctly indicate your aircraft performance and calculate top of climb and beginning of descent. If you include winds, it will anticipate crab angles giving you the mag heading corrected for wind, but your VOR bearings listed may be off. I get my VOR settings from charts. Including winds will also adjust your timings by correcting anticipated ground speeds. You may wish to print two versions of the flight plan; one with and one without wind corrections. I always export the one without the wind corrections to FS.2. Make sure you are using RC 3.01 which corrects some terrain recognition problems if I recall correctly. The differences are posted at the head of the forum list.3. Make sure you follow altimeter settings as delivered.4. I use arrival and departure NOTAMS which allow me to deviate from the plan in those areas. I do have the plates for the areas I fly in and am building a collection by buying a few FAA plate books (TERPS) every few months. The plates indicate the MSAs by quadrant usually for a 25 mile radius around the IAF and an MSA usually within a 10 nm radius for a particular runway. If you follow these and corraborate with RC ATC you should be OK. In mountainous areas use an IAP and follow it so you stay above terrain in the narrow corridors specified. The IAPs usually specify a lower approach vertical nav path than RC in its descent steps.I think RC ATC takes into account the MSAs specified for each enroute quadrant including adjacent quadrants. Do a search on terrain here in this forum for this recurrent topic.There are some terrain avoidance gauges (GPWS) you can install in your panels as well.

RC 3.01 does nothing about terrain and does nothing about MSA's. That'll be in RC v3.1 which isn't available yet. It's close, but still in testing. It'll also deal with those obnoxious AI's on the runway.

Must be the wrong app I was thinking of that looked at the quadrant highest elevations, not route posted MSAs.I do recall that the current version does use a fixed bias above airport elevation if I am correct for the final step altitude to the localizer merge.3.1 sounds like a great improvement to a fine product.

Thanks for the speedy and helpful responses all. I am using Nav 3.1 not 3.0 as I said in my post. I just thought that RC (3.01) would take the "beginning of descent" as flight-planned into account. I did quite as bit of instrument flying out of Alaska many years ago and know how dangerous that terrain can be. We really relied on those controllers but we usually requested descent, not the other way around.

Remember that plans don't have TOC or TOD in them. that is totally dependant on the aircraft type and speed and winds, etc. RC also does not use altitudes in the FS plans.What RC does is to calculate your speed and altitude and give you descents that allow for you to slow down and get down safely. Also, since mostly in real world ATC controllers will give you an altitude that fits you into their plan, not the plan's plan. ;-)You can still request lower/higher in RC, and use NOTAMS if you need to, as you do in real life. The problem is that RC really can't see the terrain ahead of you. FS does not have a facility to scan the area you're in.