Whilst awaiting the arrival of RC v3.1 and still making do with FS9's proprietary ATC, I was wondering weather it is possible to tune into one's arrival Atis about 30-45 minutes out as per real life, and not as the default ATC package when you are 20 miles away and rather late to make a weather diversion decision or askfor a differnt runway etc.When you get your IFR clearance, do you get a SID departure, or is it a radar heading with alt restriction? Naturally when talking to the first approach controller does one get a STAR?Thanks in advance!

you can get arrival weather within 60 miles.the clearance will say "as filed". if you file a sid (a checkpoint within 30 miles of the departure airport, or choosing "flex sid") you will not be given vectors. you are to fly it as filed.star's end when you contact approach.jd

Thanks jd.I presume that the inbuilt flight planner is incapable of filing SID/STAR routings therefore I would need some different flight planning software. If so, can you recommend something that works well with FS9/PMDG/RC please.

rc has no flight planner. many people use fsnavigator, nav3.1, fsbuild. anything that can save in fs .pln format will work with rcjd