Simviation Forums

Alright, so I'm flying a short hop in my Cessna Centurion and ATC tells me to descend to 6500 feet.  So being the stickler for obeying ATC, I start my decent from 8200 to 6500 at a rate of about 700 or 800 FPM.  From about 8000 until around 7000 feet ATC kept saying "please expedite your decent to 6500 feet" - close to 10 times.  Seriously, what does he expect me to do?  Jam the yoke forward and decend at 5000 FPM?  ::)

Anyways,  is there some sort of glitch in FS9?  It doesn't happen all the time, but it when it does it gets a wee bit annoying.  

i know what you mean....

There are a couple of situations where I have had ATC nag me like that.  In this case I think you're not descending fast enough.  ATC wants you to descend at a rate that results in about a 3 degree slope.  This is where the rule comes from that says to judge the distance at which to begin your descent drop the last two zeros from your altitude and divide by three.  Doing that gives you about 3 degrees.

ATC wants you to descend at a rate that will keep you on a 3 degree slope *or steeper*.  So I suspect that 700 fpm is not fast enough for your ground speed to keep you on that slope.  The faster your ground speed is the faster you have to descend to keep up.  In one plane I fly I sometimes have to descend at 5000 fpm to maintain 3 degrees.

gw

How about those times where you're told to change frequencies back and forth about 5 or 6 times in less than 3 minutes?

FS9 is great but it sure ain't prefekt

Generally, to comply with FS9 ATC descent requirements, a rate of 1800 ft/min is needed.

Edit the aircraft.cfg thusly:

[autopilot]
autopilot_available             = 1
flight_director_available       = 1
default_vertical_speed          = 1800
autothrottle_available          = 1
autothrottle_arming_required    = 1

Having said that, sometime ATC just likes to wag on the crew.

bill

I have noticed if I comply to the decent right away I can get away with 1000fpm without being nagged to get down faster.  If I lolly-gag around and then start my decent, I am going to have to go at a faster rate to keep from being told to expidite.

Kind of bazar....  I am glad real ATC doesn't work like that.

A decent speed of 1800 fpm in a C172 is a bit excessive.  

Guess the ATC setup was designed for the heavy metal AI.

best,

....................john

How about those times where you're told to change frequencies back and forth about 5 or 6 times in less than 3 minutes?

I think the person just likes to hear him/herself talk, and it's probably a running gag among the ATCs.

I got a good one yesterday:

"Cessna 0 Alpha Wisky, you are 0 feet above your assigned altitude.  Please decent to 3000 feet".

Gee, thanks.

Or how about the times when you are flying (ILS and on approach) that the FS 2004 ATC will say "9 Romeo Sierra make your heading 172 degrees".  Then about a minute later it's 9 Romeo Sierra make your heading 140 degrees".  About a minute later it's 9 Romeo Sierra make your heading 170 degrees".  Another minute later it's 9 Romeo Sierra make your heading 135 degrees".

Geesh.  One could get confused.  My passengers aren't happy either.

"Cessna 0 Alpha Wisky, you are 0 feet above your assigned altitude.  Please decent to 3000 feet".

Haha! I heard ATC saying that to some AI traffic this afternoon.  Boy, they must love the sound of their own voice!

Normal decent rate for a single engine aircraft is 500 fpm. I have even been flying online with ATC, and they know what kind of plane I am flying, and they expect me to drop out of the sky to make the landing  :-/

I think the person just likes to hear him/herself talk, and it's probably a running gag among the ATCs.

This happens to me every now and then, but it has me thinking that perhaps I am flying along the boarder or the airspace and it is enough to tell me to change frequencies, but it is not enough to make the frequency change happen.

Hmm just a thought.  What a piece of junk... I can't believe we play sim like this.... (trust me... it is just sarcasm.)