Simviation Forums

When conducting an IFR flight plan and ATC tells you to begin descending at what descent rate have they calculated your descent to be?

Is it 1800? Because I always tend to set my decent speed above 2800 to make I don't come in to too high because I'm not sure if what the ATC guy is telling me to do is correct.

Also, when conducting an IFR flight will you always get an ILS enabled approach if you are landing at an ILS enabled air port? Because when I flew into MKJP there was only one runway (out of two) with the ILS available.

If ATC tells you to descend, they will let you know if you are not descending fast enough

As for insrument approaches, airports can have different types of approaches for different runways

When conducting an IFR flight plan and ATC tells you to begin descending at what descent rate have they calculated your descent to be?

They won't have calculated it. They'll have a rough idea of where you'll want to descent (hence the call often heard in RL "XXX, descend FLXXX when ready..."). They will expect you to maintain at least 500fpm in the descent though (and in a climb).

i descend at -2000 if i need to go down in a hurry i'll put -3500 and yes is you use an IFR flight they will lead to and ILS landing all u have to do is put in the ILS frequency and turn on the app switch

According to the FAA's Instrument Flying Handbook, you are expected to descend at the optimal rate for your aircraft unless the controller has specified "at pilot's discretion".

Airliners usually do an engines idle descent and pitch to maintain airspeed.

Alright thanks guys! I just completed a flight from Jamaica to Miami and landed at night in some pretty bad weather at KMIA with the A321, had to go full manual on the controls because I couldn't trust the autopilot due to incorrect settings on my part, I need to work on ILS landings.

Also, the rain effect was not showing up on my windshield in either cockpit mode, anyone know why?

Also, which plane is faster the 737-800 or the A321?

They've got the same top speed I believe...

A formula for calculating descent:

Ground Speed * 6, or more precisely:

If we wanna get from 35000 to 10000:

35000 - 10000 =