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Default ATIS range

Joao Muas

Joao Muas

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204
Country
portugal
Hello simmers.

I've been flying some medium/long range airline flights and I'm facing this issue:

Cruising at FL300, and preparing the descent towards the destiny airport, TOD will be about 90 miles, generaly speaking, according to standard descent rate.

I usualy tune the airport ATIS on Com2, and select both Com radios on, and wait to here the ATIS call, which happens to be about 70~80 miles from the airport.

This seems to be a bit to late to start the descent, specialy if you're coming into a straight in approach.

This becomes worse when flying even higher flight levels.

Is it possible to extend the ATIS range so we can hear it at least about 120 miles from the airport?

Thanks.
 
Begin your descent whenever you need to. You don't need to hear the ATIS report first. You will still have more than enough time to adjust your approach...
 
n4gix said:
Begin your descent whenever you need to. You don't need to hear the ATIS report first. You will still have more than enough time to adjust your approach...
Click to expand...
Yes, a step descent might be a solution, but not the most efficient one I believe, according to traffic and fuel burn.
Considering the runway in use is to the opposite side you're coming into, you could stay at cruise altitude for another 50 miles, or maybe more, depending on the STAR for that runway, if you happen to hear the ATIS a little earlier.
 
ATIS Distance

has anyone posted the parameters for ATIS, in FSX or Prepar3d? What is the max distance in order to pick up ATIS?
Is there a configuration to adjust this, either in P3d or ADE?

Thank you so much!
 
Joao Muas said:
Yes, a step descent might be a solution, but not the most efficient one I believe, according to traffic and fuel burn.
Considering the runway in use is to the opposite side you're coming into, you could stay at cruise altitude for another 50 miles, or maybe more, depending on the STAR for that runway, if you happen to hear the ATIS a little earlier.
Click to expand...

Normally you wont have your ATIS report until you are close to approach control anyhow. Usually by this time you are around 8,000-15,000ft and between 30 and 80 miles out. As a pilot, I typically get the atis around 20-50 miles. This puts me in range for most major airports freq ranges at differing altitudes. I do fly VFR so I do not have the same workload as IFR guys do but 50 miles is plenty to be ready. You should be able to establish a stabilized approach within 30 miles with the atis in hand.
 
Thank you SO much for your response.
Do you know is there any way to configure ATIS range, in either P3D or in ADE?
 
wardorichie said:
Thank you SO much for your response.
Do you know is there any way to configure ATIS range, in either P3D or in ADE?
Click to expand...

I've never seen any hint that it could be done. As far as I know it has to do with the distance at which the destination airfield's AI traffic gets loaded, and is hard coded.
I would be very happy to be wrong about that though! Not knowing the arrival runway is a pain - although these days I'm pretty good at working out what FS will choose. IRL, even if you don't get ATIS until 50 miles out, your controller will have told you the active runway some time before, to allow planning and continuous descent approach etc...

Geoff
 
Radar Contact fetches ATIS reports automatically during descent.

As I'm a slave to the controllers anyway, I don't mind if I get it before or during the descent in the first place. It's more of a "A-ha, bad weather ahead. Better turn on anti-skid and prepare for crosswinds." thing.
 
The FS default ATIS distance is not consistent around the world but we start with 60nm. I have not found anyway to change it (including with the use of ADE).

In some cases the distance may be slightly shorter then 60nm (KCRG 55nm) and in other cases further then 60nm (LOWI 75nm flying from the north). You can sit on the ground at EDDM and tune in the ATIS for LOWI.

Some Comms are altitude and distance coded. However ATIS is only distance coded. Comm borders are similar to scenery on the fly. You can experience a slight plane hesitation when you cross into a new comm area.
 
Hi, I have another extended question for this thread:

Besides ATIS, is it possible to adjust the effective range of any type of comm frequency (especially tower)?
It's because some nearby (actually they are not really very close to each other) airports use the same tower frequency.

For example, RCSS and RCYU use the same tower frequency of 118.1MHz.
Although RCYU is over 100km away from RCSS, the tower frequency is interfered when I'm holding short or at final approach, really annoying.
 
Using ADE change the primary tower frequency to the 2nd tower frequency of 121.2, 121.9 or 126.3 for RCSS.

You could also change RCYU to its 2nd tower frequency which is 126.175 leaving RCSS at 118.1

For more information post on the ADE forum
 
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