Question about the ATC when landing at an airport.

[MLGCrab]

I know this is a very noob question but here we go:

While flying to my destination ATC said I should fly at 9500ft. Then just before approaching the runway I got my landing clearance...I was waiting for the ATC to tell me I should descend but nothing came.

So my question is: Does the ATC not tell you when to descent for approach?

[*GT*]

The ATC doesn't tell you when to decend because if you are flying IFR you should have a chart of the approach on what is called an approach plate. The chart lists out everything you need to know about the approach including the descent angle (which is 3 degrees at most airports), and the barometric altitudes of both the ILS platform and the runway you are landing. Essentially a pilot cheat sheet :) . It also gives you the ILS frequency, and a bunch more information. ILS is pretty nifty when going in for landings while flying IFR because the plane does the descent for you!

There's a couple (paid and free) services you can use to find these charts, aswell as other charts related to the airport (I use skyvector).

Also here's a video tutorial from a real airbus pilot you might want to check out!

https://youtu.be/32q0xHybKmA

[FlippinFlow]

To me ATC needs a lot of work for both VFR and IFR. It's the only thing I miss from FSX, and even that was crazy at times. My last flight with real time traffic, ATC was yelling at a UPS flight that it was 20000 over it's assigned altitude. I'm sure it will improve over time, most flight sims have no or minimum ATC included so it seems to be the tricky part.

[Rookie-31st]

Originally posted by GT_Saint:

The ATC doesn't tell you when to decend because if you are flying IFR you should have a chart of the approach on what is called an approach plate

What he said. Basically, you need to do your homework and learn destination airport charts and procedures, ideally even before taking off.

[Duke]

If your IFR, you will normally request descent from ATC, then once you are cleared for the approach you descend as per the approach for which you have been cleared. You don't just descend on your own...

If you are VFR, ATC will clear you to join the downwind etc. they will normally expect you to join at circuit altitude. They wont be giving you descent like an IFR aircraft. If you are cleared to join downwind and you overfly the airport at 9500'... they are probably going to have some questions as to what you are doing or if you have the airport in sight. ;)

[rene.scharf]

I have a same awkward question: my flight plan was planned to decent smoothly, so after the atc told me to procceed as filed, i tried to decent as so, but it said to me i should level back to my usual FL, until i hit the landing approach... so what should i do here?

[SomeBloke]

He is correct, in ifr you just can't change altitude unless you have an emergency, even if you have it in your flight plan, you need clearance. So you need a cleared visual approach, or be on path of a published approach. A clearance for an ils approach does not allow you to change altitude at will, it does allow you decrease altitude when established though.

[MLGCrab]

Thank you for all your replies. :)