How do you use ATC in Microsoft Flight Simulator?
Microsoft Flight Simulator’s built-in ATC is a menu-driven simulation that follows your loaded flight plan and active radio frequency. Open the ATC panel, tune or select the correct station, choose an available request, then acknowledge instructions and change frequency when handed off. It is simulated traffic control, not a live controller.
How does Microsoft Flight Simulator ATC work?
Built-in ATC generates context-sensitive instructions from your position, active COM frequency, airport facilities and the flight plan known to the simulator. Its standard interface uses listed requests and replies rather than free-form microphone speech.
The available choices change during the flight. Clearance delivery may appear before an IFR departure, for example, while approach and landing requests appear only when you are near the relevant airport and tuned to the appropriate service.
| Flight stage | Station or service | What ATC does |
|---|---|---|
| Before taxi | ATIS, clearance delivery or ground | Provides airport information, IFR clearance and taxi instructions |
| Departure | Tower | Issues line-up, take-off and initial departure instructions |
| En route | Departure or centre | Provides headings, altitudes, traffic information and frequency hand-offs |
| Arrival | Approach and tower | Provides descent instructions, vectors, approach clearance and landing clearance |
| After landing | Ground | Issues taxi instructions to parking |
At an uncontrolled airport there may be no tower or ground controller. The panel instead offers self-announcement options on the airport’s traffic frequency. Built-in ATC also handles simulator-controlled traffic, but multiplayer aircraft may not follow or even use the same ATC system.
How do you use ATC step by step?
- Create and file the right type of flight plan. Choose IFR if you want an IFR clearance and en-route control. A route entered only in the aircraft’s FMS may be invisible to built-in ATC; make sure the simulator’s planning system has also loaded or filed it. Our guide to building and loading VFR or IFR routes in the MSFS planner covers that process.
- Start from parking for the complete procedure. Beginning at a gate or parking stand allows you to request clearance and taxi. Starting on the runway skips much of the ground sequence.
- Power the radios and open the ATC panel. With a cold-and-dark aircraft, switch on the required electrical, avionics and radio systems. Open the in-flight ATC panel from the toolbar; its precise position and labels vary between simulator editions.
- Listen to the airport information. Select ATIS or the available automated weather service before contacting clearance, ground or tower. Note the runway, weather and altimeter setting.
- Contact the appropriate controller. For IFR, request clearance and read it back using the displayed response. Then contact ground for taxi and tower when ready for departure. For VFR, request taxi or a departure direction using the options offered.
- Carry out the instruction as well as acknowledging it. Selecting a reply only sends the radio response. You must still set the assigned altitude, heading and transponder code and then fly the clearance unless an assistance option is controlling those tasks.
- Follow every frequency hand-off. When told to contact another controller, select the hand-off response or tune the stated frequency manually. If entering it in the cockpit, place it in standby and swap it to active; merely typing the number into standby does not establish contact.
- Contact approach, tower and ground on arrival. Follow descent or vector instructions, accept the approach only when prepared for it, obtain landing clearance, leave the runway and contact ground for taxi to parking.
Can you use MSFS ATC without a flight plan?
You can use ATC without a flight plan for basic VFR airport operations. Tune ground or tower to request taxi, take-off and landing, and request VFR flight following where the simulator offers it.
An IFR clearance normally requires an IFR plan filed through the simulator. Programming the route solely into a sophisticated add-on aircraft’s avionics often leaves the ATC system unaware of it.
Why are ATC options missing or silent?
Missing ATC choices usually mean the simulator does not have the expected flight-plan, radio or flight-stage information.
- No IFR clearance option: confirm that the plan is IFR and has been filed with the simulator, not merely entered in the cockpit. Also check that you are contacting clearance delivery or ground at the departure airport.
- No tower or ground option: the airport may be uncontrolled, or you may be tuned to the wrong frequency. Select the airport in the ATC panel and inspect the services it actually provides.
- The controller does not answer: check that the correct COM frequency is active, the radio has power, its volume is raised and the audio panel is monitoring that radio.
- Text appears but there is no speech: the radio exchange is working, so inspect the simulator’s ATC voice setting, selected audio output and any online voice service it is configured to use.
- The co-pilot answers automatically: disable the ATC or AI radio-communications assistance option. Its exact name and location differ between MSFS editions.
- The wrong choices remain in the panel: close and reopen the panel, confirm the active frequency and try the station again. If the ATC state has stopped advancing entirely, reloading the flight may be the only practical reset.
Should you let the AI co-pilot handle ATC?
ATC radio assistance is useful when you want less cockpit workload, but manual control is better for learning the sequence. The assistant can acknowledge messages and change frequencies, yet it may also accept an unwanted instruction or make a hand-off before you have copied the frequency.
Radio assistance does not guarantee that the aircraft will fly the clearance. Check which piloting, navigation and radio tasks each enabled assistance option controls rather than assuming the co-pilot is handling everything.
Is built-in ATC accurate enough for IFR flying?
Microsoft Flight Simulator ATC is adequate for practising the broad IFR sequence, but it is not consistently reliable enough to follow blindly. It can produce late descents, awkward vectors, repeated frequency changes or instructions that do not suit terrain and aircraft performance.
Cross-check every clearance and be prepared to level off, reject an unsafe approach or go around. For the procedural context behind clearances, hand-offs, approaches and missed approaches, see our explanation of how an IFR flight should progress in a simulator.
Can you talk to MSFS ATC with a microphone?
The standard built-in ATC system is controlled through its on-screen response list and does not require a microphone. Spoken controller voices are generated by the simulator; they are not people monitoring your flight.
Live airport radio streams and human-controlled online ATC are separate systems. We explain the practical differences in our guide to simulated ATC, real radio audio and human controller networks.