Moving from FMC to ATC

I have recently started to fly the Captain Sim 757 and can go from Pre-flight, Takeoff, Climb and Cruise.

However, I am struggling to finish my flights off correctly. I use LNAV and VNAV having programmed the FMC but can anyone explain how to manage the descent and approach?

I have seen some posts that suggest letting ATC guide you in but how do I get that to happen?

TIA

You don't need to have ATC guide you, the plane is capable of doing this itself. So what you are going to want to do is enter a STAR, which is basically selecting a flight corridor into the airport and onto the runway. To do this hit the DEP/ARR key and then you should see your destination airport's code there, so where it will say, for example EGLL ARR. Hit the key next to that to go through to the arrivals page.

On the left you will see a whole bunch of strange 5 letter words with a number next to them. On the right you will see runways. Hit the key next to the runway you want to go to (you can hit next page to get more runways). Then you need to choose a STAR, which are listed on the left. Select one, and the view it on the display in PLAN mode. If that doesn't look good, go to the LEGS page and delete all the STARs waypoints. Then go back and select another STAR. Once you have found one you like, check the altitude constraints (listed on the right). Basically what you want to check is that they are different from the cruise altitude and speed. If they are not, go to the LEGS page and go to the last page, then hit the left line select key from the top of the page. Then go back to the second last page and copy this waypoint into the bottom waypoint. But don't execute it, just erase it. Then the altitudes should be updated.

That is how to do it the 'realistic' way, as most planes going in to and out of airports are not vectored for every turn, but follow STARs. However should you wish to get ATC guidance with the default ATC, don't do any of the steps I've described above. File a flight plan and hit the "~" key at your departure airport. Go through the steps for filing an IFR flight plan, and proceed on your way to your destination. The ATC will eventually tell you to descend, to do this, first dial the MCP altitude to the one set by ATC, then dial the vertical speed to a negative number and hit VS Hold. The plan should now descend. If they give you heading requirements, dial it in to the MCP heading bug, and then right (or left?) click in the middle of the HDG knob. Now the plane should track the heading.

Hope this helps, the FMC may seem a little daunting, but there are tutorials on YouTube that might do a better job of explaining than me. Also, this is written off memory, didn't have the sim open, so if there are things that don't quite make sense, feel free to ask for clarification.

Cheers,

Aeroplaneman

Many thanks Aeroplaneman. I had tried using SIDs/STARs previously but it was always more hit and miss so that walkthrough proved extremely useful.

I managed to program the FMC as you said and all worked pretty well, although for some reason in finals into EGKK the plane hissed the runway and started climbing out again but I managed to do a circuit and land at the second attempt :D

Thanks again