Tower communications during VFR

Suppose you take off on a VFR flight to pass the afternoon. Later after flying around a bit you decide you want to land at an airport with a tower. Is there a way to contact the ATC and request permission and instructions to land? The only way I can find is to open an IFR flight plan but this doesn't seem right. Assume you are using the default ATC.

Thanks

You can usually tune the tower when you are within 30-35 miles of the airport.

The decision to descend is all yours. And if you contact ATC and request "Flight Following" they will warn you if there is another plane coming your way. (It can get busy once you get near airfields.)

Once you get low and close, select "Nearest Airport List" in the ATC menu.

Suppose you take off on a VFR flight to pass the afternoon. Later after flying around a bit you decide you want to land at an airport with a tower. Is there a way to contact the ATC and request permission and instructions to land? The only way I can find is to open an IFR flight plan but this doesn't seem right. Assume you are using the default ATC.

 

Thanks

If by "instructions" you mean that you are vectored in, get altitudes assigned etc - this won't happen with default ATC. If you are VFR, the only thing you get told is which way to enter the pattern and which runway is for you. You have to work out the approach yourself, by using the VFR charts etc. In RW, the control zone around the airport has "entry points" (sorry, don't know the real name for these) where you are required to contact the tower and announce yourself and your intentions. These are pretty close to the airport already, maybe 5-10 minutes out, so not much vectoring would be required anyway. In that respect, FSX is actually pretty accurate. In the end, you are on VFR rules, so you need to know where you are and watch where you are going, right? ;)

Of course, in RW you could ask to be vectored in anyway, but FSX isn't capable of that - only if you file a quick&dirty IFR flightplan and pray that they don't send you off to climb to your intended cruising altitude... Oh, and IMO for getting vectors, the tower alone is not enough, the airport needs an approach controller sitting in front of a radar scope for that.