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Hi,

 

Welcome to the forum......

 

Based on what you have said I assume that you are flying airliners. Most airliners will have an autopilot function that can fly the aircraft to a route specified in a flight plan. What can't be done is auto-switching frequencies.

 

The best solution to meet your needs is to use the inbuilt flight planner to create the route. Note flight plans are created as either IFR (instrument flight rules) or VFR (visual flight rules). Note also that you can select either GPS Direct, High/Low Airways or VOR to VOR routeing methods.

 

In basic terms of the sim the main difference between IFR and VFR is that when using a IFR flight plan you will receive specific ATC departure routeing instructions (i.e. fly runway heading and climb to xxxx altitude for example) and you will continue to receive other routeing/climb info for the rest of the flight including arrival/descent info. A VFR flight will only have a takeoff clearance message with no heading or climb instructions and when you get to the destination you need to 'fly' your own arrivals/decent profile.

 

In IFR you will continue to receive ATC handoffs for as long as you wish to remain in contact with ATC. With VFR you only get handoff messages if you have contacted a centre and asked for a 'flight following' service or airspace clearances etc.

 

In both cases you have the option to simply ignore ATC and then contact them when near your destination. In IFR mode, using the standard ATC messaging window, you can also cancel the flight plan at any time, fly the route and then when about a 120-140 miles out reopen the IFR flight plan - the ATC engine will work out your 'position' and then start giving routeing/altitude info as before.

 

Once airborne select the autopilot functions suitable for the required route method - most autopilots have various switch options that allow for the various forms of navigation possible - GPS, Course, Heading, VOR/DME, ILS Approach etc and will also have Altitude and Speed hold functions.

 

How the autopilot functions will depend on the aircraft. For example, for the aircraft to follow a GPS route a siingle switch/button or a combination of switch/buttons settings may have to be selected so that the 'nav computer' knows what it should be doing. The only way to find what switching needs to be made is to read any manual that comes with the aircraft model or simply experiment.

Regards

 

Brian

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