

When you’re flying commercial, it can be tough to have any real idea where you're located in the sky or how far you have left to go. How Do Pilots Know When To Start Descending? That way, you get as much information as possible and you can read this article with the confidence that you’ll know everything you want to know about when planes start descending.
#TAKE OFF CRUISING DESCEND LANDING FULL#
To ensure that we do this every time, we combine our own knowledge and experience with the opinions of others in the industry to provide the full picture. Here at SkyTough, we are focused on providing only the best, most helpful content to our readers. In this article, you’ll learn everything you want to know about when planes start descending including how long it takes to descend and land, how fast planes are going, whether autopilot handles the descent for the pilots, and more. This is because it takes a while for a plane to reach landing conditions. You’ve probably heard that the plane is making the final descent to the airport, yet you still don’t seem to land forever.
This will usually end up being roughly 20-30 minutes before the scheduled landing time at the destination. When flying under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR), the decision to begin descending is made by Air Traffic Control based on air traffic, destination conditions, airport traffic, and more. Hearing that the plane is making its final descent is one of the best parts of flying since it indicates you’ll be landing soon.
