Hello,As far as my understanding goes, a vector approach will have ATC give me vectors to intercept a localizer and glideslop. Whereas the visual approach will have ATC vector me to line up with the runway. Can someone tell me if I understand this wrong?I just flew my first flight from Madrid Barajas to Maderia. I selected vector approach even though I knew that Maderia doesn't have ILS. ATC kept taking me on different turns that go nowhere, so I figured that may be because Madeira doesn't have ILS (shouldn't RC know this?) so I switched to visual approach and ATC started to vector me around the island and then just forgot about me! No more transmissions coming in from ATC. What happened there?

LPMA would be a visual approach at some point. At some point it should have stated cleared for the visual approach to runway 5 (or 23) I believe and then radar service terminated turning you over to tower. Check the Controller Page for the facilities at destination regarding controllers, transition altitudes, etc.Anytime you select visual approachFurther out did you meet your crossing restriction of FL 110 or FL 120 on the way in? If not you would get delay vectors until you are at the correct altitude. The transition altitude at LPMA is 5000 feet. If you were above that when the problem occurred you would make sure that your altimeter was at 29.92 in or 1013 mn. Below it would be at local pressure. You need to insure that you have met your correct altitude assignment. If you want variability regarding altitudes after you meet your enroute destination crossing restriction about forty miles out select the NOTAMS option preflight before starting RC.RC will either line you up close to the runway or into a pattern depending on your arrival direction and the assigned runway. Check the manual for nearside and farside approaches. You would be expected to conduct your own navigation for the pattern at some point. You would not hear from tower until you were on final. For rwy 23 it would probably be a straight in approach and for rwy 5 it would be a downwind, left or right base, and then turning on final.Be sure you had no outstanding ack command on your menu or RC would stall.Finally be sure you have run the RC scenery rebuild after installing makerwys version 4.41 or later from the links at the forum top. This will insure RC has correct airport and runway information. makerwys version 4.41 took care of some scenery problems in creating the database files for RC.If the problem persists make and send in a log as indicated at the forum top.

Thanks for the response.So I just flew on my second flight using Radar Contact and it did not end well at all....again. I flew from KJFK to St. Maarten, about 70 miles out I was told to descend to 2200 (seems like a very low altitude that far away from the runway.) ATC also said they would vector me to runway until they can "confirm final vector" or something along those lines, I can't remember the exact phrase. They gave me a couple of vectors to which I strictly followed at the assigned altitude, I passed St Maarten which was about 20 miles to my left, kept going forward....20 miles....30 miles..........60 miles. Nothing. Never heard back from ATC. I updated runway4.41 and rebuild my database. I am not sure what's going on! I have read the manual and I can't find anything that would help me solve this problem. Slightly frustrated here, I was looking forward to having a bit of simming fun this weekend after purchasing RC Friday morning. Any help is appreciated.Thanks.

Any suggestions?

I should note that I have used time simulation 8x on both these flights. Is this a possible cause?I am trying another flight right now KDEN to KLAS (I am currently on approach but I did use time simulation)...I hope everything goes okay. Will let you know. I will also try another flight without time simulation.Is there anyway to have the transmission shown in text?

Looks like my reply did not take. It is strange about getting a descent to 2200 that far out. RC calculates that as the vertical profile intercept at the FAF (the X) noted at the attached profile for a VOR/DME RWY 9 straight in (no pattern).What was your aircraft type you checked in RC (heavy, jet, turbo-prop, or prop) and cruising altitude. Was it lower than FL110, the crossing restriction usually issued at 40 nm out? (The transition altitude in that region is 5,000 feet as I recall. Any commanded level above that would require standard altimeter pressure of 29.92 inches or 1013 mb. Below that you would need local pressure.) If in the approach area and you were not at the right altitude (with correct altimeter barometric reference) RC might be waiting.These charts show a different altitude but are public to view (due to dating and changes in magnetic deviation therefore changes in runway numbering consider RWYs 9 and 10 the same):http://www.k-hemmer.at/IVAO_AN/TNCM_SID_STAR.pdfFor your initial experience try one of the tutorial flights listed in the manual to a normal LOC or ILS approach. Read about crossing restrictions and transition altitudes and flight levels.

It worked! It set my up for the localizer very nicely for KLAS. Strange how Madeira and St Maarten did not work.

Strange though that ATC requested to "go around" prior to touchdown and there was absolutely nothing on the runway. Regardless, pretty happy about this ILS landing.St Maarten and Maderia does not have ILS. So it seems like the issue here is when I get vectors to runway.I fly with the PMDG 747.

So I tried another flight to Maderia and this time RC got me closer to the airport than before. It looked like it was setting me up nicely for the approach and then I got this transmission, "Delta 17, approach 21 miles northeast of LPMA, fly heading 260 maintain 4500 until established on the final approach cleared to runway 05 approach to the LPMA Q&H 1025"I followed these instructions exactly and I never heard back again from ATC. Any other clues?What does Q&H stand for?

QNH is your reference altimeter pressure given in millibars or inches as referenced to sea level. In FAA land you given that in inches but it is called "altimeter".http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QNHWas that final vector correct? You were given permission to turn inbound to final as you determine and establish yourself on final. After you ack that you will not get anything until on final from tower if a tower frequency exists. This also clears you to the IAF and conduct a published approach such as a VOR/DME or whatever is available. In other words, ATC expects you to follow the published approach from that point and RC will not monitor you.

That final vector flew me directly into the mountain at Maderia, perpendicular to the runway. I thought the vectors would line me up directly with the runway (as would have the default FSX ATC.)So from what I gather from your response, I have to fly an approach following the charts from that last vector? Why doesn't RC vector me to line up with the runway? Can't ATC do this in real life? How do pilots in real life land at Madeira?Thank you so much for helping me understand ATC process. I love this software and I hope to learn more about it. When ATC chewed me up for taxing into the runway instead of holding short, I knew that this program is indeed special.

http://ead-website.ead-it.com/publicuser/public/pu/login.jsp and register there. It is free and you'll get a password from euro control via e-mail. Once you've logged in and agree go to enter applications. Select AIP. Enter LP for the authority. Enter Civil. Enter Language EN. Enter AIP type CHARTS. Enter PART AD. That will get you a list of all Portugal airport charts. Currently the charts are on pages two and three of this list. Selecting the .pdf in the second column will open the chart in Acrobat on your PC where you can examine and save it.Here are two extracts for the SID and then circling approach (similar to a procedure turn here, not a circling approach in the ATC sense)for RWY 23. (Not for real world navigation!)The waypoints of the SID of choice would be in your RC flight plan. Coming from the north and west two legs will take you to ABUBU. If you look at the IAP you'll see ABUBU as an IAF for runway 23.You'll also see notes stating not to do any procedures over the terrain but restrict them to over water due to the high terrain. Sometimes RC does not see a steep terrain increment when calculating its average MSA. This is a good example of requesting an IAP from approach so you can do your own NAV following these charts.You'll see some examples of following charts in the tutorial.Note that on page 4 of the charts listings there are visual approach charts as well and from RC if you are in VMC (visual meteorological conditions) you can request a visual landing to the appropriate runway suggested by RC and navigate from these charts. Some navigation equipment may have these procedures in their database you can use to control your aircraft and/or provide display guidance on your NAV display.Pilots would follow these charts taking cues from approach control for separation according to the most efficient procedure at the time.