Man FSX makes me mad sometimes.  I was flying my Lufthansa mission in an A321, and it seems lately they want to throw me a curve ball by making me do a visual landing instead of letting me use the ils system.  So I am coming in to Frankfurt and figure I will try the visual, but by the time I get the instructions to enter right base, I am already close to being on top of the runways, no time to turn and land.

 

Anyway, I wish I could do gps appraoches and I would always have my own options to bring me in to the runways.

 

Here is my GPS question:

 

When I load a gps approach, it asks me whether I want to load the approach or activate it.  If I load it, does this mean that the gps will continue to fly the route all the way to the airport and then automatically activate it?  When does it activate it automatically, all the way to the vor at the airport, end of the route?  Should I ever activate it early myself, if so, how far out?

 

Thanks.

First and foremost you need to file an IFR flight plan. This will force ATC to vector you per IFR rules. Yes the vectors are poor and unrealistic. Add on ATC packages don't help this much.

 

Then your arrival airport needs to have ILS, GPS or RNAV approach options. If only visual approaches exist (or VOR or NDB) then you are gonna need to do all the work lining up properly.

 

All approaches require following an approach plate. Some pure visuals are not mapped per an approach plate but NDB and VOR are. Same with ILS, GPS and RNAV. If you file IFR then ATC will give you vectors to the ILS provided it has one. Otherwise you should be able to choose from existing GPS or RNAVs. This requires that you put the proper approach into the GPS unit and activate it. Follow the plate for understanding how it looks on paper. You need to usually pick a waypoint as the initial approach fix. Activating these approaches in the GPS will allow the autopilot to follow that path and approval from ATC gives you permission to do it as requested.

 

If the arrival has no real IFR approaches then they'll expect you to land under VFR. Also, no matter the airport, don't expect ATC to give you good vectors. Sometimes you'll be pretty far off. This is why ATC in FSX is simply an interaction for immersion but completely lacks a functional purpose. The real piloting requires you to follow your flight plan and approach as if ATC didn't exist. Proper planning and GPS programming will put you on a perfect line up with the the runway.

 

So to answer the question better since I'm home and off the cell phone, you load your flight plan that you filed IFR into the GPS.  If it's the default GPS, then the plan will enter automatically, otherwise, add-on GPS will need input.  Like the GTN750 or 650 from Flight One.

 

For approaches, don't load the actual approach until you know which runway is active.   You are selecting the assigned approach.  So if ATC gives the option for GPS runway 7 with vectors, then pick that route and follow the plate.  The GPS approach will not automatically activate and fly to the IAF (inital approach fix) until you "activate" the approach.   Loading the approach is simply adding it to the GPS.

 

Let's say you hear on ATIS that runway 7 is active per winds.  You can pick the approach you need (e.g., GPS runway 7) and load into the GPS.  The plane will keep flying your original flight plan.  Once cleared to the the IAF by ATC, then go to the GPS and activate the approach.

 

So for example, you are flying to the airport closest to me, KDVT.  No ILS at this location.  You listen to ATIS and hear that 7R is active.  You are IFR filed and told to fly vectors to runway 7R for "visual" approach.  You don't want vectors because FSX won't always line you up, if at all, so you select from the ATC menu - GPS 7R and the BOLES approach fix.  See plate here:  http://imageserver.fltplan.com/merge/merge1512/Single/06646R7R.PDF

 

BOLES is 10.4 miles from the runway.  You need to hit BOLES at or above 3,900 feet.  Make sure your baro/altimeter is set correct for weather.  From BOLES you would fly 074 degrees to CEGAP and hit CEGAP at 2,900 feet.  Follow course 074 to the runway (runway course is 075 though).  For standard non-circling approach in a faster aircraft, you need to have 1 1/3 visibility in statute miles, so seeing the runway in that distance.  MDA (minimum decision altitude) is 2,060 feet, 600 feet AGL.  Descent slope is 3.00 degrees.  It's up to you to plan accordingly and make sure you can calculate the descent from your altitude to hit that IAF of BOLES at 3,900.  ATC should give you instructions to descend if you pick that GPS approach from the ATC menu.  Otherwise, without the proper ATC listing for such approach, then you must do all the work yourself, including descent path and avoiding obstacles.

Oh man, flight simmers hehe

So to answer the question better since I'm home and off the cell phone, you load your flight plan that you filed IFR into the GPS.  If it's the default GPS, then the plan will enter automatically, otherwise, add-on GPS will need input.  Like the GTN750 or 650 from Flight One.

 

For approaches, don't load the actual approach until you know which runway is active.   You are selecting the assigned approach.  So if ATC gives the option for GPS runway 7 with vectors, then pick that route and follow the plate.  The GPS approach will not automatically activate and fly to the IAF (inital approach fix) until you "activate" the approach.   Loading the approach is simply adding it to the GPS.

 

Let's say you hear on ATIS that runway 7 is active per winds.  You can pick the approach you need (e.g., GPS runway 7) and load into the GPS.  The plane will keep flying your original flight plan.  Once cleared to the the IAF by ATC, then go to the GPS and activate the approach.

 

So for example, you are flying to the airport closest to me, KDVT.  No ILS at this location.  You listen to ATIS and hear that 7R is active.  You are IFR filed and told to fly vectors to runway 7R for "visual" approach.  You don't want vectors because FSX won't always line you up, if at all, so you select from the ATC menu - GPS 7R and the BOLES approach fix.  See plate here:  http://imageserver.fltplan.com/merge/merge1512/Single/06646R7R.PDF

 

BOLES is 10.4 miles from the runway.  You need to hit BOLES at or above 3,900 feet.  Make sure your baro/altimeter is set correct for weather.  From BOLES you would fly 074 degrees to CEGAP and hit CEGAP at 2,900 feet.  Follow course 074 to the runway (runway course is 075 though).  For standard non-circling approach in a faster aircraft, you need to have 1 1/3 visibility in statute miles, so seeing the runway in that distance.  MDA (minimum decision altitude) is 2,060 feet, 600 feet AGL.  Descent slope is 3.00 degrees.  It's up to you to plan accordingly and make sure you can calculate the descent from your altitude to hit that IAF of BOLES at 3,900.  ATC should give you instructions to descend if you pick that GPS approach from the ATC menu.  Otherwise, without the proper ATC listing for such approach, then you must do all the work yourself, including descent path and avoiding obstacles.

Wow, thanks much for those involved and thoughtful answers, I appreciate the help.  Yeah, the ifr flight plans are from missions, so they are automatically entered in the gps and I can choose to involve the atc or not.  I have not tried to just fly the missions all gps and just get the active runway and use my gps for that appraoch, I think that could be a fun thing.  The missions are considered a success as long as I land at the airport, but then again, the mission always says to get ifr clearence, so that may have to be done.   Anyway, you gave me a lot to check in to, thanks again.

If you want to add a bit more realism to your approaches, Proatc-x assigns ils approaches with Star or you can request  an Rnav with waypoints, the only minus side is that most of the voices are European which is okay but out of place in midwest USA or outback Australia...but they are working on adding more voice sets.

I'd abandon the missions personally. Unless it's something you really enjoy as a game adaptation. The missions are gimmicky and pointless. The default aircraft are horrible. They're better than the old versions but still horrible.

 

If I were you I'd look into planning free flights with point to point plans to simulate the real world way of flying. Look at getting a nice add on aircraft and more realistic programs to learn from.

 

There's a lot to learn and those missions are silly IMO. Unless you have no interest in true simulation of a flying experience.

I'd abandon the missions personally. Unless it's something you really enjoy as a game adaptation. The missions are gimmicky and pointless. The default aircraft are horrible. They're better than the old versions but still horrible.

 

If I were you I'd look into planning free flights with point to point plans to simulate the real world way of flying. Look at getting a nice add on aircraft and more realistic programs to learn from.

 

There's a lot to learn and those missions are silly IMO. Unless you have no interest in true simulation of a flying experience.

The missions I am flying are add on puchased missions, not the default ones with fsx, I agree, those are terrible.  I enjoy the Just flight and perfect flight addons, the ngx 737 missions and such.  I have purchased a couple addon aircaft but I like the F-lite planes from Justflight. 

 

The ones that are too real are more than I will ever want, like PDMG and such, I'm just not interested in getting that real.  I am 53 years old and don't see well, so I will never be flying in real life, so I don't much feel like going through all the deep stuff in learning the planes.  I bought the Ifly and I forget which 777, and the pdf's were huge, in paper they would have been massive books, and that level is just beyond the fun factor for me. 

 

It might be different if I were still a young man with dreams of someday flying in real life and going to flight school, but when I went through that pdf manual I was thinking, "wow, no way, that's beyond what I want to invest in this hobby" 

 

I am a musician and semi pro photographer as well and have more than enough hours devoted to my hobbies.  I love to record music here on my computer and do photos as well.  I don't have the hours I would like to spend as it is getting to fly a bit in fsx. 

 

I do have the CLS airbus long haul planes, they are about my speed, more than the default stuff, but I can still get the hang of them easy enough.  I have legends of flight DC3, Jumbo X, Fly the heavies and such.  I actually struggle with fsx on a laptop.  I am considering building a desktop, but I am way behind the times on those and will have to start component by component.