Staying on course when ATC sets you up for a visual final

[haeriphos 0]

I just did a direct flight from 7S1 to 6S1, both small airports without procedures or towers, about 150nm apart. P2A sets up the flight perfectly and vectored me in for visual approach to the runway. If you load the route in P2A you'll see that the flight path is perpendicular to the landing path, so P2A actually needs me to deviate about 8nm south of the airport (when I'm flying east) in order to get lined up for the visual approach (the IF, OM, IM waypoints).

The problem is that my GPS is taking me direct to 6S1, not to the point 8nm south of the airport that P2A needs me to go to. So I'm constantly being told that I'm off course when I fly my filed route. In real life, ATC would let me fly direct to 6S1 and then vector me when I get closer, rather than expecting me to fly direct to their initial vector for final.

It would be great if P2A would let me get to within maybe 30 miles of the airport before it then vectored me to the IF fix. Or, at the very least, had an option where I could ask ATC for the heading to my next waypoint (from the aircraft's current position) and adjust my autopilot accordingly. I'm curious if there's a method currently implemented to get around this that I'm just not aware of.

Thanks!

[Dave-Pilot2ATC 870]

When you build your flight plan in P2A, you need to be sure that your GPS flight plan matches after you import it.  Most GPS units will not recognize User Created Waypoints, for example, so avoid these.

Once you have them matching, then you should be able to fly the plan as filed until you start getting vectors.  Then, you need to switch to manually setting the headings in the Autopilot, rather than following the GPS tracks.  You can see the vectored route, if you like, in P2A by clicking on the APPR button to the right of the map.

 

[haeriphos 0]

I enter my route by hand into the GPS instead of using the import function. When I flew my route direct from 7S1 to 6S1 I didn't get vectors. I flew the GPS course direct to 6S1 and ATC kept telling me I was off course, because P2A had taken my 7S1 -> 6S1 route and changed it to 7S1 -> IF -> OM -> IM -> 6S1. I'll try the APPR button and see what that does.

At what radius does P2A start providing vectors? I can try to make sure that I have a fix within that radius entered into my flight plan so that P2A doesn't expect me to head towards the IF until after it starts giving me vectors. For example, if I had planned 7S1 NELKS 6S1 then maybe P2A would have started giving me vectors before I hit NELKS (assuming it would start giving me vectors before I hit 12.5 nm from the airport).

 

 

[Dave-Pilot2ATC 870]

Just uncheck the "Load Recommended Procedures" option on the FltPln tab of Config.  That way the approach will not be calculated until you near the Arrival airport.

You can also uncheck the ATC assigns Approaches option and request vectors to the ILS when you get close to the arrival airport.