Hi.  Dumb question.  Let's say I am flying IFR between KDAY in Dayton to KERI in Erie Penn.  I decide I want an alternate since the weather is a bit dodgy at KERI.  So I choose an alternate airport that has ILS say KCGF east of Cleveland Ohio.  So I set all of this up and then go to set an approach procedure for my alternate but there is no option to do so.  Why is that?

Thanks for putting up with my naïve questions 🙂

Edited March 25, 20215 yr by hedbonker

You have to create a new flight plan for the alternate if you need procedures.
I'd do that before flying and then load it if needed.

Alex

Ahhh ok that makes sense.  Thanks 🙂

Deleted.  Misidentified. OP did not identify which sim.

Edited March 25, 20215 yr by fppilot

On 3/25/2021 at 2:26 PM, fppilot said:

Deleted.  Misidentified. OP did not identify which sim.

Well a real life answer was just fine as well 🙂. Just trying to get a thorough understanding of planning and navigation.  I even own an Octant and a Sextant in pursuit of that goal 🙂  Sadly I can never be a pilot due to my health but I can surely obsess on it.

 

24 minutes ago, hedbonker said:

Well a real life answer was just fine as well 🙂. Just trying to get a thorough understanding of planning and navigation.  I even own an Octant and a Sextant in pursuit of that goal 🙂  Sadly I can never be a pilot due to my health but I can surely obsess on it.

Well first the simulator you are using does matter.  You do not state so, but the way your question is written implies that you will be using the flight plan in conjunction with a GPS and likely an autopilot.  The capabilities vary from sim to sim, but between FSX, FSX SE, xPlane, and P3D the differences are small, especially if you are using addon GPS avionics from Reality XP or even Flight1.  However the GPS and autopliot avionics in MSFS are not fully developed (yet), and lack both features, capabilities, and ease of use.  Beyond that statement, and not wishing to start a tidal wave of argument (from others) in your topic, MSFS does not currently allow you to mirror what you could do in real flight.

Here is an article that might interest you.  https://flightlevelsonline.com/2019/fall-2019/garmin-tips-and-tricks-missed-approach-basics-how-to-be-prepared-at-a-critical-stage-of-flight/  I point that link out to you because in that article you can find this discussion:

"Now in the hold at GRIME, we alert ATC to our intention to go to our alternate at KRDD requesting the ILS 34 there. The GTNs have is a unique feature that allows you to add a second procedure to the flight plan, but only when you are on one of the missed approach legs of the first approach. Go to the Procedures page, choose Approach, and select KRDD, ILS 34, and the RBL transition in the three boxes (right screen in Figure 3). These are added after GRIME in the flight plan as shown in Figure 4. Request the routing in this plan, Direct to RBL followed by the ILS. If given a different clearance while in the hold ask ATC to stand by, load the route, then comply."

I am no longer an active pilot.  Not since 1985.  I do have deep experience with Garmin aviation GPS models.  Certainly in simulators.  The Reality XP GPS models use actual Garmin Trainer software simulations as their foundation.  The avionics in MSFS do not appear to do the same.  If so they are not fully modeled.

Occasionally I ride along in the right seat with a friend who has a Cessna 310 with a pair of Garmin GNS GPS avionics in the panel.  I do have current hands-on use and can say that the GNS lacks the capability to pre-configure an approach to an alternate.  But at the point of decision to divert to an alternate one can easily enter the alternate airport as a Direct To → and then load and activate an approach to that alternate.  And as Alex states above, you can create a separate Littleflight Navmap flight plan that you could load and activate after reaching the decision to divert.  In real use, such a flight plan could also be entered and saved in Garmin GPS avionics.  Once the decision to divert is reached, that flight plan can be loaded and the appropriate leg of the flight plan activated.  From that point an approach to the alternate could be selected and loaded.  

Hope this helps.

Thanks so much Frank!  Much Appreciated!  I own FSX, XP11, P3D and MSFS and I tend towards XP11 for Garmin use as indeed the MSFS implementations are severely lacking.