VFR in the UK - Runway headings often wrong

[Hussman 0]

Dear All,

I use MSFS2020 to simply fly (VFR) between smaller airports in the UK. I never fly anything other than GA, and gain pleasure from simply finding an airfield then flying to another airfield (at around 2500ft) to watch the scenery below. These flights are often just direct from A to B, not following VOR or avoiding other airspace etc.

I like the experience to be "realistic", but am not a pilot and not willing to invest the time and effort to do everything exactly "by the book". I want it to be enjoyable not mentally too demanding, after all is a hobby, not a career choice! 

I love P2ATC, as it adds such a massive level of emersion.

My problem is this. On many of the smaller (and some larger) UK airfields P2ATC seems to not know the correct heading. For example, flying from Rochester (EGTO) to Southend (EGMC) I see that the destination runway has a heading of 06/24. On approach I will contact TWR and say something like "{callsign} established on final for visual straight in to runway xx"

The response is often something like "{callsign} cleared to land runway yy", but yy is never the right heading. It is different from what I've requested (eg xx).  In the EGTO to EGMC example above I'm often told runway 16 for example.

Not only that, but once I land I am then "told off" by ATC as "{callsign} be advised you may have landed on the wrong runway" As you can imagine, this is both frustrating and removes so much of the realism.

I believe this occurs as the data (Navigraph) used by P2ATC is not current. This would make sense.

I reached out to Dave (P2ATC developer) and he so kindly came back to me very quickly. He suggested purchasing a more recent version of the Navigraph data. Again, this seemed to be a good idea.

However, thinking about it, would this actually solve my problem? How often does a airfield change the headings of its runways?? Virtually never I would suggest.

I have checked for EGMC, and it has never had a runway heading of 16.

Please can someone confirm that purchasing a more up-to-date version of Navigraph would solve my issues. Or, if not, what else I can do to fix this. I'm sure other VFR SIM fliers in the UK have the same issue but, despite searching many forums, I have yet to find a definite answer.

Thank you all in advance. Please note I'm not an aviation or IT expert, so any answers need to be as simple as possible please!  🙂

Guy 

Edited July 7, 2023 by Hussman

[srcooke 52]

11 minutes ago, Hussman said:

How often does a airfield change the headings of its runways?? Virtually never I would suggest.

Whilst infrequent changes do occur an EGMC runways are now 05/23.

Given that the airac supplied with P2ATC under license is more than 5 years old it may very well be worthwhile updating even if for just once cycle.

Have you checked for runways available using Taxi Maintenance function and if necessary disabling any irrelevant entry.

[Hussman 0]

Thank you for the response. I've not tried to use the taxi maintenance function. Is it easy to use?

I really don't want to risk corrupting P2ATC or (even worse) MSFS2020. 

[srcooke 52]

Just open the taxi maintenance window from the icon on the main screen, untick any entries for 16/34 and save changes, restart P2ATC.

[Hussman 0]

7 minutes ago, srcooke said:

Just open the taxi maintenance window from the icon on the main screen, untick any entries for 16/34 and save changes, restart P2ATC.

Thank you, I'll give that a go.

 

Kind regards,

Hussman

[Dave-Pilot2ATC 875]

I doubt EGMC has a runway 16, although the satellite image does show what looks like an old runway that has been repurposed that might have been a RW16 years ago.  If that is the case, then there may be a RW16/34 that you can untick for both landing and takeoff and you won't be assigned those.

TaxiMnt uses Scentery based Runway Names and Definitions and may be outdated.  EGMC, for example, might show runways 06 and 24.  

Clearances use the Navigraph/NavDataPro AIRAC data, so this would not affect clearances.  It would also not affect flight plans or labels in the main part of the program.

You can change the runway names manually in TaxiMnt by changing the name in the Runways tab, being sure to only change the number.  So for example change RW06 to RW05, not just 5.

Then, change to the TaxiPaths tab and click on each red path segment on the map and change the Runway 6 to Runway 5 in the edit area to the left of the map.

Press Save Changes and the TaxiPath data will now match reality.

Or, if the SIM has the airport up to date, you can run MakeRunways and import the taxiways.  Just be sure to read and follow the instructions for doing this in the Operations manual.

Dave

[SierraHotel 989]

3 hours ago, Hussman said:

Dear All,

I use MSFS2020 to simply fly (VFR) between smaller airports in the UK. I never fly anything other than GA, and gain pleasure from simply finding an airfield then flying to another airfield (at around 2500ft) to watch the scenery below. These flights are often just direct from A to B, not following VOR or avoiding other airspace etc.

I like the experience to be "realistic", but am not a pilot and not willing to invest the time and effort to do everything exactly "by the book". I want it to be enjoyable not mentally too demanding, after all is a hobby, not a career choice! 

I love P2ATC, as it adds such a massive level of emersion.

My problem is this. On many of the smaller (and some larger) UK airfields P2ATC seems to not know the correct heading. For example, flying from Rochester (EGTO) to Southend (EGMC) I see that the destination runway has a heading of 06/24. On approach I will contact TWR and say something like "{callsign} established on final for visual straight in to runway xx"

The response is often something like "{callsign} cleared to land runway yy", but yy is never the right heading. It is different from what I've requested (eg xx).  In the EGTO to EGMC example above I'm often told runway 16 for example.

Not only that, but once I land I am then "told off" by ATC as "{callsign} be advised you may have landed on the wrong runway" As you can imagine, this is both frustrating and removes so much of the realism.

I believe this occurs as the data (Navigraph) used by P2ATC is not current. This would make sense.

I reached out to Dave (P2ATC developer) and he so kindly came back to me very quickly. He suggested purchasing a more recent version of the Navigraph data. Again, this seemed to be a good idea.

However, thinking about it, would this actually solve my problem? How often does a airfield change the headings of its runways?? Virtually never I would suggest.

I have checked for EGMC, and it has never had a runway heading of 16.

Please can someone confirm that purchasing a more up-to-date version of Navigraph would solve my issues. Or, if not, what else I can do to fix this. I'm sure other VFR SIM fliers in the UK have the same issue but, despite searching many forums, I have yet to find a definite answer.

Thank you all in advance. Please note I'm not an aviation or IT expert, so any answers need to be as simple as possible please!  🙂

Guy 

You need to update the "magdec.bgl", with the accelerated movement of the magnetic poles I'm surprised it's not done on a weekly basis (I think that's coming). Go here to get the latest MagDec update, and it's worth a donation as this is the only guy doing this work.

https://www.aero.sors.fr/navaids.html