I've been directed on some very long approach vectors, sometimes being sent as much as 35 miles downwind, then directed to reverse direction for landing. Isn't the normal approach about 15 mi out?Today at SVMI I wasn sent 32 miles past airport. I almost thought you forgot about me. Is this normal? I don't mind, just curious as it adds about another 10 min to my scheduled flying time.

What was your downwind and base altitude? That airport is in a hole. Were you landing on nine coming from the east at a high altitude? The southern and eastern MSAs within 25 nm are quite high. On the north side of the runway you can't descend to 5000 until NE of the airport on a 17 DME arc or downwind. If you were higher, you may have had an extended downwind to compensate joining the ILS. The airport is at about 250 feet so you have an 18 mile drop if you can merge on the localizer at 4000 MSL, longer if higher. You can file NOTAMS or if you get the plate an IAP.

I was coming from SBGL from the southeast and had filed NOTAMS because of the high terrain. I was kept at 9000 feet til directed to turn on base for rwy 9 then cleared to 7500. It was easy from there. SVMI is a tricky airport if you're coming from the south. But the same thing happened at FACT coming from the northeast to land on rwy 1. In that case there was AI traffic also on approach so maybe that plays into as well? There were 2 other heavies landing at about the same time.

Were you directed on a right downwind (nearside) on your first example? The higher MSA on that side explains it. We are looking into improvements on nearside/farside/right/left pattern choices in version 5. At least I've requested it,I'm not sure if at FACT a traffic merge would extend downwind. JD would have to answer that but if it did then it certainly could be a realistic operation to some degree. I think with 4.2 you will find for specific cases there is an option to request a short downwind (approach) in the menu structure, usually used for lighter aircraft operations that are easier to line up.

at SVMI I was actually directed to fly 280 deg to the right of the aiport (seaside, farside) but now I remember there were also two inbounds being vectored there too so I'm thinking that may be playing into this. It's fine, it was just a question to help me further understand how RC 'thinks'.