Coming from the northeast over Twenty Nine Palms I was vectored to heading 130 in preparation for approach to Rwy 31L. Altitude was at 10,000 was is high even though there is high terrain. I heard nothing and found myself over the Salton Sea and at 43 miles out I gave up, turned around and did my own approach much to the dismay of RC. It kept yelling at me about my heading and altitude. Being very familiar with Palm Springs, the vectors are not THAT far out. Never had RC take me that far out, even for a large airport. Can you think of what happened and how far out was I supposed to go?Thanks

on the controller page, what was the msa set to?

5500.there is very high terrain to the west and south adjacent to the airport so I thought that might have something to do with it. I wasn't concerned with the altitude so much as where I was being directed. Would the mountains have caused the 40+ mile vector? And that's just when I gave up. I'm not sure how much further it was going to take me. KPSP is a weird one and even the AI's come in at a very high altitude and sometimes have to go around.

Did you by chance miss an acknowledgment to an ATC command?http://flightaware.com/resources/airport/P...)+Y+RWY+31L/pdfis all I could find for published approaches on a quick search. Notice the steep descents.I'll have to check tonight but what scenery are you using. Is there an ILS? Anyway an IAP approach with RNAV (GPS) it looks like is required in the real world.If you were coming from the NE it looks like you need to have followed:http://flightaware.com/resources/airport/P...R/SBONO+ONE/pdfincluding these waypoints in your plan. This way RC probably would not have vectored you west of the airport for a downwind entry. If it did, you can overide it by selecting an IAP from the extended menu item and navigate on your own. This mutes ATC until you are on final.As far as the MSA in this case I believe RC measures that closer to the airport than 25 nm to calculate the altitude for intercepting the GS if available. On the basis of an intercept an MSA of 4 to 5 thousand is correct.Edit: There is no ILS published approach at the FAA site. Just RNAV, GPS-B - VOR are available. Tricky, tricky.

Got home and checked the default and Ultimate Traffic afcad and there are no ILS or localizer approaches, just NDB and VOR/DME.RC may have interpreted this as visual only and directed a VFR pattern giving you a midfield downwind for you to land visually on your own.FS does not provide a property for RNAV only so an instrument approach is not recognized by RC. You should have heard RC sign you off to tower for a visual approach and therefore not received any intercept vectors to a navaid.Maybe in version 5 (or 6) that will be corrected. In the meantime do an IAP using the VOR or NDB published by telling RC you'll do a visual and then follow the plate. Usually an RNAV runway also has a localizer so RC knows its IFR capable and lists it as an IAP.

Got it and thanks! That explains a lot.