i'm concerned that you're talking about flying to the next checkpoint. when you are in approach, you don't fly your checkpoints. you do what the atc says.if you are told to fly away from the runway, do it. i have never lost a plane in approach. you will be told to fly the base leg, then an intercept heading. when the localizer comes on, and is centered, turn to the runway heading.the only time you can fly waypoints inside approach, is if you are flying an iap approach.i'll look at the log, the first one, you didn't click debug before you loaded the .pln, so i have no idea what the airport's coordinates, runways, and headings are.i'll look at what you have sent me, and let you know what i see.have you flown any of the tutorials, and have they been flown successfully?jd

When you contact approach the reason based on ai landing at koak, rwy 29 was chosen. There is a 15 degree magvar at koak, fyiYou were also approaching this airport with a heading of 300, and almost straight in approach. I think this is where our trouble starts.You

I was referring to the PMDG or LDS Boeing FMCs which if mostly functional should be similar. I have the PMDG 737NGs.

If you want to fly a flightplan without vectors when APPROACH contacts you ack it and then request an IAP from the extended menu. You'll get a list and in that list should be ILS Rwy 29. Choose it and you can fly the plan in the FMC. RC ATC will state cleared for the ILS 29 approach at 4,000 which is your expected altitude at the FAF. You'll be responsible to navigate and to merge with the localizer. Altitude will also be your responsibility. The next you'll hear from RC ATC will be when you are on final and asked to contact tower.If you want vectors, get off LNAV (and VNAV) when you start getting them. You continue flying your last commanded heading and follow altitude instructions using the MCP controls (always as a matter of practice keep the HDG bug lined up with your current heading (so when you go on MCP HDG control you will continue on your present heading until you manipulate it) doing nothing on your own until instructed.If your ILS localizer indicator was pegged to the right, you were south of the localizer, not north of it. Since you turned to 279 on your own (via the FMC) you were further south than if you had stayed on your last ATC commanded heading (after BUSHY). RC ATC instructed you to turn to 310 in an attempt to get you on a corrected merge attempt since you were too far south and too close. Closer in on the original heading you would have got a final vector (probably not needed or just a small correction) and altitude with the wording you were waiting for, cleared for . . .The third option is to do a NOTAMS arrival where if you stray RC may not say anything. It is used for just small deviations from ATC instructions. If RC (not the FMC) still has waypoints noted in the RC window, you still must cross them to get waypoint credit. Once on vectors the only waypoint showing will be the airport in the RC window.Finally until needed for the second NAV on the localizer (for the Boeing guided landings on APP) have that NAV tuned to OAK which as shown on the plate is on the airport close to the runways. Your NAV 2 RMI indication will point to it and give you the general direction. The localizer on this runway does not have a DME but OAK does so you can also get a rough DME to the airport. On a slaved gyro RMI where the degree scale rotates, the RMI will indicate the heading to the VOR and be corrected for your aircraft heading (in relation to the nose). This enables you to easily tell in this case if you have passed the airport.While doing some initial learning consider doing some instrument ATC guided work on a slower GA aircraft so you have more opportunity to observe and absorb your manipulation and the reaction of the instruments. There is some interesting information here:http://www.stoenworks.com/Aviation%20home%20page.htmlas well as the RC tutorials.I've given you a summary of instrument reaction and indications and jd has given you the response to your logs and where things went awry.

Thanks for your help guys.I've been flying with RC2, 3, 4 and since they came out, so I've flown hours of approaches without an issue until this one. Actually in the past month I've flown over 40 hours of RC controlled flight per my log books (don't tell my wife :)) with this plane and to various airports and this is the first one I've come upon a snag on.JD, I sent you a second log with default 737 and GPS. Upon contacting approach I recieved altitude constraints and heading directions and then I was just dropped. I was never cleared for approach; or should that be a given for a straight in approach.I believe I'm not allowed to intercept the localizer until I'm told that I'm cleared for appproach correct?I'll do the flight again without AI traffic and see what happens. Also I'll turn to intercept the localizer even without approach telling me to.Sean

First, I assume you are on the current FSUIPC.Second, are you using any special scenery/AFCAD for KOAK.Third, alt-tab to bring up the RC window to see if any error messages are displayed that might be hidden behind FS.Fourth, you crossed the localizer and RC said nothing? How far out were you when you crossed? If you kept the last commanded heading of around 290 to 300 you should have crossed I believe. The inbound localizer is 294 degrees. A heading of 302 you would cross the extended center line about 20 nm out.We'll wait for the log analysis again.

Hi Ronzie,I sent the second log from JD whenever he gets a chance to take a look at it.I'm using 3.75 I believe FSUIPC. I have no issues at all with this version.I have no addon scenery, not much for eyecandy myself, just want accurate flight dynamics and a good panel. So no, base FS9 scenery.No error messages in RC as it is still running chatting with AI, and I can communicate such as Missed approach, request rwy, etc.I flew again this morning with default 737 and GPS again but this time no AI traffic. Decended to 4000, reducing speed to 210 on heading of 300. That was the last transmission from approach. No command to intercept localizer etc. About 15 miles west of rwy 29 I did a request rwy 29 and it had me change frequency to approach and then I was vectored perfectly. Flying back at a heading of 115 then over to 205 then to 30 degree angle for interception and decent to MDA of 3100. I had OTTO handling comms so I wouldn't miss any instructions.Flew another flight right after to a different airport without a hitch. Same type of straight in approach etc. It seems I'm only having this problem at the moment just at KOAK for rwy 29 which happens to be the longest for large jets which I need. Those CRJ's love to float down the runway.Thanks,Sean

No clue.It sounds like continuing on from near BUSHY at 300 degrees you should cross the localizer below the GS at 4000 for capture. It sounds like that last heading should have contained your ILS clearance phrasing.

SeanI see you are saying that you are flying GPS. It should be set on NAV to capture the glidescope. If I get a chance today I will fly it again and see what it will do. I fly the ERJ145 so I will see.

I flew the plan today at FL260 with a 737W (PMDG).The break to vectors was between BUSHY AND SUNOL is northeast of the extended runway center line to allow for descents. Note that SUNOL if you had followed an IAP is quite a bit NE of the localizer path entry and is a feeder in the direction of SW to the FAF.RC gave me some left turns before the first an extreme 205 heading for a very short time, then 230, then maybe one more for the ILS merge with ILS landing clearance.While not direct, it mostly followed the STAR but headed west before SUNOL. It was almost a left base entry close in and the merge and the landing clearances were fine. Some descents were steep in the last approach legs again I assume because of terrain.I did not experience the issues you had with lack of clearance.If you like, I can check the log for the actual headings. It is a very busy approach and I did not write them down.

JD is looking at the log right now and will also probably fly the flight but when I get a chance tomorrow I'll send you my log. JD saw where I had no vectors after decending to 4000 and a heading of 300. I was thinking maybe I'm missing files but I've flown into 3 other airports KFAT, KSFO, KRNO without a hiccup so I suppose I'm not missing any waves. But the clearance to intercept were not in the log so I guess I didn't miss it.What weather were you using? I'm been using the exact same weather for this flight so maybe something with weather is messing up my approach.I may try later with no weather. I'm looking for anything that you did differently than I did. I really hope I find out what the issue is.Thanks,Sean

if you are approaching a runway straight in, there are not going to be any vectors.what i did see, was a long time before you made it to 4000, and i think that is where i tell you to join the localizer, blah blah blah. but by then you were way past the localizer.i tried flying it last night, but ran into some other difficulties (i was testing the flight with v5 - i haven't touched the approach code in v5 yet), and i need to fix those while i had them on my platejd

I asked for and got 29. I can look up the weather but that will not be significant for the user aircraft when a runway is selected (although you might be opposing AI).The problem was getting down fast enough and was too high when I might have crossed the extended center line the first time. The additional legs were very short.I kept NAV 2 tuned to the VOR until I needed it for the ILS.There must be some reason in RW why there is no SE IAF. Both SUNOL and MISON provide a NW merge.Now if you were turned between BUSHY and SUNOL you would have missed the narrow window for a straight in. Note the OAK bearing to SUNOL is 093 and the reciprocal is 273, much past the 294 for the localizer. Again for descent probably you were given that short base entry as JD stated.It might be interesting to try a turbo prop with a lower cruise altitude and speed. For sure you'll make the altitude restriction and you'll have time to meet the drop to 4,100 for the leg prior to the merge.

I flew the route again also with PMDG 737 and no weather. It still performs the exact same way. Drops me to 4000 and I never hear from approach again.I don't know if JD found anything unusual in the log I sent other than a little slow to 4000 but the reason for that was a command to slow to 210. I was never vectored between SUNOL and BUSHY but I did fly it at 28000 and I believe you flew it at 26000. That could be the difference at being at the proper altitude for vectoring.I obtained the route details at Flightaware.com so it is a realworld flight along with the altitude filed. I did fly a shorter route in from the same direction using a prop and it vectored ok so you may be right about that Ronzie; just a tough approach.I appreciate everybody who looked into it but its not the end of the world for me. I'm still enjoying RC on every flight just not back to KOAK at the moment. Maybe somebody will have an AHAA! moment. Look forward to Version 5 JD. Its gonna be hard to top V4 though in my opinion.Sean

You can elect to fly an IAP and navigate the STAR and approach on your own (be sure you know what the altitude minimums are) and also try it with NOTAMS enabled. Once in a NOTAMS approach you can vary your altitude without ATC complaint but you still must meet the crossing restriction and cross any needed waypoints. Enroute before vectoring you also can ask for a lower altitude to reduce the amount of dive and drive descent.Be aware that using NOTAMS may stop any ATC warnings if you stray too far,You should not have to avoid OAK.