OnCourse Software

How do you handle this situation?

When I departed the weather at my destination indicated a runway in use with a STAR. So I selected STARs active in PF3. However when I actually arrived the wind had shifted and the opposite runway was in use but this runway has no STARs. Of course PF3 gave me a STAR approach to this opposite runway.

Do you then ask for Vectors or Request cleared to final at pilot's discretion? Caught me out and I wasn't sure what to do so I just flew my approach to the runway given.

Guess I should clarify that this was not an immediate wind shift on arrival as I have suppressed local weather weather changes on approach. The wind shifted somewhere in the middle of my flight. Just wondering how I can cancel the use of STARs once I have departed.

Appreciate your insight in this situation.

You can try requesting vectors. However, if you are going to want vectored approaches for some arrival runways and not for others, another way to handle it is leave the STAR option off at the start of your flight. You will then get vectors after your last waypoint, but if you are assigned the runway with a STAR or a particular approach you want to fly, you can then hit hotkey 1 to request clearance at pilot’s discretion, and fly your approach. A final option would be to request a runway change to the runway you had initially planned for landing, but this would be up to you and depend on weather conditions, because you may end up landing with a tailwind or against the AI traffic.

Excellent, thanks for your insight Dan. In this case with a STAR on one runway and not on the opposite one, I think I'll follow your suggestion to leave the STAR option off and request clearance at pilot's discretion if necessary when there's a chance the active runway may change before arrival.

Jim

If you use Active Sky weather engine, you can load a flight plan into it, and select a setting that forces your arrival weather to be unchanged. You can then know with certainty which runway/STAR will be in use when you arrive.


If however you prefer to be surprised by the runway choice offered to you, then follow Dan's advice and leave STARS unchecked. Just make sure that the last waypoint in your PFE flightplan is the beginning of the STAR (presumably this is the same point from which you would expect vectors/final approach instructions if landing at the non-STAR runway?)

As Dan says, you will upon reaching this point receive vectors to whichever runway is in use. If it is the STAR one, then request "cleared to finals" from ATC and then fly your STAR. If it is the non-STAR runway then you will just follow the vectors provided.

Peter

Thanks Peter for the insight. It's working well.