OnCourse Software

Hi.

I'm using PF3 in XP11, but I think that doesn't affect how PF3 is vectoring me to the final approach. It gave me at least 5 to 10 heading changes during the approach, and none of these headings were towards the airport, or towards capturing ILS or final approach path. I was loosing at least 5 to 10 minutes making numerous heading changes 30-40nm from the airport, and finally was late on ETA by 12 minutes.

I'm using flight plans with first and last waypoint located at least 40 to 80nm from the airports, so no too close waypoints to an airport issue.

Is there any way I can reduce the number of heading changes? Can I use "request direct to airport vectors" command, and when it's a good time to use it?

Thank you in advance.

Please see the large red message at the top of this forum.

Without the log I'm really unable to answer any of your questions of give any response to what happened during your flight.

Sorry, here's the log. It's from my last flight, and I quitted PF3 in the middle of approach.
If you need a log from a complete flight, let me know. I will finish my next flight with the PF3 doing its thing until the end.

And here is the full flight log from KSLC - KIDA flight. Sadly, once again, PF3 didn't read ActiveSky weather so it vectored me to the wrong runway so I had, luckily, 4kts tailwind.

Also, it changed the heading on vectoring quite a few times. And that wouldn't be a problem if ATC vectored me towards the runway during the middle of approach, instead I was doing left then right heading changes couple of times.

Thank you for the logs... I will hopefully get to checking them out tomorrow

To honest with you I don't see any issue with this approach at all. The only possible glitch was the 'Turn right to 340', but that could have been caused by wind drift, because PF3 will constantly monitor your approach and correct a heading should you be off by 10 degrees or more.

I see you have your FAF distance set to 8 miles... try setting that to 7 for a slightly tighter approach pattern

Here's all the calls you had from Approach

Code: Select all 11-Dec-22 06:08:17 00:00:00: 970 - Transcript: 'Delta 945 Contact Approach on 119.62 ' 11-Dec-22 06:08:46 00:00:00: 640 - Transcript: 'Delta 945 maintain Heading 335 expect vectors for the runway 21 ' 11-Dec-22 06:09:16 00:00:00: 690 - Transcript: 'Delta 945 Turn right heading 010 ' 11-Dec-22 06:10:32 00:00:00: 050 - Transcript: 'Delta 945 Turn left heading 350 ' 11-Dec-22 06:13:35 00:00:00: 650 - Transcript: 'Delta 945 Turn left heading 330 ' 11-Dec-22 06:14:54 00:00:00: 130 - Transcript: 'Delta 945 Turn right heading 340 ' 11-Dec-22 06:15:50 00:00:00: 380 - Transcript: 'Delta 945 Turn left heading 320 ' 11-Dec-22 06:16:51 00:00:00: 570 - Transcript: 'Delta 945 Turn left heading 270 ' 11-Dec-22 06:19:23 00:00:00: 650 - Transcript: 'Delta 945 Turn left heading 235 ' 11-Dec-22 06:19:38 00:00:00: 670 - Transcript: 'Delta 945 Cleared to final for runway 21 Contact Tower on 118.5 when established. '

And here's your actual approach pattern

The red markers are where you received turn or descend instructions
.

Pe11e wrote: *

Sun Dec 11, 2022 6:07 am

And here is the full flight log from KSLC - KIDA flight. Sadly, once again, PF3 didn't read ActiveSky weather so it vectored me to the wrong runway so I had, luckily, 4kts tailwind.

Also, it changed the heading on vectoring quite a few times. And that wouldn't be a problem if ATC vectored me towards the runway during the middle of approach, instead I was doing left then right heading changes couple of times.

PF3 doesn't read ActiveSky direct, it only reads weather from FSUIPC... on in your case, using XPlane, from XFSUIPC (or whatever it's called). So after contacting approach there was no AI traffic active to/from KIDA and so we use wind direction instead. This is one of the reasons you don't want to have your last waypoint too far from the airport, because some weather programs will only start injecting weather as you get closer.

Thank you for the review.

I'm maybe looking at this from a different POV, but due to many heading changes I certainly lost at least 5 to 10 minutes and was late by exactly 8 to 10 minutes at the gate. This isn't the issue at all, but I'm using Self Loading Cargo that monitosr the flight, departure and arrival times, flight, forces, procedures, etc, and it can give me some negative scores if I'm late at the gate comparing to ETA.

This part is confusing me:

11-Dec-22 06:09:16 00:00:00: 690 - Transcript: 'Delta 945 Turn right heading 010 '
11-Dec-22 06:10:32 00:00:00: 050 - Transcript: 'Delta 945 Turn left heading 350 '
11-Dec-22 06:13:35 00:00:00: 650 - Transcript: 'Delta 945 Turn left heading 330 '
11-Dec-22 06:14:54 00:00:00: 130 - Transcript: 'Delta 945 Turn right heading 340 '
11-Dec-22 06:15:50 00:00:00: 380 - Transcript: 'Delta 945 Turn left heading 320 '

Why so many heading corrections? I understand that PF3 corrects my heading so it will be able to nail the heading for the final approach for the runway 21, but is there any chance to make it give maybe 2 or 3 heading changes so it can vector me to the final?
Or it was because of the wind maybe? The aircraft was drifting away so PF3 was correcting?

Also, I'm using Traffic Global for X-Plane 11, ayes, there were no AI on approach or departure, only at the gates. Does PF3 monitor even Traffic Global AI and decides what runway is in use? If not, maybe it is a good idea to add one XP11 AI while on approach so PF3 is able to detect runway in use? Just a thought.

I will try FAF at 7nm, maybe it will help a bit.

Also, how close to the destination airport the last waypoint should be, ideally?

Thank you once again.