OnCourse Software

Now that I've got thing more or less sorted out, I'm having lots of fun flying with PFE. I recently flew a plan with a STAR, something I've actually never done before. In PFE I defined the start of the STAR, which was a VOR, as per the chart. Upon reaching that VOR I was instructed to descend, but was not "cleared to final". That happened upon nearing the end of the STAR. Is this the way it's supposed to work? In the docs it does mention that I will be "cleared to final" when flying a STAR, but it doesn't say if it's at the beginning or end of it. Seems odd to me that it would not be at the beginning. I just want to make sure it's working the way it should. Oh, I did not have a specific runway selected for the STAR.

I also have an ignorant non-pilots' question on how this would work in the real world. Listening to live atc chatter, I frequently hear pilots told to fly this or that STAR, and this seems to be at the point at which the STAR begins. Hard to be sure when I have no way of knowing where the plane actually is. I've also been told by real life controllers that STARs are rarely flown to completion. At some point (always 40 miles out in Radar Contact), the pilot will be given vectors to final. I find it hard to believe that pilots would be cleared to fly their own approaches to final, as it done in PFE. Sounds like a controllers' nightmare and a recipe for disaster. What I did in the above scenario was request vectors after being cleared to finals. Felt much safer than wandering about on my own. Anyway, this is not a criticism, just a question.