OnCourse Software

In my last flight, Approach gave me clearance for a different runway than what the flight plan. When I pressed #1 for a change of runway, there was no response. Do I need to contact tower for a runway change, or should I be able to ask for a runway change while in contact with Approach. thanks.

The default hotkey for requesting a change of runway is Control+Shift+W

Also please don't expect ATC to give you the runway you have in your flight plan. The active runway is determined by (a) is there any AI traffic currently on approach to that runway or taking off or (b) the local wind direction

Just to add to what Dave said above, if necessary you can request a different runway after one is assigned by Approach, but you can usually tweak the flight plan so it can be used regardless which runway is active for departure or arrival. See Section 20.5 in the User Guide for some tips and more info.

The reason why I asked the question was that my flight plan had a STAR leading to RWY 4 at LIPZ. Since PF3 does have a key press(esses) for requesting a different runway while communicating with Approach, my question was therefore answered. I guess if Approach had given me vectors when I was much farther away from the airport, before entering my "STAR" start point of the flight plan, then it would have been more normal for me to change course for a different runway than what I had originally planned in my flight plan. If my thinking is wrong, please correct me.

PF3 will still assign you a runway based on the criteria I mentioned earlier, it doesn't matter what runway you wanted to land on, much the same as in the RW.

This works if you want a specific runway. "Close" the other runways with a X

I do this especially if the winds are light and variable to get the approach I want rather than another runway with a slight wind shift.

Yes you can do that but you have to remember it has no effect on AI Traffic. So if you close Rwy 4 in preference to Rwy 22 then you run the risk of landing head on with other traffic using Rwy 4. Just something to bear in mind