Hello, Ray and Kyle. Thanks to both for joining in on this thread which I started.
Ray, It appears that you included the waypoints shown on your two sample flight plans in your PFE flight plan. It appears you used the SID/STAR setup page in the PFE interface, otherwise, I presume, you wouldn't have gotten the ALPHA ONE clearance, right?
Now it appears that the two of you may have real-world IFR experience, and it seems that you, Ray, do for certain. I only have VFR experience, but I have picked up a little here and there on the subject of IFR while pursuing this hobby.
Now if PFE were following real-life procedure here, wouldn't you have been cleared to fly the ALPHA ONE STAR before reaching BTG? I thought the purpose of a STAR was to free up ATC from having to give clearances to incoming aircraft, knowing that they would be flying a published arrival. That is why I didn't include the actual waypoints of the STAR in my flight plan. I assumed PFE would ignore everything I did while on the STAR route until I got to my final waypoint of the STAR. That obviously didn't happen.
Also, when you say you set ATC approach altitude to 5000 ft, what feature are you referring to and where in the PFE interface is it? Are you referring to the altitude adjustment for the final waypoint or the new feature, where you set miniimum FAF altitudes, or something else?
As far as getting vectors to final I did manage to pull that off, with "STARS Active" checked. I can't remember whether I was handed off to approach or whether I just tuned into the approach frequency out of exasperation. I did do that on one of my two test flights. In any case when I pushed key 7 (request vectors), approach answered and gave me both descent clearances and vectors to final for Rwy 16 L. It's a good thing 34 wasn't active because I was way too high.
Say, Ray, I am curious, do you choose this route frequently because you live in the Pacifc Northwest? I live down in Salem and used to fly a little Cessna 140 out of there. Of course I never ventured on the route we have been talking about, although I did fly into Boeing Field once, which was quite an adventure for me in my little puddle jumper!
Thanks for trying out those routes for me. Much appreciated!
Best regards,
Tom