Simviation Forums

I've been flying on the sim for year now and this may have already been asked, but it's been getting SUPER annoying lately....why does the ATC send you 20+ miles out after a go around or missed approach??  Real life just gets you back in the pattern... the other thing that has been even more annoying is when I take off on lets say runway 35 somewhere down south, and land ILS up north on runway 35 it should be a direct shot pretty much, I can be lined up perfect or almost perfect and ATC takes me left then right then left then right and brings me around to a base when I would have been lined up for final.  Any program out there to change this??  Any and all help will be much apreciated. Thanks.

I don't think there is a program out there, but you can try VATSIM which is real life ATC.  

For the go-arounds-yeah, this can be annoying.  Just Sunday I was coming into Rome (from JFK) and I had to go-around due to traffic, and ATC brought me WAAAAY the hell out.  Good thing I still had 50,000 lbs of fuel.  Not so the time I had to go-around in St. Louis in a 737.  I ran out of fuel and crashed four minutes later.

For the approaches-this is realistic.  The reason ATC brings you in on base is the same reason that there is a traffic pattern-so that everybody knows what everybody's doing.  It's not necissarily a good idea do have some people in the pattern and some on straight-ins-so everybody has to turn base.  In RL, you could ask the controller "Could we get a straight-in?", but not so in FS.

Also remember that ATC is being controlled by a computer. It only reacts to where you are at and what heading you have so it tends to make you turn right, left, right etc. I've found that if I delay my turn a little and I'm on or near the correct heading ATC will eventually give me the same heading I was turning onto anyway. The computer can't recognize that you are on the wrong heading but turning towards the correct one so they'll give you instructions you don't really need which leads to the zig zag instructions.

also you can just make up/imagine your headings and use them, most airport have STAR's which is a bunch of plotted points to help you navigate to the runway

It is probably a error with air traffic control I also recommend if you have the time to fly Vatsim .

Were you following ATC's headings or a GPS track?  I've found that when flying according to ATC's headings I'll get the left and rights turns if I don't take into account the winds. I'll have my GPS display on so I can see my flight path heading and determine how much to compensate for wind.

If ATC gives me a heading of 350, I set my autopilot to 350.

I then wait for about a minute after I'm steady on 350 and check my heading in GPS.  If it reads 355, I shift my autopilot heading to 345. 355-350=5; 350-5=345.

By doing this, I've reduced my "zig-zag" by about 80-90%. The last time I flew from KSAN to KSEA, about 2.5 hours, I was given 1 zig-zag.