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Is there any way when flying VFR to ask tower for a straight in approach? I miscalculated my fuel and did not have enough to fly the landing circuit. Or is there a way to declare an emergency? Needless to say we ran out of fuel on the downwind leg.

first off, shame on you for not having a 30 min fuel reserve (45 min during night)

Second, if you're not on an IFR flightplan, I don't think the FS ATC cares if you fly a perfect pattern

Remember that if your the PIC, you're the final responsibility to what happens. I would have landed any way I could

finally, it's not possible to declare an emergency, sorry

Well I have found out, when out of curiosity, again in vfr  we disobeyed the landing instructions and landed straight in and was informed in no uncertain term to get the h... off the runway or words to that effect. So atc does take notice. IF we had landed without talking to tower first probably would not have heard a word from atc.

Were you actually cleared to land?

you think someone would so an mergency landing request code for ATC.

i would, if i had the time, and th resources, and i'd be willing to try, dont get me wrong, but A+ cert doesnt cover FS programming

Ramos

Heya alb469,

As Esselbach has previously said, FS 2004 has no emergency landing notification for ATC.

I have a program installed in my FS 2004 called FS Reliability Factor.  This program allows you to set a percentage (I have mine set for 99.365% dependable) for different aircraft systems.  During the game this program will throw random numbers, and if the random number exceeds your set value, then the system will fail.  Only once has this program really caused me to sweat.  

I was flying IFR in Mike Stone's outstanding Lockheed L-188 Electra from John Wayne - Santa Ana (KSNA) to my home base at Dallas Addison Airport (KADS).  After about 3 and a half hours of flight (I flew it without time advance) I was being vectored in for ILS approach.  ATC instructed me to make my final descent to 2700 ft. and turn on the Base Leg when FS Reliability Factor suddenly cut my #2 engine.  I did the following:

 1.)  Saved the game.  If things really go South in a hurry and you do crash, you can reload the saved game at this point instead of starting all over from your departure airport.
 2.)  Contacted Regional Approach and cancelled IFR.
 3.)  Adjusted my throttles to compensate for the DOA engine.
 4.)  Ascend to 5600 ft., acelerated to 180 kts. (the best that I could) and pulled out my FAA chart for DFW Airport (KDFW).  DFW is the nearest runway with lots of landing room.
 5.)  Attempted to restart #2 engine several times in vain.  Unable to restart #2 engine I feathered the propeller.
 6.)  Contacted DFW Tower and received VFR vectors to land.

Approach and landing wasn't that much more difficult than a usual landing.

What I'm saying here is that you can cancel IFR and go to VFR at any time and perform a direct approach in FS 2004 (however, if you have inclement weather conditions you're pretty much out of luck).  

In your case when you had Bingo fuel you could always hit Alt --> Aircraft --> Fuel and Payload --> Change Fuel and give your aircraft about a 10% extra fuel boost.  If your engines have quit, you can hit Ctrl + E quickly for an automated startup.

I also agree with Esselbach in that you should be hanging your head in shame for improper flight fuel management.  I'm quite sure that your airline company supervisor will have something to say about that.  Just be sure to wear your steel underwear for that interview.

Maybe calling ATC to declare an emergency is something that Microsoft will incorporate into FS 10.

Heya alb469,
Maybe calling ATC to declare an emergency is something that Microsoft will incorporate into FS 10.

Wishful thinking.

All the news about this matter let understand that the next release of FS will have a better graphical look.

Period.

Hey guys, check out this thread by Kevin: http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=COF;action=display;num=1127364294
This addon puts in the ability to declare an emergency, as well as being able to actually talk in real words to the ATC.
It's a bit of a long read, but well worth it.