Simviation Forums

I'm not a trained IFR pilot so I was wondering if someone could explain why ATC make you change headings so many time as you get closer to the airport?
(EG: say you are flying a enroute heading of 180, you asked to turn to heading 145, you no sooner get to that heading and atc asked you to turn 180 which is the heading you started with)

Thanks

DSMZ

If there is wind that is pushing you off course ATC will have you correct for it by flying into the wind for a few minutes just to get back on course

sometimes you approach the airport at a different heading than the active runway (i.e. you approach the airport flying to heding 180 but the active runway is 36)

when this happens (most of the time), ATC will guide you through a pattern around the airport and insert you on the active runway heading

here's a sketch... this is what he ATC does on most cases:




the blue line represents your original flight path (as shown is the GPS)

the red line is where the ATC tells you to change your heading and directs you around the airport

the yellow line is where ATC clears you for an ILS approach or, in VFR approaches, it asks if you have the runway in sight... then it tells you to contact the tower and land

i hope this helps

c ya

moach

Of course, in FS2004 the AI ATC is far from perfect. I sometimes get vectored in an interesting way. I'm sure in real life the ATC folks have clearer ideas of where they want you to go.  That's why I'm looking forward to fly on IVAO... but I still have to pay some due before I do that.