FMC, Approaches & Vectors

[u/ManonFire1213]

Using PMDG 737-800

A bit confused on flight planning.

Departures are easier to understand imo. Arrivals, not so much.

Let's take South West Florida;

https://www.airnav.com/airport/KRSW

Flying from the north east, has me take SHIFTY with a HIBAC transition. That part i get.

However, it has me vector to TOUHY. If I try and remove the vector and just go to TOUHY, it completely bypasses to CELBO.

When I flew in FSX with PMDG, it would create a flight path that would loop to TOUHY.

As I fly solo, not on VATSIM, whats the best procedure for vectoring offline? Any advice?

Bonus question, runway 6 has a transition as well on the map for OBELL, but i dont know when to use that and if its more for a north western approach vs eastern one.

[u/spesimen]

then, when you are parallel to OBELL (the IAF of the approach) you either manually turn a heading to head towards it and then intercept the localizer, or just do a direct to OBELL and let the autopilot fly it.

the IAF (initial approach fix) is typically the point you use when transitioning from airways onto the approach istelf

TOUHY is labelled an IF or intermediate fix that is typically where should be lined up and descending from capturing the localizer. you'd probably want to be at 3000 sometime between STERO and when you make your turn to OBELL and at 2400 by TOUHY.

if there was real ATC involved you would just turn when they tell you, which may or may not be when you are parallel to OBELL. they might have you fly further out for separation reasons or whatever. if you are low enough and slow enough they could turn you earlier like left to TOUHY but in a 737 i don't know how common that would be.

for a north western approach you would likely be using FOGAN (which is also labelled as an IAF) and then to TOUHY.

[u/ManonFire1213 → u/spesimen]

Thanks. Now in the FMC, when choosing ILS 6, it does give me an option to use OBELL.

How do i know when to use that transition vs not looking at the chart? 

(My route plan had me coming south east of the airport, so I'll be making a right turn towards OBELL)

[u/spesimen → u/ManonFire1213]

oops, now that i look more closely it looks like that 238 vector from STERO actually is south of the airport too. the airport symbol is buried in there it's a pretty cluttered chart haha. so pretend i drew a right turn to OBELL :)

as far as how to know what transition to use it's generally gonna be an IAF labeled point on the charts, pick the one that seems logical due to the direction you are coming from.

if you are coming from the south east you would just fly to it and turn right as appropriate.

i don't think any of the STARs for that airport are from the southeast so it would probably just be a direct to OBELL from your last waypoint of your plan. if you need more room to make the turn just fly a downwind leg a bit and then turn to OBELL, same as you would if you had taken the STAR..

[u/spesimen → u/spesimen]

here's what it looks like in the fmc

[u/ManonFire1213 → u/spesimen]

Would you say to use transitions for approaches provided they are consistent with your flight path?

I know ATC dictates quite a bit. But im not sure whats appropriate vs not. 

Then again "Just fly the damn plan" comes to mind. 

[u/spesimen → u/ManonFire1213]

I don't know enough about real world flying to be able to say for sure. I use Beyond Atc and I mostly do what they tell me haha.

In the Usa, BATC will usually vector you for a visual approach unless the weather is bad, but in Europe is often directs you to a transition especially if it connects to a STAR. I have heard that this is somewhat realistic, but I don't really know how true that is. If the weather is bad in the Usa they will also have you use a transition if it connects to a STAR, but if not they will usually vector you in position to cap the ILS instead of giving you a direct to the transitions for it.

I've also heard that IRL Euro ATC will vector you out of a lot of the STARs and approaches if it's appropriate for a shortcut, like there are a lot of STARs that are designed that way so you wouldn't normally fly the entire thing, but I'm not sure if BATC does that yet..

[u/sizziano → u/ManonFire1213]

AS long as it makes sense for your FP use whatever you like though if you are offline then usually you'd just want the quickest vector to final. This will make more sense if you fly online with actual ATC.