PilotEdge Forums

New year starts successfully. I just passed I-02 after two FAILEDs.
First time I didn't comply with the clearance and missed to fly HDG 175 after SNA departure (see other post). On the second attempt, I made it successfully up to OCN and requested ILS 24 for Palomar, which was approved. However, for some reason I expected being vectored, and ATC expected me to fly the Standard Approach as published (R 083 outbound).
I was reminded to fly radial 080, but I screwed up. I eventually was being vectored to the ILS, but with a fail.

After getting things sorted out, I powered up the sim for another Approach - literally. This time I succeeded.

So ist time now to go for the I-03.

Happy new year to all PE staff and community.

Friedhelm, Germany

While you can generally expect to be vectored to the final approach course in radar environments, our controllers sometimes exercise the opportunity to simply clear you for the full approach, particularly if the ground track for the full approach is very similar to the what the vectored path would look like. Good examples of this would be the ILS RWY 7 into SBA if you're coming from GVO, as well as the ILS RWY 24 at CRQ from OCN (your case).

The lesson here is that you need to get comfortable asking for EXACTLY what you'd like. "Request vectors ILS RWY 24 approach," makes it clear. "Request ILS RWY 24 approach" can mean two different things.

Happy New Year, Friedhelm, it's a pleasure having you here and I hope you enjoy the rest of the ratings.