Finally understanding inputting ils approach into a320 computers now but one thing I dont understand is when they say for example : runway 22 approach VIA LOREL TRANSITION. I go into the computer and find LOREL but I have like 6 different options such as lore5f lore5a lore4q lore1b etc? But atc just said the word LOREL and nothing else
Those names are the names of the various STARs (standard terminal arrival routes) The entrance to each of those stars is the LOREL waypoint. Look on your flightplan to ensure the waypoint is there. You can select the star you need in the flight planner. Look on the map as you select one and see the route it takes. Each star is different. Once selected this way, it is already in the FMC.
I really dont think I’m following this lol so basically I can tell what type of LOREL transition I need from seeing my flight plan?
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me neither, haha and i read it five times but sounds interesting. well, someday i bet i will know what he’s talking about.
Yes, when you use the in-sim flightplanner.
Lorel is the transition (the point where your route ends and the STAR starts). After you pass this point, you are on the STAR routing to the approach.
Every star is a different way to get from your route to the airport runway approach.
ATC should advise the full arrival name including suffix, and also broadcast it on ATIS. But I don’t believe it includes the route designator (i.e. 5F) in the sim. (haven’t done much with ATC since release). Not a big fan of the way European countries name there arrivals!
But like @TheSevenflyer mentioned, you can pick the same STAR you selected in the flight plan. Or in absence of that, your nav log should only match up with one of the procedures. The letter (route designator) at the end of the arrival procedure just corresponds to the route you are coming in on.
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IMHO, it is very hard to learn flight planing and IFR SIDs/STARS etc without access to actual charts through a provider like navigraph or aerosoft. Once you have that, it all starts making sense.
You fly a STAR which is like your highway to the airport airspace, then an approach is your driveway to the runway. The transition is the waypoint that marks the end of your STAR and the beginning of your IFR approach.
If you used the world view to setup your flight and clicked “IFR” it probably built you a flight plan that did exactly that – a flight plan to LOREL which connects to an approach. Hence why ATC gave you that approach and transition. LOL. Not laughing at you, but laughing at how narrow this sim is in the IFR regard.
Which leads to my next IMHO point… this sim is so narrow in thin with regards to IFR procedures that I don’t see it being very beneficial as a learning tool. Honestly, it will create more frustrations and questions than it will demonstrate anything useful.
Sorry, but that is the bottom line. They have much work to do before this sim is ready to be a useful training aid. And no, I don;t expect study level. But I do expect to be able to put in my own flight plan, and leverage autopilot to fly it – and if conditions change I should be able to change it in the air.
You do not get runway/approach assignments before you get in the air and near your destination. I was flying IFR last night at ATC assigned an RNAV approach which was not possible (not legal) because of visibility conditions. That should not happen. But if it does, you should be able to request a specific runway.
Now, before anyone says “but you CAN do that”, no I couldn’t. I was able to request the ILS runway approach, and I was given that approach but told to “circle to land” on that same runway. There was nothing I could do to get ATC to clear me to actually land ILS.
Things like that are detrimental to the learning process, and that is just one example of what I mean when I say “not ready for actual IFR use”. At least not beyond the IFR that the world editor will give you and then ATC will also give you.
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thank you for your time and exhaustive explanation.
i’ll get back to this and him then if i don’t need to bother anymore with that scenario then…
@TheSevenflyer
When you say every star is different way to get from your route to the airport runway does that basiclly mean I can choose any and it’s the right procedure ? 
I get the transition now as in it’s where your star ends and arrival begins it’s just which code I’m meant to pick or if it matters.
Thanks to all replies btw