flying online

Hi, i've never flown online before but would like to try it, when "flying" heavies i always plan my full route into the fmc including rwy etc, how difficult am i going to find it flying vectors etc, am i going to end up just flying round in circles, what would a typical vector comprise of, say flying into miami from the north using the cypress 3 approach, from worpp what would normally be vectored to me, would it be a flight level and direction to lead me to the localizer?

hope you can help!
Brad.

Are you talking about on a network like VATSIM with ATC?

If you are flying with ATC (and they're actually on line), they'll usually let you get to nearly the end of a STAR, then point you around (and out of the way of traffic) to line you up with the outer-marker of the runway they've selected for you. Approach will usually give you the altitudes such that when you're going to intercept the localizer, the glideslope descends to meet you, rather than the other way around

If ATC is NOT on line (sadly a common occurance), you can just read the altitude descriptions off of the approach plates for the runways (www.myairplane.com) and plan your descent that way. Vectoring yourself around is no biggie, especially if you've gone through all the Cessna and VFR training you'd need to be flying anyway .