Regulation for large course changes for aircraft on final
Hello,
I wanted to know what kind of limitations are placed by flight regulations on how much of a turn (in degrees) a commercial jet can be asked to do by ATC on its final approach to an airport. By commercial jet, I'm talking anything 737/A320 class or larger.
In other words, what are the rules, if any, for course changes for a commercial jet which is, say 30NM, 20NM and 10NM from touchdown? The reason I'm asking is to see how realistic the ATC is in Microsoft's Flight Simulator 2004 which I use. I don't use the ATC anymore for IFR flights for I find it asks me to make odd course changes. But since I'm not a real-life pilot, it's hard to know if this is realistic or not.
Example: is it normal for ATC to ask an airplane 10NM from touchdown to make any major turn (e.g. a turn of, say 30 degrees or more)? or is it more likely that at that distance, the plane is basically set on its final runway heading and concentrates on keeping that heading until touchdown?
Thanks for any input.
John