Arrivals
(STARS)
When we are
talking about arriving into the airport area in
preparation for the approach normally the arrival
process is quite simple, Just like departure, one
of the keys to a successful and efficient arrival
is being prepared by getting the current
information from the Automated Terminal
Information Service(ATIS). By obtaining the
current ATIS, we will know what the weather is at
the airport and we will know which approach is in
use. Having this done, we can contact Approach
control when advised and let them know that we
have the ATIS, avoiding having to switch
frequencies later. In a real situation you won't
be switching frquencies after contacting
approach.
Once when you
are at your cruising altitude, you're required to
maintain it unless receiving a clearance to a new
altitude. Normally when you're approaching the
general area, ATC will issue you a clearance to
descend. Once that clearance is received, you
should begin your descent immediately.
Conversely, you may also receive a clearance to
descend "at pilot's discretion" meaning
you are cleared to that lower altitude, but it's
up to you to decide when to start the descent.
In order to plan
your descent, you'll need to know how far you
have to travel to where you're going and what
your ground speed is. Let's say that we're
cruising at 10,000 ft and doing 120 kts over the
ground. ATC comes on and says "9246F descend
and maintain 2000". Our response to that
would be "46F's out of 10 for 2". Now,
let's say we're 20 NM from the Initial Approach
Fix(IAF) for the approach we plan to execute upon
arrival. So, if we're doing 120kts, it's going to
take us 10 minutes to reach the IAF. We have to
descend 8000 ft in that time, so we're going to
need to make our descent at 800 ft/min. Keep in
mind that if you leave the power set at cruise
and just lower the nose to descend, you're
airspeed (and correspondingly ground speed) will
increase.
Now we're
cleared down 2000 ft and we're also cleared for
the approach, meaning that once we reach the VOR,
we may then execute the approach as charted,
changing altitudes and headings as necessary
without receiving clearance. So, that's really
all there is to a typical approach. Just get
ATIS, contact approach when instructed, let them
know what you want to do, and make your descent
as instructed. A note about full approaches:
unless you ask for one, you'll almost never get
it. You'll almost always get radar vectors
because it's more efficient for you and for ATC
and allows them more control of traffic.
Now, just like
SIDs, the country's busier airports are normally
served by one or more Standard Terminal Arrival
Routes(STARs). Like SIDs, these are plotted
procedures that you may file or may ask not to
receive, but also like STARs, you will almost
always be forced to comply to facilitate traffic
control. STARs serve to "funnel"
traffic through a particular area, freeing up
other space for departures and other operations.
Let's take a look below at a STAR...
"A"
tells us that this STAR serves the Orlando, FLA
area, the Orlando International airport being the
primary airport. Keep in mind that, like SIDs,
STARs frequently will serve all of the areas in a
particular area, not just the primary airport. So
if you're travelling to a small airport which is
in the same vicinity as a large on, you may want
to take a look at the STARs for that airport
because you may end up being asked to fly it.
"B" is our communications box, telling
us the ATIS frequency so that we can be prepared.
"C" is the procedure identifier, this
one being the Goofy Two Arrival (yes, it's called
Goofy because it's near DisneyWorld. This is the
FAA's idea of a sense of humor). Its ATC computer
identifier is (BAIRN.GOOFY2). BAIRN is included
in the ID because it is the intersection that
serves as the "funnel" point, which
you'll soon see.
"D" is
our textual description of how to proceed. Simply
find which transition you will be using (ATC will
usually say in your intial clearance (ie
"9246F is cleared....Goofy Two Arrival, Vero
Beach transition")). So, let's say we are
going to be using the Vero Beach transition. We
move down the instructions until we see
"Vero Beach (VRB.GOOFY2)" and it tells
us that this transition extends from VRB VOR to
Bairn Int. In order to fly this, we would proceed
via the VRB radial 300. Notice there is no
mention of altitude here; it will be dictated by
ATC's discretion at the time. Below that we see
"Arrivals" which is our instructions on
what to do once we've completed the transition.
You'll see that the first part says
"Executive, Kissimmee Mun, and Orlando
Sanford". These are the instructions for the
other airports in the area of Orlando. Let's say
that we are going to land Rwy 18R at Orlando
Intl. We would then move down and find the part
which says "Orlando Intl Rwys 17,18"
and it tells us that from over Bairn Int, we will
fly via the ORL radial 162 (make sure you tune
342 TO because you're flying to the VOR instead
of away like from VRB to Bairn) to Sabot Int.
We will then
depart Sabot Int on a heading of 360 for a vector
to the final approach course. Now let's move down
to the pictoral display. "E", just like
SIDs, enroute, and approach charts, illustrates
our VORs. "F" gives us a repeat of the
instructions from above. This arrow points to
BAIRN intersection and tell us if we're landing
at an airport other than International, we'll be
expecting a vector to the final approach course.
You'll notice that there is an oval
"racetrack" pattern depicted at BAIRN
Intersection. This indicates a hold. So, you can
expect that, if it's a busy day in Orlando, you
may find yourself stacked up over BAIRN
Intersection waiting to be cleared for the
approach. Also here, you'll see some special
information for turbojet aircraft operating at
high altitudes called "Vertical Navigation
Planning". Since we're planning on landing
south on Rwy 18R, it tells us that we should
expect to cross BAIRN intersection at 11000 ft.
Knowing that, we can plan our descent from the
Flight Levels better.
On the right
side of the chart, you'll see two more bracketed
areas for other instructions. Also on the chart,
you'll see other VORs which aren't part of the
actual procedure. However, they have radials
which can be used to define the intersections.
You can see that the Lakeland VOR radial 080 can
be used to define ODDEL intersection in
conjunction with the ORL radial 162. If you have
DME, you don't need that intersecting radial
because we can see that ODDEL is 28NM DME from
ORL. Got all that? Good, let's go flying...
Let's depart Vero Beach and proceed directly to
the VRB VOR, climbing to 6000 ft. From there,
we'll proceed via radial 300 along the Vero Beach
transition. we'vegot NAV2 set to the VRB VOR
r-300 FROM and we've got NAV1 set to the ORL VOR
r-342 TO (reciprocal of r-162 TO). NAV2 is
centered because we're tracking it and NAV1 is
deflected to the left indicating that we would
need to fly a heading left of 342 to intercept
that course, which we're doing. We've got DME set
to NAV2 to track our distance from VRB. At this
point, we would have already been
"...cleared daffy Two Arrival, Vero Beach
transition".
Now NAV1 centers as we pass over BAIRN and we
start my turn to fly inbound on the ORL r-162,
continuing to use NAV1 to track to ORL.
