So i'm slowly adding more and more seriousness to my simming adventures. I currently fly the iFly 737 and PMDG 747 so i'm using the FMC and flying SIDS/STARS and planning my descents etc. What i'm not understanding is how to decide what the enroute legs will be. How do i find out what airways to use enroute? What IS an airway? How do i add them into the FMC of the 737/747 and how do i link the end of a SID onto an airway and know which to use?

 

Thanks, hope this makes sense.

Go to www.skyvector.com
Click the high alt or low alt enroute (World hi or world lo)

All the lines are airways and they are usually made up of VOR's. the spoke that comes off a VOR defines the radial you fly and then it will intersect another radial to the other side of the airway. This is a simplistic explanation.

Airliners typically use high alt airways, defined on the chart by J and a number like J32 (in the USA).  High alt are for routes above FL180 and low altitude (defined by a V and number like V208) for use under FL180 - usually for TEC routes (FAA preferred routes in terminal areas used by small GA prop and TP sometimes jet acft), and mainly small GA which don't have RNAV capability use Victor routes.

Many airways go all the way across a country. In your fms you don't have to type in all the waypoints just the start and finish and the airway in the middle and it will put all the waypoints in your flight plan

 

For instance you can follow J21 from LRD (Laredo , TX) to MSP (Minneapolis, MN).  J21 actually goes well into Mexico but it does go well across the USA.  If you were to fly that route from LRD to MSP all you would do is type LRD J21 MSP and it would fill in all the waypoints in between.

 

Note from LRD to SAT (the first VOR north east of LRD), the radial is the 012 from LRD.  The leg is 139 miles long, and normally you would switch VOR station's half way between.  If you have RNAV it doesn't matter but for VOR only or acft it's important to switch half way because of signal quality.  If you see a large black thing that looks like half a swastika that's a specified change over point.  Some VOR's have poor reception so it tells you to switch earlier than you normally would.

 

You asked how do you find the right routing?

 

For short flights I usually don't file an airway.  I find the DP (SID) outer waypoint (usually a VOR but sometimes an intersection - 5 letter waypoint), and then I file the starting waypoint for my direction of flight into the arrival airport's STAR.  Example would be KLAX LOOP6 DAG KEPEC3 KLAS.  (might have the older dp's and stars but whatever).... in this example the LOOP6 transitions to DAG vor and the KEPEC3 also uses DAG as the arrival transition.

 

Let's say you were using the LOOP6 from KLAX but you were going farther NE than KLAS.  Let's say you going KLAX to KEEO (Meeker airport)

 

Looking at skyvector - after DAG (the last waypoint on our departure procedure), we would file J100 to EEO.  So the entire FP would be KLAX LOOP6 DAG J100 EKR KEEO.  Unfortunately entering that into skyvector won't work (it would work in the PMDG NG's FMS).  For skyvector viewing just follow J100 from DAG NEbound to EKR and then note KEEO the little airport right next to the EKR vor is the destination.

 

Note the second leg and third legs, LAS to NORRA to BCE.  You might be confused as to how to fly that portion.  NORRA is an intersection that defines two intersecting radials (the 031R from LAS and the 225R from BCE).  Typically in an non RNAV plane you'd have two NAV instrument's and when the second one shows 225 (or the reciprocal of that 045 inbound BCE) you'd turn towards BCE on J100.  Obviously at airline speeds you'd turn a little early.

 

So here's how that would look, you fly from LAS to NORRA on the 031Radial off LAS.  When NAV2 reads 225 From BCE (or 045 course inbound on an HSI) you'd turn to the right and fly that course 045 ll the way to BCE.

Go to www.skyvector.com

Click the high alt or low alt enroute (World hi or world lo)

 

All the lines are airways and they are usually made up of VOR's. the spoke that comes off a VOR defines the radial you fly and then it will intersect another radial to the other side of the airway. This is a simplistic explanation.

 

Airliners typically use high alt airways, defined on the chart by J and a number like J32 (in the USA).

 

Many airways go all the way across a country. In your fms you don't have to type in all the waypoints just the start and finish and the airway in the middle and it will put all the waypoints in your flight plan

Ok. How do i find out what the altitude restrictions for the airways are, are these shown on skyvector?

 

I'm looking on skyvector now, in the UK where I fly lots of the airways seem to be one way, planning a route with them seems to mean im significantly detouring. Is there a website that will build a route for me with them, for free?

 

In aviation, an airway is a designated route in the air. Airways are defined with segments within a specific altitude block, corridor width, and

• between fixed geographic coordinates for satellite navigation systems, or
• between ground-based radio transmitter navigational aids (navaids) (such as VORs or NDBs) or the intersection of specific radials of two navaids.

(courtesy of Wikipedia)

 

Basically the roads of the sky.

 

When you generate a route with route finder or get a flight plan off of flight aware the airways are in the format of 1 or to letters followed by a series of numbers e.g

 

EGLL SID BUZAD UT420 TNT UL28 PENIL UL10 DUFFY DCT EGAA

 

I generated this plan on route finder. My process of thinking would be to find the appropriate SID for the first waypoint in my plan. Then when I am imputing my plan into FMC, I use the route page. Terminal procedures and airways go on the left and anything else goes on the right.

 

I use two sources for flight plans in the UK: route finder- http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/

                                                                    Vroute- http://www.vroute.net/

European airways are a muddled mess. They have airways on top of airways. Using a flight planner such as FSCommander for 300 nm flight. The flight plan is two pages long with 10 airways.

(courtesy of Wikipedia)

 

Basically the roads of the sky.

 

When you generate a route with route finder or get a flight plan off of flight aware the airways are in the format of 1 or to letters followed by a series of numbers e.g

 

EGLL SID BUZAD UT420 TNT UL28 PENIL UL10 DUFFY DCT EGAA

 

I generated this plan on route finder. My process of thinking would be to find the appropriate SID for the first waypoint in my plan. Then when I am imputing my plan into FMC, I use the route page. Terminal procedures and airways go on the left and anything else goes on the right.

 

I use two sources for flight plans in the UK: route finder- http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/

                                                                    Vroute- http://www.vroute.net/

 

Thanks i'll check it out. Makes sense to think of them as roads to me.

European airways are a muddled mess. They have airways on top of airways. Using a flight planner such as FSCommander for 300 nm flight. The flight plan is two pages long with 10 airways.

 

Yeah that's our unique European way :')

Ok. How do i find out what the altitude restrictions for the airways are, are these shown on skyvector?

 

I'm looking on skyvector now, in the UK where I fly lots of the airways seem to be one way, planning a route with them seems to mean im significantly detouring. Is there a website that will build a route for me with them, for free?

Yes altitude restrictions are shown near the middle of the airway.  They usually aren't a factor so high up for J airways though.  Check out the same first leg DAG to LAS on the World Lo chart.  This is a victor airway V394.  The Minimum enroute altitude is 12,000 ft.  This is the lowest a small plane could legally file for this portion of the route.  The other numbers on that route mean other things (like minimum obstacle clearance altitude and minimum reception altitude etc).  I'm not 100% sure but I think the blue number with the G at the end is the MEA if you're using suitable RNAV equipment (like GPS FMS INS etc).

Thanks guys. Helped a lot.

Also program flights via the route page in the FMC, as opposed to the legs page.

Also program flights via the route page in the FMC, as opposed to the legs page.

 

Whats the reason for this? Is it to do with the way it adds intersections?

Whats the reason for this? Is it to do with the way it adds intersections?

 

Using the legs page will put you on a direct route to each waypoint as opposed to the route page, which will have the option to go to the waypoint via an airway. You also cannot enter airways in the legs page.

 

Also, if you tell the aircraft to fly to RIIVR via J41 (ex) it may populate several other waypoints along the way into your legs page.

A great source of real world flight plans is http://www.edi-gla.co.uk/

 

I'd also advise you to buy Aivlasoft's EFB to help you make sense of the route once you've planned it. At first SIDS, STARS and airways are a bit like black magic but you quickly realise that they're actually pretty simple. Certainly from a piloting point of view all you need to do is plug them in the FMC and away you go. Don't worry too much about altitude restrictions and the like. The real world flight plans will give you cruising altitudes and you'll be able to see any restrictions for the departure SID and arrival STAR on the charts. Beyond that you'd be given clearance up and then down by ATC. You can do this yourself in the sim if you're not flying with the default ATC or Radar Contact etc.

Using the legs page will put you on a direct route to each waypoint as opposed to the route page, which will have the option to go to the waypoint via an airway. You also cannot enter airways in the legs page.

 

Also, if you tell the aircraft to fly to RIIVR via J41 (ex) it may populate several other waypoints along the way into your legs page.

 

Noted, thanks. Think i've got the hang of this, i've built a route using skyvector and simroutes and it seems to check out so i'll give it a go flying it some point soon.

flightaware.com is excellent for current in use DPs and STARS. Perfect for enroute phase too.

 

Also it's great for routing around major weather. Sometimes a legacy route will put you smack dab into a storm.