you can take off or land on any runway, regardless of which way the wind is blowing, or which way the ai are landing/departing. you're taking your life in your hands to choose the reciprocal to the runway the ai are taking off fromyou don't have to change the wind direction, if you don't want to.jd

>>you can take off or land on any runway, regardless of which way the wind is blowing, or which way the ai are landing/departing. you're taking your life in your hands to choose the reciprocal to the runway the ai are taking off fromyou don't have to change the wind direction, if you don't want to.jd<http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/137025.jpgI take your point about life, hands,into,reciprocal!

>"Heading changes , one per every few miles in opposite>directions to the preceding one">>Only when flying as a novice and only when you cannot hold>your course by correcting for wind / drift.>Just a tip for R/W flying:NEVER correct for wind drift by yourself. ALWAYS fly the heading you're assigned by ATC, they'll correct for wind if they see fit.Regards,Stephan

Thanks for a very helpful reply.To expand slightly on your comments on European practice:UK STARS show the airways that feed them. So, although although a controller in another country may not allocate a STAR it will be implicit in the airways routing. The Flight Procedure for Gatwick (for example) state "Aircraft inbound to Gatwick via the Airways System will be routed via the Standard Terminal Arrival Routes" and "Other IFR inbound aircraft will requitred to use the procedure via Mayfield holding pattern."Aircraft are normally vectored under radar control from the end of the STAR to intercept the ILS localiser. There are published approach procedures for use without radar control, with the final part being a turn to intercpt the ILS localiser and then follow Instrument Approach Chart Procedures.I agree with the comments that SIDs/STARSs arevsimply routes that can be built using only the FS9 flight planner. However, I use Super Flight Planner (which is free) to build SIDs/STARs and routes and then save them in FS9 format.