STAR versus Approach Transition

[attila20 0]

Dear experts,
I have read the Manuals and followed some tutorials via Youtube,
but I can't understand until now what is really the difference
and why are there two Terms for the same purpose.

Thank you for a simple Explanation.

[scandinavian13 5,192]

5 minutes ago, attila20 said:

but I can't understand until now what is really the difference
and why are there two Terms for the same purpose.

It's not really the same thing, though...and there are regional applications, to a certain degree.

A Standard Terminal Arrival Route (STAR) brings a flight off of its core route ("route") into the area around an airport. STARs in the United States typically ended on a downwind leg, or a vector leg. Some of the newer STARs dump right onto approaches.

Here's an example for IAD, that simply gets you near IAD, and nothing more:
http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/1802/05100COATT.PDF

Newer STARs bring a flight off of the core route into the area around an airport, while it also often contains approach transitions.

Here's another example for IAD, which not only has downwind legs (down to MIKEJ and TICON), but also approach transitions (to BEEZY, HOOSR, and DADEY - which are fixes on the ILS approaches to each of the 19s):
http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/1802/05100HYPER_C.PDF

I haven't looked at a STAR or an approach in the EU for a bit, but I do know that they usually bring you in to a central point, and then have a bunch of approach transitions. The STAR is the named portion. The approach is the number-letter combo at the end...usually...if I remember correctly.

[downscc 1,327]

There is a procedure naming convention difference between US and other authorities in that FAA published terminal procedures are SIDs, STARs and Approaches and all three may have transitions. The SID transition selects different enroute departure waypoints, the STAR transition selects different arrival waypoints and the Approach transition selects different IAF (Initial Approach Fix) waypoints.  As discussed by Kyle, sometimes the STAR has branches to connect the arrival to an IAF but often in the US there will be vectors involved to make that connection.  Numbers are suffixed to the procedure to signify currency or updates. The procedure names (RNAV based) usually has nothing to do with the waypoints involved and are nothing than indications of ATC sense of humor, so we have such gems as Gibbs into Kyle's KIAD (not for the NCIS character but for a sports celebrity much to my chagrin).

The other naming convention that seems impossibly cryptic to me is the European naming convention where the number is not used to signify currency but there are letter/character combinations in all manner of variations around the world that typically signify which branch lead to or from a specific runway and the procedure name is based on the enroute waypoint.  It is impossible to determine which procedure to use without studying the charts carefully.  At least this convention uses procedure names that seem to be based on an enroute waypoint.

[attila20 0]

Thank you for your efforts !