Please could I request some commentary/critique on this design for storing IFR flight plan information:

SID:
Assigned by ATC prior just prior to departure, change with a runway change, but unlikely to change in flight - seperation managed with speed and altitude

En-Route:
Requested, mutally agreed, subject to change en-route - covers the distance from one airport to another

STAR:
Assigned by ATC prior just prior to arrival seperation managed with speed and altitude

APPR/Approach:
Requested by pilot, varies on aircraft equipment and prior STAR
divided into path/glideslope to runway and go around proceedure

Hold:
Can be issued anywhere from end of SID to end of STAR, equivelent during approach is to issue a go around.

It needs to be able to handle any changes during flight - I think this covers it, but thought it might be a good idea to get some extra eyes before I commit to using it. 

On 6/5/2020 at 3:56 AM, mSparks said:

equivelent during approach is to issue a go around.

not quite equivalent it seems, because go around to hold is part of the approach pattern, which depends on the aircraft and its equipment.

Your STAR will be part of your original Flight Plan.  If you did not include an Arrival in your Flight plan then it will be issued to you when you get your Clearance.....IF your clearance is issued all the way to the final destination.  Do to flow patterns and/or delays you could be cleared to a waypoint on your Flight Plan where you would expect to hold until further clearance is delivered.  Now that clearance could be issued well in advance of arriving however you are not allowed to Sequence past the point that your clearance is issued.

APR is determined by the Active Runway, Available options (ILS/RNAV) again generally they will inform you of your "expected" approach when you establish contact with the Arrival/Terminal controllers (heck could be Center all depends on what levels that destination has for controllers and spaces....) Now you could "request" a different option....ie you want to do the RNAV 08 Z instead of the ILS 08....And they will give those to you generally if it works for them but don't expect to get the Corners cut :).

 

On 8/13/2020 at 8:31 PM, LesOReilly said:

Your STAR will be part of your original Flight Plan.  If you did not include an Arrival in your Flight plan then it will be issued to you when you get your Clearance

but can surely also change before and after takeoff if there is a change (or just one expected) in the weather?

how far in advance do you think a runway change is planned?

TAF forecasts are usually very very accurate 24 hours in advance.....Does that mean that it can't / won't change .... of course it can / will.

Second Factor is going to be where you are going and how long the flight is.....Flying from Toronto to Hong Kong is long enough that things could change.....but on a flight like that you would again be notified ahead of time.

If you have not used say Sim Brief (since it is free) to try putting together some Flight Plans and the associated PDF it prints out....You will get the idea of what an Airline Pilot gets for their flight briefing in the planning stages...they tend to list out all of the anticipated conditions.

Your clearance is not likely to change between getting it and your departure (receiving clearance usually happens with a very short duration to wheels up.  They even do PDCs to make it faster and you only have to give them your PDC number on the radio.

Your Arrival could change but it is not likely that it is going to change at the last minute.  Arrivals (especially for FL Traffic) start pretty High.  Even in a low chart GA scenario they Arrival is pretty far away.  They can also "Modify" it with instructions to basically skip all kinds of way points and go direct to a waypoint that might be the transition point to the Approach.

Everything is fluid but when it comes to "Planning" you will have a SID - STAR clearance.....Unless they are not clearing you all the way to your destination....That means you be holding somewhere for a bit while they sort out your continued clearance while you are on the way. 

On 8/17/2020 at 3:53 PM, LesOReilly said:

not likely

well.

A big chunk of what I want to do with this is simulate a lot of these "not likely but possible" situations.

For example the xplane fms format contains all the "components"

https://developer.x-plane.com/article/flightplan-files-v11-fms-file-format/

But missing from that format is the aviation procedure of how this could change in flight, which is really what Im interested in practicing.

good example of this is in the answers to the

Thread.

which in the fms file format is little more than

_____

optionally, the lines for departure runway, instrument departure and transition can follow:

DEPRWY RW14
SID TRSHA1
SIDTRANS BAWDS

_____

I'll probably keep coming back to these to threads for the gems they contain. Already happy with the starting point.

I don't have X-Plane.  I have seen that some Devs on other platforms don't always simulate things perfect -- Hence the need for some money spent on 3rdparty "study level" stuff.

usually on an FMC you just go to the departure and change it...Also the real FMC/CDU units have "dual" or "second" FLT plans so that you can setup an alternate Flt plan then check it before you load it 🙂

Also some of the Carenado Navigraph G1000 units are absolute dog word not allowed and you must enter stuff in a specific order and then you are stuck...no changes.

 

In real life -- they change you up that "bad" ask for a Heading Vector towards the first new way point and an Altitude.....Get them locked into the AP so you can put your "head down" to program the FMC.....Or go old school and do it via the charts an manually sort it out 🙂