STARS

[mgh 89]

In the UK a STAR for a particular airport begins at a waypoint on an airway and terminates at another waypoint with an associated hold. Aircraft can fly from the terminating waypoint to any runway at the airport. At London Heathrow (EGLL) BNN 1C begins at Honiley (HON) VOR for aircraft using L10 and N615 airways. It terminates at the Bovingdon (BNN) VOR.At major airports aircraft are generally radar vectored from the terminating waypoint/hold onto final approach, although here are published charts for those times when radar vectoring isn't available. These charts are called Initial Approach Procedures. For example, there are two of these from Bovingdon (BNN) covering runways 09L/R and 27L/R. These get the aircraft to the FAP/FAFs after which Instrument Landing Charts are used for final approach.As a result, the choice of STAR is determined by the airway being used and not by the runway. I have the impression that the systems in the US (and elsewhere) may be different. Is so, can someone please explain?

[scott967 62]

I think the US system is similar, but there are specifics which can vary. In general the STAR starts at the waypoint for which it is named. But, it will have one or more transitions, which are segments starting on the enroute airways and ending at the STAR starting waypoint.Some of the STARs simply funnel you into the general area, with a notation "expect vectors". In some cases, the STAR is designed to get the inbound traffic set up for a certain approach direction, which I think is common in many ICAO STARs. Finally, recently there have been some RNAV STARs with specific runway transitions and these allow for continuous path to the RNAV approach.scott s..

[mgh 89]

Thanks for the reply.UK STARS are named after the end waypoint. This means that can be a number of different STARS to the same end waypoint. For example, there are BNN 1C via Lambourne (LAM) VOR from airway A47 starting at Daventry (DTY) VOR, and BNN 1D from airway L9 starting at KENET.