RC4 and descent in Mountains

[helberger 72]

Hello,Had a good flight going in the LVD 767 from SBGR (Sao Paulo) to SCEL (Santiago) until ATC instructed me to start descent. At about 100 nmfrom destination I ended up in the Andes mountains, some higher than 18k. Anyway the flight would have ended in disaster, so I discontinued as I was to low and without any charts. I used Routefinder and Fsbuild to create the flightplan. My question is what is the proper way using RC4 in such an environment. I must have missed something.Thanks Helmut

[jd 57]

notams arrivalwhat is the msa of scel? you might want to adjust it for your next flight. what i give you as an msa, is a good guess. it could be way offjd

[ronzie 21]

In mountainous terrain where you are slipping through gaps and valleys for approach, RC usually on vectors keeps you too high since it calculates MSA from a wider area sampling. The 25 nm radius MSA is 19,000 feet for a 1,500 MSL foot runway.I do not have any STARS for SCEL but I do have VOR approaches for 17/35 and ILS for 17. They show enering the approach at 5000 and then using a descending hold pattern to get down over the LOM to get down do the altitude for the final vertical profile usding NDBs as the holding points.RC via vectors does not provide this so you need charts. You can use a NOTAMS arrival for flexibility or select at approach time an IAS approach where you will be totally responsible for your own navigation.

[jd 57]

>RC via vectors does not provide this so you need charts. You>can use a NOTAMS arrival for flexibility or select at approach>time an IAS approach where you will be totally responsible for>your own navigation.>>an iap approach would work also ;-)

[chrispeel 0]

I have 2 arrivals charts for SECL1.From the north.A stepped descent to TBN(113.9)at FL90.Using 169oR from FL140 at 24 DME.Or using 162oRwith similar levels.From TBN it's 170P to 8DME at FL70.2.From the east from UMKAL(269o) w/p at FL260 and stepped descent to 41DME ERO(113.3)at FL130.then a turn to 172o and furtehr stepped descents to 5000.You really do need the charts for this one.And most others in the Andean region!

[helberger 72]

Thanks everybody for the help and explanations, I new I would need charts for this flight, looked hard to find something, verything in Spanish only (non habla?). Should have used "Notams" even so no gowithout charts. The mountains are very close and very hight close to SCEL. May try again.Thanks,Helmut

[chrispeel 0]

I got my charts from Sportys pilot shop in the USA along with loads of others.Very helpful people even though I am in UK!They have a web site of course