SID, STAR and Approach Charts - ATPL 033 — Flight Planning and Monitoring

Why the plates are studied

SID and STAR charts are studied before flight because they ARE the clearance in waiting: mandatory routings, crossing restrictions and speed limits that bind from the moment ATC names the procedure, and the crew that has not studied them can neither fly them nor plan the climb and descent around them. One warning is printed into the studying itself: SID and STAR charts are a pictorial presentation and may not be to scale, so distances are read from the printed figures, never measured off the drawing. The approach plates get the same treatment for the departure, destination and alternate aerodromes alike, the departure included because an emergency return needs an approach briefed before take-off.

Reading a SID or STAR

Everything on the plate is exam material, and interpreting it means accounting for all of it: the routing with its legs, the printed distances, courses and radials, the altitude and level constraints (at, at-or-above, at-or-below, or a window), the frequencies to expect, and the speed and level restrictions. The altitude constraints are charted with the bar on the forbidden side: a line above the figure caps it (at or below), a line below floors it (at or above), lines on both sides make it mandatory, and two stacked figures bound a window. Then the waypoints themselves: RNAV waypoints (charted as four-pointed stars, named with five letters) against conventional intersections defined by aids, and among them the distinction the figure below draws: a fly-by waypoint is turned before, the turn anticipated so the path cuts inside the corner, while a fly-over waypoint (charted circled) must be crossed before the turn begins. Which plates are relevant follows from the flight: the runway in use, the direction of departure or arrival, and the aircraft's navigation equipage select among them.

The RNAV vocabulary has three rungs:

Conventional SID or STAR — flown on raw aids, the routing defined by radials, bearings and DME.
RNAV SID or STAR — defined purely by RNAV waypoints, flyable only with the area-navigation capability the chart demands.
RNAV overlay — an RNAV reproduction laid over an existing conventional procedure, letting suitably equipped aircraft fly it by RNAV while the conventional procedure remains the published reference underneath.

Reading an approach plate

The approach chart concentrates the most safety-critical numbers in aviation onto one page, and selection comes first: the plates appropriate to the flight are those matching the runway, the equipage and the weather against the minima, chosen for all three aerodromes. Interpreting the plate then accounts for: the courses and radials of final and missed approach, the distances and the timing box that substitutes for DME on a non-precision approach, every altitude, level and height with its restriction, the charted obstructions, the frequencies, the speed limits, the DA/H of a 3D approach against the MDA/H of a 2D one, the visibility and RVR minima, and the approach light system, whose length and pattern feed the minima.

One taxonomy for every approach

The classification LO wants the boxes and what goes in them:

Type A and Type B — by minima: Type A has a DH or MDH of 250 ft or more; Type B has a DH below 250 ft and splits into the CAT I/II/III bands.
2D and 3D — by guidance: 2D operations have lateral guidance only (the non-precision family), 3D operations add vertical guidance (precision and APV).
CAT I, II and III — CAT I down to a DH of 200 ft (visibility at least 800 m or RVR at least 550 m); CAT II below 200 down to 100 ft (RVR at least 300 m); CAT III below 100 ft or with no DH at all.
Precision approaches — conventional ILS and MLS, and the GBAS landing system, all meeting the precision standards.
Non-precision and RNP APCH — the conventional VOR, NDB and LOC approaches, and the RNP APCH minima lines: LNAV and LP are 2D (lateral only, LP with SBAS-sharpened lateral), while LNAV/VNAV and LPV add vertical guidance; RNP AR APCH demands a specific authorisation.
APV — approach procedures with vertical guidance that do not meet precision standards: APV Baro (barometric VNAV, the LNAV/VNAV line) and APV SBAS (the LPV line), both flown as 3D operations.

Why the plates are studied

Reading a SID or STAR

Check you understood

Reading an approach plate

One taxonomy for every approach