How to Read a Star Chart Aviation

SID and STAR charts can expect a little daunting to new people, and therefore, we idea it would be ameliorate to explain to you virtually how to read these charts, and make your job a little easier. For today, we are going to take a expect at some Gatwick charts. These are available here

Altitude constraints

SIDs and STARs can require yous to fly specific profiles to foreclose you from interacting with other aircraft from other airports, and one such manner to preclude this interference is to employ altitude restrictions, these tin come in ane of 2 forms.

Hard constraint

A hard constraint is depicted by at that place beingness one line above and one line below the altitude to point that you should be at the specified altitude by the specified indicate unless told otherwise by ATC.

Soft constraint

This is where you should either be above or below the specified altitude. If the line is below the altitude then you should be at or above the specified altitude. If the line is higher up the altitude then you should be at or below the specified altitude.

Altitude restrictions on SIDs and STARs may be ignored if the controller issues a separate instruction. For instance, if you are departing and London says "climb FL100" then you practise not demand to follow the SID profile, and instead, climb to FL100 immediately.

Speed restrictions

Sometimes SIDs and STARs crave a specific speed to wing, for example, if they are flying a precipitous turn on departure that goes against the normal rules (for case speed of 250 knots bellow FL100 in the UK) then these will be specified on the chart at the points where the speed restriction applies.

In the instance above, before reaching the waypoint KKE09, there is a maximum speed restriction of 220 knots to prevent overflying the turn and interference with Heathrow departures. However, every bit with everything, this speed restriction is deemed invalid if ATC says otherwise. Boosted speed restrictions may exist found in the notes section of the nautical chart

Altitudes and frequencies

The transition altitude is the minimum altitude in which ATC utilizes the local QNH. This is important as information technology lets you know at what altitude to select the standard QNH of 1013. The Area Mnm Alt is the minimum safe altitude, meaning that it is the lowest distance that you can fly at whilst being safe from terrain, this is important because if yous have to level off due to something similar an engine failure, so yous know at what altitude to stop your climb at to be able to return safely to the airport. At that place is a nice waypoint box to let yous to make sure that the waypoints are defined in your FMC properly and a frequencies list and then that you can accept an idea on the side by side frequency to contact and tin can put it into your coms panel to save time.

Notes section

The notes department of the charts gives useful information to assist the departure or arrival, for example it may specify minimum climb gradients, speed restrictions, who to contact and with what information every bit well as a exact version of the routing and much much more.

How to Read a Star Chart Aviation

Source: https://aviationsim.uk/how-to-read-sids-and-star-charts/

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