Pilotboi From United States of America, joined Sep 2007, 2366 posts, RR: 10 Reply 1, posted (4 years 6 months 2 days 23 hours ago) and read 9360 times:
GMN4 is the departure procedure.
The rest of the 3 and 4 letter codes are airports (to pass over) or navaids (such as a VOR).
The ####N #####W are coordinates to a particular point on the globe.
The 5 letter codes are waypoints (points created by the FAA).
BNN1B is the arrival procedure.
As for a map...there are plenty of programs out there (not aware of any free ones), but I don't know of any website that does it.
The STAR is so there is a standardized way of departing the runway then getting out of the airspace around the airport and transitioning to the en-route (cruise) environment in terms of speed, altitude, and location.
Then it flew towards the EHF VORTAC (a navigational transmitter; this one named Shafter) at Bakersfield, CA.
Then it continued towards the MVA (named Mina) VORTAC at Mina, NV.
Then it flew towards the BAM (named Battle Mountain) VORTAC at Battle Mountain, NV.
(skipped a few entries here)
Then it flew towards 49 degrees north 108 degrees west (the latitude/longitude location) which is around the U.S./Canada border between Idaho and Sasketchewan.
You can use http://maps.google.com to pinpoint the exact spot based on the given lat/lon coordinates as they accept lat/lon.
...and so forth...
I think you should be able to find location information for all non-lat/lon names - but if not, let me know and I'll compile a full list.
The standard terminal arrival route (STAR) into LHR/EGLL is BNN1B, which is the Bovingdon BNN1B arrival route. Bovingdon is one of the major posts in which LHR arrival routes are funnelled toward and then held in 'stacks' waiting for their turn, and then subsequently gets fed by ATC into an orderly line marching towards the assigned runway.
Bovingdon handles traffic in the NW area, Lambourne handles NE area traffic, Biggin Hill handles SE area traffic, and Ockham handles SW area traffic.
Click on the 'UK Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP)' link.
Click on the 'Aerodrome Index - Specific' link along the left side.
Click on the 'London Heathrow - EGLL' link
Click on the 'STARs via Bovingdon Chart' link to download the BNN STARs.
For the U.S., you can find navaid information -- as well as airport, routes, fixes, etc. -- by going to http://www.airnav.com then picking the appropriate tab.
For most of the U.S./Canada stuff, click on the 'Navaid' tab or go to http://www.airnav.com/navaids/ then enter the navaid name such as EHF. It will give you the navaid type as well as precise lat/lon so it can be plotted on maps.google.com if you like.
B747forever From United States of America, joined May 2007, 16575 posts, RR: 11 Reply 4, posted (4 years 6 months 2 days 23 hours ago) and read 9294 times:
OPNLguy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 5, posted (4 years 6 months 2 days 23 hours ago) and read 9294 times:
Looking at the past month's worth of previous flights, it looks like the route you're asking about might have been similar to these two. The track line isn't quite complete, but you can guess the rest...
You can enter the points there and create your own map
The point NCAE between YYN and YYQ is actually airway NCA E so you'll need to get the fixes which define the airway, which I think is just YYN ELTAX YYQ.
Here's an image from a mapping program (PFPS) that I use - the NCA E is the dark red line near the US Canadian Border all the way to just west of Greenland - the flight only uses NCA E to Hudson Bay. The other dark red lines over England are the airways UN610 and UN615.
[Edited 2008-11-23 21:16:59]
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from surviving bad judgement.
B747forever From United States of America, joined May 2007, 16575 posts, RR: 11 Reply 7, posted (4 years 6 months 2 days 5 hours ago) and read 9066 times:
Just to expand a bit on this section, those are the North Atlantic Track (NAT) coordinates. Basically they are a set of coordinates that daily and are dependent on weather and overall flow of traffic. You can find the daily tracks here:
Reading from top to bottom (bear in mind, I am a bit rusty)
The V means this is NAT "Victor", the first two waypoints leading to the tracks (found in a Jeppesen atlantic chart or similar) are STEAM and OYSTR the numbers in xx/xx format is your latitude and longitude, i.e. the first one is 55 deg. north/50 deg west, then 57 deg. north/40 deg west, and so on... ERAKA and ETSOM are the last two waypoints that will put you in the European airway system.
EAST LVLS are the flight levels the tracks are assigned to, i.e. 32000 ft, 33000ft, etc
Now this set of tracks is only meant for eastbound flights hence the "WEST LVLS NIL" message. At times you will see tracks in both directions at every other altitude. I.e. East on 320 340 360 and West on 310 330 350
IIRC the rest are route names for airports and getting into and out of the tracks.
If anybody sees any errors in my explanation please point them out!
Actually......... most of these flights go above the tracks so they don't fly them. They also are way north of the NARs, so they don't use them either. As such, these are random tracks. Random tracks are used a lot in the airspace around the current NAT tracks. You don't have to file a NAT to fly across and most of the time, random tracks around the NAT track airspace are just overlays of the outdated ones. Another time you would file random is when your arrival at the system is before the NAT track goes valid or when your going the other way. A lot of the morning and mid afternoon flights going east cannot file the only eastbound NAT track and the ones for the evening rush won't become valid for long while longer.
So from the example above, this flight was routed through mid Canada then over the Ocean via a random track. Depending on where your random track is, you may be required to either fly below or above the NAT track altitudes. Most airplanes can't get above so they are forced to be below like 28,000, which is not a very good technique in trying to fly long haul flights
Also you would prolly never see 2-way NATs. Its to unsafe and it would mess up the current SLOP and RNP seperation procedures. I don't know for a fact though but I have never seen a two-way track.
ConcordeBoy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 11, posted (4 years 6 months 15 hours ago) and read 8812 times:
...gotta love some of these trackers though.
According to this one:
DL55 flew more-or-less the Great Circle, until leaving Alaska's shores.... then apparently the pilots must've gotten the urge for some blini or something, because they made an immediate cut halfway around the world to Russia, and then hurried up and got back on the GC before anyone noticed Wink
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