Chart Overload

[Calvin Waterbury]

Although I have my I-9 and will be working to ward my I-10 shortly, I am still somewhat overloaded with know what chart to use. My most recent flight was on VATSIM (PHLI-KRNO). Here is my flight plan (my best guess?)...

LIHUE5 BOOKE DCT LOELE MAGGI R463 ALCOA OAK J32 CANON2 - I was planning on a full approach 16R (IAF TAKLE), but APP decided I needed to be vectored to the visual.

Yes, I did make it to the R463 out of Hawaii and I did touchdown in Reno safely, BUT it was all just guesswork. I had/have no confidence I chose the proper DEP/ENROUTE/ARV charts. That was a 10 hour flight in a propliner (L188) and I am plum wore out, but since it was the longest flight I have ever done it's a good "wore out."

Maybe this is how one normally feels after a 10 hour flight, but I am convinced A LOT of my "wore out" is from the stress of guessing. This is my problem, I really don't know what I am doing and could use some remediation on how to do this all right.

The above may just be whistling in the wind and it is supposed to be all guesswork until one is familiar enough to *know* which chart to pick. The caveat to this is there has to be 100,000+ charts out there. I am persuaded there must be a better way.

[Keith Smith]

Are you asking if the ROUTE was reasonable, or are you asking what CHARTS you would use to fly that route?

[Calvin Waterbury]

No, what I am asking is if there is a way to know which of the SIDs, STARs, IAPs, etc. to select? It could be any flight. The route was just an example. I could have listed any of my multi-leg flights.

The point is ALL of my multi-leg flights have been guesswork up to this point. Sure, I do know some things, but most of my flight planning consists of, "Hmm... that might work. Let's try it and see what happens [shrugs shoulders]." Like I said, it's all guesswork. I pick something that looks good, submit the flight plan, squint my eyes and plug my fingers in my ears while I wait for the dreaded, "N910CJ, Reno Delivery. I have an amended flight plan. Advise when ready to copy." I know I can throw whatever I can come up with at the VATSIM and the PilotEdge CLRNC/DEL controllers and the "right" flight plan will be given back to me, but I would really like to learn how to create a flight plan I can be confident I did right. I hope this makes sense?

Sure, grade my PHLI-KRNO flight plan. I am curious how well I did.

[Calvin Waterbury]

Maybe I should couch my inquiry to the membership and ask...

How do you know which charts to choose?

[Keith Smith]

Sorry Calvin, hard to keep up with all the threads. If I read a post and don't answer it right away, it's still marked as a thread that I've read, and it's easy for it to drop off my list. I'll post a response when I can and will keep a todo note to do so.

[julio.elizalde]

Calvin,

For longer range flights, I tend to mirror my flights to RW flight plans found on flightaware.com. You can look up your origin and destination airports and a list of airlines that fly that route will come up. I generally choose the most recent flight or even "en route" flights and look up their plans. The longer the flight,more routing variables appear that depend on winds aloft, weight load, and/or if the aircraft is late for its next leg. The one thing these routes tell you is an optimal altitude for that aircraft with current winds aloft and very often the correct SID and STAR in and out of the area, taking the local weather into consideration. I usually even fly real world flight numbers and try to stay on schedule with their real world scheduled departure time and gate. I find this adds to my sense of realism. I really think flight aware is such a great tool for airline routing information. Hope this helps a little!

[Calvin Waterbury]

Sorry Calvin, hard to keep up with all the threads. If I read a post and don't answer it right away, it's still marked as a thread that I've read, and it's easy for it to drop off my list. I'll post a response when I can and will keep a todo note to do so.

Keith, I know you are very busy. Just comment when you can.

[Calvin Waterbury]

Calvin,

For longer range flights, I tend to mirror my flights to RW flight plans found on flightaware.com. You can look up your origin and destination airports and a list of airlines that fly that route will come up. I generally choose the most recent flight or even "en route" flights and look up their plans. The longer the flight,more routing variables appear that depend on winds aloft, weight load, and/or if the aircraft is late for its next leg. The one thing these routes tell you is an optimal altitude for that aircraft with current winds aloft and very often the correct SID and STAR in and out of the area, taking the local weather into consideration. I usually even fly real world flight numbers and try to stay on schedule with their real world scheduled departure time and gate. I find this adds to my sense of realism. I really think flight aware is such a great tool for airline routing information. Hope this helps a little!

Thank you Julio. It helps a lot. If you are game for this little "game," imagine flightaware.com did not exist. What system, if any would you use for picking the correct SID/STAR? That is really what this thread is about, but given FlightAware *does* exist, this may qualify as a problem that is already solved. Feel free to skip the "game" if you like.

[gavink42]

Without some recommendation from an outside source, I would look through the arrivals or departures for my airport. I would choose the best one suited to my aircraft performance capability (airspeed and altitude limitations) and my desired direction of flight.

Of course... flying a Cherokee 180C, I've yet to be assigned SIDs/STARs in the real world.