Ifr filing

[Jetblue291]

I'm sure this has been discussed a zillion times so forgive me. I'm going to fly my first ifr (trembles) lol on pilotedge. I've watched most of the workshops excluding all about ifr series, which pertains to this question more than ever. When filing an ifr plan on pilotedge or real world, should a SID and star be filled or is it left up to atc. The reason I would like to know is for planning purposes. Knowing your SID while plight planning would obviously make picking your first enroute fix easier, or does atc take into consideration your first filed waypoint/fix and get you out accordingly. Obviously that last question would be irrelevant if your supposed to file a SID, thanks, and really enjoyed my hop from Ontario to Catalina with FF, must of been a chopper fly in going on today lol.

[Nelson L.]

File the SID and STAR - ATC will change it if the chosen procedure is either incompatible or there's a preferred routing. I seem to recall something about this being different in Europe?

[wmburns]

+1 on above. However. to me if ATC changes the SID/STAR that I filed that means I did not do my homework correctly. IE if you do the research it should be possible to file an acceptable flight path almost every time.

When I flew on Vatsim in the UK I found that the controllers would assign the SID at departure when the runway was assigned. However there are a TON more available covering many combinations of route and fix. Just research the SID's out of Gatwick (EGKK). Take the case of the Dover (DVR) series of SID's. There's one for each departure runway and intermediate fix. There's a naming scheme used to add some order to the process.

In the US, a SID is more general. But it's still important to understand what the SID requires. For example some SID's may have a minimum rate of climb. If your aircraft can't meet the minimum ROT then don't file it. Same goes if the SID has a speed restriction. You are expected to know if your aircraft can meet any/all SID restrictions.

Many of the SID/STAR's are listed as RNAV. It doesn't make sense to file an RNAV procedure if your aircraft does not have RNAV capable navigation equipment.

If you are thinking this could make a huge number of route combinations you would be correct.

Suggestion. Go first to myflightroute.com and enter the departure and destination airports. Myflightroute will tell you IF there's a TEC route for the city pair. If a TEC route exists, that's what should be filed.

Note on TEC route filing. It's important to know your aircraft classification code.

(Q) = Non-jet (cruise speed 189 knots or less)
(P) = Non-jet (cruise speed 190 knots or greater)
(M) = Turbo Props/Special (cruise speed 190 knots or greater)
(J) = Jet powered

If no TEC route exists, go to peaware.pilotedge.net and use the city pair search. This will give you a list of the routes flown by other PE members. Look for a route flown by a similar aircraft. For me this often gives a "leg up" on a possible route to file.

Some city pair combinations don't have a lot of flights and PEaware may not give any examples to work from. In that case, use Skyvector and take a "stab" at the route. THEN let ATC change it should there be a problem.

[zengei]

if you do the research it should be possible to file an acceptable flight path almost every time.

True that. When there's no TEC route for the city pair I'm flying I like to plan my own route rather than looking up ones that have been cleared in the real world. My process is usually.

1. Find the shortest path route between the airports.
2. Lookup SIDs/DPs at the departure airport that would drop me off the closest to the shortest path route.
3. Eliminate any SIDs/DPs that would not be applicable to the aircraft I'm flying.
4. For any of the remaining ones pick the one that's applicable to the greatest number of runways or the runway most likely to be in use or... flip a coin.
5. Repeat the process but in reverse for any STARs at the arrival airport. If the arrival airport has no STARs pick a last fix on the route that's an IAF or feeder to an approach.
6. Fill in the middle with airway transitions.

Doing this I've yet to receive any clearance on the network other than "As filed" or "<SID> <transition> then as filed"¹.

¹I was curious as to why it isn't just "As filed" if the flight plan includes the SID, turns out section 4-3-3(d) of the ATC handbooks specifies:

When no changes are required in the filed route, state the phrase: “Cleared to (destination) airport, ([SID name and number] and SID transition, as appropriate); then, as filed.” If a SID is not assigned, follow with “As filed.”

[Jetblue291]

Thanks guys that's what I suspected, really appreciate it.

[Ryan B]

Heck just file direct (as long as you're not doing a rating lol) and ATC will change the routing for you.

But that's the lazy way (which I do sometimes) and might take more time for ATC to get the route.

The best web site to find routes is the NFDC Pref Routes db - great way to find TEC routes (published IFR routes in socal)
http://www.fly.faa.gov/rmt/nfdc_preferr ... tabase.jsp