James McMannamy Posted October 6, 2017 at 01:56 AM Posted October 6, 2017 at 01:56 AM I took part tonight in the event this evening in St Louis, flying my DC93/W into CPS. Something came up and I just wanted to post a reminder about [Mod - Happy Thoughts]igning STARs: some of them are airport-specific. A controller [Mod - Happy Thoughts]igned me the VLA9 STAR right before switching me to the next controller. It took me a long time to find the procedure because, as it turns out, it was for a different airport than the one to which I was flying. There are some SIDs and STARs that cover a metro area/several airports, and there are some that are airport-specific. As a controller, if you feel the need to [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ign a STAR, particularly to a secondary airport, it is a good idea to check the chart for that procedure to ensure that it is appropriate. When in doubt, a good vector can accomplish the task; it happens all the time with real-world traffic where a heading in the right direction is more practical than [Mod - Happy Thoughts]igning a published procedure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bradley Grafelman Posted October 6, 2017 at 02:08 AM Posted October 6, 2017 at 02:08 AM I'll go out on a limb and say that 99.9% of S1 and above controllers are already aware of all of that, and that the [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ignment of the VLA9 STAR was likely a case of mistaken destination. While you did indeed file your arrival as KCPS, your last waypoint in the route was STL. It's possible that the controller got distracted and the "STL" in his mind turned into your destination rather than a waypoint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Littlejohn Posted October 6, 2017 at 06:03 AM Posted October 6, 2017 at 06:03 AM I'll go out on a limb and say that 99.9% of S1 and above controllers are already aware of all of that, and that the [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ignment of the VLA9 STAR was likely a case of mistaken destination. While you did indeed file your arrival as KCPS, your last waypoint in the route was STL. It's possible that the controller got distracted and the "STL" in his mind turned into your destination rather than a waypoint. That very may well could be, but we also as controllers should be aware of the fact that an airport can be a fix/waypoint along someone's path to their destination. For example, if a pilot who filed as /A was flying from say, KRDK (Red Oak, Iowa), to KBTA (Blair, Nebraska), they could easily file something like KRDK OVR KMLE to get to KBTA, just to save the controller the pain of directing them through the heavier part of Cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts] C, let alone on top of KOMA and all of their arrivals and departures. And that would be a perfectly valid route. Most of us know this, but it does help to serve as a refresher that airports can be fixes/waypoints, too. BL. Brad Littlejohn ZLA Senior Controller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Shearman Jr Posted October 6, 2017 at 12:23 PM Posted October 6, 2017 at 12:23 PM a reminder about [Mod - Happy Thoughts]igning STARs: some of them are airport-specific. A controller [Mod - Happy Thoughts]igned me the VLA9 STAR right before switching me to the next controller. It took me a long time to find the procedure because, as it turns out, it was for a different airport than the one to which I was flying. As far as I'm aware, on every web service I've tried that allows you to look up Terminal Area charts, when you put in your destination airport's ICAO code it should return ALL of the STARs that apply to that airport, even the ones that serve multiple airports. You should never be in a situation where you are flying to one airport but have to enter another airport ICAO code into any site to find the applicable chart. So if it happens again, that fact might save you some searching around -- if the STAR you were [Mod - Happy Thoughts]igned isn't on the list for *your* destination, it pretty much HAS to be controller error. If anyone has any counter-examples, I'd be interested to see them. Cheers, -R. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James McMannamy Posted October 6, 2017 at 03:09 PM Author Posted October 6, 2017 at 03:09 PM As far as I'm aware, on every web service I've tried that allows you to look up Terminal Area charts, when you put in your destination airport's ICAO code it should return ALL of the STARs that apply to that airport, even the ones that serve multiple airports. You should never be in a situation where you are flying to one airport but have to enter another airport ICAO code into any site to find the applicable chart. So if it happens again, that fact might save you some searching around -- if the STAR you were [Mod - Happy Thoughts]igned isn't on the list for *your* destination, it pretty much HAS to be controller error. If anyone has any counter-examples, I'd be interested to see them. Yes, you are totally correct. I found the STAR by searching through STL's procedures. It almost works for CPS, but there comes a point where you need to know what runway you're going to in order to proceed past a certain point. The ZKC controller gave a better clearance when I switched over to him. On the controller side, if a STAR (or SID) doesn't show up in the procedures for that airport, you can't [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ign it, even if it looks like it works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts