Planning my next flight

[John McMurdo]

Since I started flying on VATSIM,  I have been flying the same route in the same aircraft, Gatwick to Munich in an A350-900. Last night I successfully completed the first flight that I was truly happy with,  from stand to stand with no real dramas and I am mildly confident I can tackle another airport.  I think Gatwick is going to remain my starting point for now,  but I have been practising flights to Prague in the 737-800 since Prague is quite small. I managed to land the A350 with plenty of room to spare,  but the taxiways are relatively narrow,  I'm not sure it's built for something as big as the A350-900.  Looking at the charts,  as with Munich it appears that approaches are by means of vectors, and last time I logged in as an observer,  it did not seem too busy either.

I have been having a few issues with the FMC on this particular route though,  a discontinuity between the end of the main route and the start of the STAR which offline I sort but just doing a "direct to" However if I am not going to be relying on STARS and be vectored in then that is not going to be an issue anyway, I hope - but if I am going to be flying online, I would rather have everything in order.

[Andreas Fuchs]

Hi John,

don't worry, just jump at it. Don't be afraid to make mistakes or ask for advice from controllers as well.

EGKK-LKPR, the route between these two airports that I would choose is ODVIK Y311 DVR UL9 KONAN UL607 KOK MATUG GUBAX KOMIB TONSU Z35 LOMKI. There's a high chance that you'll have ATC all the way through. An ODVIK SID from Gatwick should be no stranger to you. In Praha the standard landing runway is 24 and LOMKI is going to be your STAR entry point. They now have "open ended" downwind legs as part of these arrival routes. That's what you saw as "DISCONTINUITY". Have a look at the LOMKI 7S, after ERASU, the IAF (Initial Approach Fix), there are some arrows pointing along the route. This means ""maintain last heading", which would be 061 degrees.

If you have ATC for your arrival and approach, they will vector you to final after ERASU. If not, have a look at the IAC (Instrument Approach Chart) for ILS 24 and you'll see that there's an approach transition from ERASU via PR531 and PR532 to the FAP (final approach point) at ILS DME 9 and 4000ft. Just follow this routing when there is NO ATC active at the time of your approach. With ATC and when cleared for LOMKI 7S, you must maintain heading 061 after ERASU.

All clear now?

Edited October 16, 2021 at 01:48 PM by Andreas Fuchs

[John McMurdo]

2 hours ago, Andreas Fuchs said:

Hi John,

don't worry, just jump at it. Don't be afraid to make mistakes or ask for advice from controllers as well.

EGKK-LKPR, the route between these two airports that I would choose is ODVIK Y311 DVR UL9 KONAN UL607 KOK MATUG GUBAX KOMIB TONSU Z35 LOMKI. There's a high chance that you'll have ATC all the way through. An ODVIK SID from Gatwick should be no stranger to you. In Praha the standard landing runway is 24 and LOMKI is going to be your STAR entry point. They now have "open ended" downwind legs as part of these arrival routes. That's what you saw as "DISCONTINUITY". Have a look at the LOMKI 7S, after ERASU, the IAF (Initial Approach Fix), there are some arrows pointing along the route. This means ""maintain last heading", which would be 061 degrees.

If you have ATC for your arrival and approach, they will vector you to final after ERASU. If not, have a look at the IAC (Instrument Approach Chart) for ILS 24 and you'll see that there's an approach transition from ERASU via PR531 and PR532 to the FAP (final approach point) at ILS DME 9 and 4000ft. Just follow this routing when there is NO ATC active at the time of your approach. With ATC and when cleared for LOMKI 7S, you must maintain heading 061 after ERASU.

All clear now?

Thank you for the very comprehensive reply, I will practise the new route offline along with your other instructions.  I still need to spend some more time offline in the 737,  I have got so used to the A350 now I sometimes forget about the limitations of the 737.