14
votes
Accepted
What is an "Alternate Airway"?
I found an old definition in the All-Weather Flight Manual published by the US Navy in 1957:
Alternate Airways
Alternate airways are occasionally used for
lateral separation when traffic conditions ...
- 54.3k
13
votes
Accepted
Why publish an unusable airway?
Short answer: only part of the airway is unusable, and even then it's usable with GPS.
Your image shows V522 between FAILS intersection and the ERI VOR but you have to look at the full airway, which ...
- 71.6k
12
votes
Accepted
How can a pilot fly a distance of 594 NM connecting two VOR's?
You are correct that VOR's rarely have a range of more than 200 NM. However, Alta Floresta VOR (ATF) is colocated with an NDB (and DME). In spite of less accuracy, NDB's have a much greater range (...
- 36.2k
10
votes
Accepted
Do airways with multiple numbers (e.g., J89-101) imply combined segments?
Yes, from your example J34-68-538 are jet routes that share a segment and aircraft on different routes may travel the same segments between waypoints. A complete explanation is in the FAA's ...
- 19k
8
votes
Accepted
Why do aircraft fly over land rather than over the Adriatic Sea?
Most air routes in Europe are unchanged since the days before GPS, when they were defined by radials from VOR and NDB radio beacons. As these have a limited range, they could easily be used to define ...
- 953
7
votes
Accepted
Why do RNAV airways exist?
RNAV freed aircraft from the airways that were already in place that may have zig zagged from VOR to VOR, but with the limitations of the ATC system based on human controllers, it is still desirable ...
- 126k
6
votes
Can a VFR flight follow an IFR route?
Yes. In fact, before GPS came along, if you were flying somewhere and wanted to use your VOR to get from A to B, that's exactly what you did a lot of the time if it was convenient; fly along the ...
- 126k
6
votes
What is the naming convention for European airways?
ATS routes in Europe are designated just like the rest of the world. ICAO publishes guidelines for the designation of ATS routes in Annex 11, which are adopted by almost all countries.
A route will ...
- 36.2k
6
votes
Accepted
Are there conventions on which side to travel on Victor airways - USA?
If you are flying IFR the FAA expects you to be on the centerline of the airway, as per the FAA's IFR flying manual
to operate an aircraft within controlled airspace under IFR, pilots
must ...
- 100k
5
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between a waypoint and a significant point in an airspace?
According to ICAO PANS-ATM (Doc 4444) 16th Edition,
Waypoint is a type of significant point.
Mentioned in Chapter 1 - Definition as
Significant point :- A specified geographical location used in ...
- 341
5
votes
Accepted
What is the width of a high altitude airway?
At least in the US airspace definition, High Altitude Airways (Jet Routes) have no defined width regardless of the airway being navaid-based or RNAV/RNP
This is briefly stated in the FAA training ...
- 360
5
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between en route and airway?
Enroute: An aircraft that is on its way to its destination.
Air Route: A specific route that an aircraft takes, just like a car route, taking specific highways and roads to get to your destination. ...
- 1,004
5
votes
Accepted
Is there a list of directs and preferred routes within USA airspace?
In the US, the National Flight Data Center (NFDC) publishes a database of preferred routes. You can query it or download the entire database.
Here is the result of entering only BWI to PHX:
A ...
- 1,746
4
votes
how to know about designed airways above my house
Airways is a term that is used for the sort of "highways in the sky" that a lot of commercial air traffic use.
However, as you are reasonably close to an airport what you're most likely referring to ...
- 31.8k
4
votes
Victor route using an unusable sector of a VOR
When a victor airway is established, FAA flight test pilots verify the VOR can provide adequate / acceptable navigation along that route through (1) the halfway point to the next VOR or (2) changeover ...
- 12.2k
3
votes
What are these shaded areas?
It means that no Procedure Turn is required/expected if arriving within the sector defined by the 297 and 020 radials (inclusive) of DBL. The grey bars are a way of denoting the boundaries of the No ...
- 126k
3
votes
Can you change airways when they cross without a named fix?
Yes one can fly one airway to intercept another. Many reasons exist as to why not all intersecting airways have an intersection, the simplest being, it wasn't necessary.
I will suspect one may ...
- 39
3
votes
When must airliners follow airways?
Commercial airliners generally fly IFR as such they do what ATC tells them to do. They are not free to chose their own path. The airway system in the USA and elsewhere on the globe stems from the pre-...
- 100k
3
votes
Accepted
When is it required to enter an airway? (IFR)
There's no general requirement for an IFR aircraft to use airways at all, regardless of if you're using a computer to generate the route or not. They only exist to make planning easier.
Of course, if ...
- 12.8k
2
votes
Accepted
How would I read a departure chart?
So there's a lot going on in your question to address. First, and most importantly, the info you linked is for ATC, not pilots. you won't get any usable info of how to fly IFR in this airspace. You ...
- 44
2
votes
Why do RNAV airways exist?
RNAV airways are there for several reasons: (Speaking as a US controller and instructor)
Radar performance. Radar is not everywhere, and neither is ADS-B. Regulations require GNSS aircraft to be ...
- 1,514
2
votes
Why do RNAV airways exist?
You are partially correct, first of all they are called "RNAV routes" not "RNAV airways" and yes the entire point of RNAV was not needing to fly along a suboptimal preset path but that was because of ...
- 879
2
votes
Can a VFR flight follow an IFR route?
For low altitude flights ie below FL180, yes you can. You can use either Victor (VOR) or Tango (RNAV) airways. You will fly at VFR altitudes during cruise, but use of these airways on VFR flights is ...
- 72.9k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible