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I am investigating SIDs, STARs and approach procedures. I have a couple of questions about it:

  • Is there a way to get SID, STAR, and approach data from airports around the world? I don't mean from the AIPs but rather from a database.
  • Is there a way to simply calculate (some algorithm maybe?) and reproduce the shape of the legs of such trajectories? I mean some sort of simplification in order just to have an idea of what SID, STAR and approaches look like.
Pondlife
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Federico Gentile
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  • I don't have a source for data, but procedures are initially designed as text with type of leg, distance, lat, long as segment descriptions, so it's not a problem to derive the graphic representation. Description elements are compliant with ARINC-424 – mins Feb 15 '18 at 13:38
  • Do you mean just the name of SID,STAR,APPROACH of each airport or every steps contain in those procedure? – vasin1987 Feb 15 '18 at 13:41
  • Every leg and waypoint, constraint, etc. You may search for "procedure design arinc-424" for documentation, e.g. this ICAO one. Also FAA Order 8260.19. – mins Feb 15 '18 at 13:50
  • I don't completely understand your question (and maybe it should be two questions). For a data source, see this question; the typical way to get this data is from the AIP or a data provider like Jeppesen. For the second part, I don't really understand what you mean by visualizing the procedures; they're published in a graphical form already (at least in the US). – Pondlife Feb 15 '18 at 14:00
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    Maybe for the US, the database is Coded Instrument Flight Procedures (CIFP). Formerly known as the National Flight Database (NFD). It can be downloaded following the links provided. – mins Feb 15 '18 at 14:17
  • For the US see https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/digital_products/dtpp/ – Steve Kuo Feb 15 '18 at 16:40
  • @mins well as far as i know graphic representation depends on aircraft type, weather, performances... therefore their shape changes considerably and trajectory shape prediction is very complicated and tough. – Federico Gentile Feb 16 '18 at 08:03
  • @vasin1987 I mean every step (latitude and longitude) contained in the procedure – Federico Gentile Feb 16 '18 at 08:04
  • @Pondlife semplified question: get data -> calculate points coordinates -> plot shape of procedure.... eventually my goal is to create something like in the charts – Federico Gentile Feb 16 '18 at 08:07
  • "graphic representation depends on aircraft type, weather, performances..." I thought I understood your question, but now I'm lost. Standard procedures graphically depicted on "plates", except for category minimums are the same for all aircraft. I'm not talking about prediction of actual path. – mins Feb 16 '18 at 09:59
  • @mins So how can they depict standard procedure graphically if their shape changes based on many parameters (weather, perform....)? – Federico Gentile Feb 16 '18 at 10:27
  • "if their shape changes based on many parameters (weather, perform....)", I don't think the shape changes. Do you have a document which says differently? – mins Feb 16 '18 at 10:58
  • @min The shape does change indeed... FMS output is a pretty good proof of it... imagine same airplane having minimum take off weight and then maximum take off weight... different rate of climbs may occur thus generating a different calculation of conditional waypoints (described by the way in the ARINC 424) – Federico Gentile Feb 16 '18 at 12:27
  • As mins says, the "shapes" do not change for different aircraft. The waypoints are all fixed lat/long and the crossing restrictions are all the same. Depending on aircraft capabilities, equipment, etc. they may use different approaches. For example the ILS approach will usually be separate from the RNAV approach. SIDS/STARS may have a couple of different options depending on turbojet or propeller, but they will both be part of the procedure and depicted on the same plate. If we can understand how you're wanting to use it we can probably help you out. – TomMcW Feb 16 '18 at 19:03
  • Secondly, there is probably no single source for data for all countries. All countries disseminate information in a different way. The only people that compile all the separate countries into one source do it for profit. Jeppesen will have pretty much the whole world in their database, but that's what they do for a business so you have to pay. Garmin, etc will have all that info for their products, but it will be proprietary – TomMcW Feb 16 '18 at 19:07
  • Hello @TomMcW thanks for the answer but I have to desagree: shapes of SID/STAR/APPROACH do/can change. As a matter of fact the points forming the procedures are not always fixed... I deal with FMS pretty often and I know for sure that there are algorithms that calculate points coordinates during procedures... you can see this at the attachment 5 of the ARINC 424... that's why I am asking the question... is there a way to simplify/avoid the calculations and get some sort of approximation – Federico Gentile Feb 19 '18 at 08:28
  • The fixes within the database do not change. What will change are the transitions between legs and certain performance based fixes (altitude terminated legs, etc). Leg transitions are affected by a/c ground speed and the current winds. Algorithms to compute these are specific to each FMS and aircraft type. Performance based fixes depend on the a/c performance database provided to the FMS by the a/c manufacturer. – Gerry Jul 06 '18 at 12:16
  • @Gerry The fixes within the database can change throughout the years – Federico Gentile Jul 06 '18 at 16:19
  • The fixes will change when the procedure changes - which they often do. That's why the database is updated every 28 days. The FMS does not move any of the procedure fixes contained with the database when constructing the path. – Gerry Jul 06 '18 at 22:05

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