Departure, En-route and Arrival Procedures
Core concepts
Departure procedures include standard instrument departures, obstacle clearance, climb gradients, and noise abatement. En-route work covers track keeping, level management, position reporting where required, and monitoring fuel and weather. Arrival procedures include standard terminal arrivals, descent planning, approach briefings, and stabilised approach criteria.
Traps in questions
A published departure may require a minimum climb gradient steeper than standard; if performance cannot meet it, an alternate procedure is needed. Questions often test the difference between a minimum safe altitude and a minimum sector altitude, and when a position report is mandatory. Descent planning traps include forgetting to allow for deceleration and approach configuration, and treating a STAR as an approach clearance - a STAR does not authorise descent below the cleared level or clearance to approach.
Worked example
At 3-degree descent, rule of thumb: height loss ≈ 3 × ground miles. To lose 9000 ft you need about 30 track miles. At 240 kt ground speed, that is 8 minutes. Add distance for slowing and configuring, so begin descent earlier than the pure geometric point.
Rule of thumb
Plan descent with the 3:1 rule, then add margin for speed reduction and any level segment on the arrival.
Stabilised approach
Set a gate - typically by 1000 ft in IMC - by which the aircraft must be on track, on speed, on glidepath and with landing checklist complete, otherwise go around.