Foreign IAPs details

[GravityHater]

For example what is an "HI-ILS/DME RWY 8"
ref TJSJ San Juan, P.R.

or

"TLv FL 180" and "TA 18,000"
ref MYNN Nassau Int

Anyone know what these mean?
Many thanks!

 

[Snoopy58]

Transition Altitude is the altitude above which you set 29.92 and transition to Flight Level terminology (since, with 29.92 set, you're no longer reading your altitude above Mean Sea Level). Transition Level is the Flight Level below which you set the local altimeter and go back to referring to your altitude as thousands and hundreds of feet. In Puerto Rico, like the USA, this happens at 18,000' going up and FL 180 going down. Some other places, they happen at other altitudes -- lower, for instances, many places in Europe.

 

[Uncle Sparky]

For all practical purposes, San Juan isn't really foreign and the procedures are really no different than anywhere in the States'.

I don't know what plate you're looking at but my Jepp shows a regular ol' ILS(no DME) and a standard G.S..

 

[satpak77]

and...

some non-radar IAP's in South America, non-precision, are depicted with no IAF displayed on the chart, nor any STAR/Arrival into the airport

 

[Vector4fun]

For example what is an "HI-ILS/DME RWY 8"
ref TJSJ San Juan, P.R.

I don't have a copy, but it sounds like a military high altitude penetration. Lots of domestic airports with significant military traffic will have a Hi-ILS or HI-TACAN approach. They're just not normally published where civilians see them. The DOD books have them.

 

[OhDannyBoy]

In some parts of the caribbean the Trans Alts are much lower than 18,000 due to lack of radar and little to no Wx reporting. Some ICAO diffferences, too. A VOR approach to one island based on an offisland navaid is not 'officially a VOR approach but can be used and will be given a name like 'Cloudbreak'. The procedures and mins are prety much the same, except for NDB approches.

 

[GravityHater]

This is all from the IAPs at the back of the Flying The Bahamas Guidebook. 2 yrs old.
I call them 'foreign' because the idenfier all start with "M"and in my book if they aint a "K" they isnt 'merican.
So if it is a military "HI ILS", what is so "HI" about it?
GH

 

[Snoopy58]

"Hi" means that the procedure starts high, like 8 or 10 thousand feet or sometimes more. In a jet, driving in at high altitude is lots more fuel efficient than driving in at 2 or 3 thousand feet, so for jet traffic (especially those who aren't concerned with pax comfort) an optimal approach is to proceed to an IAF at say 10,000, pull the power to idle, and fly a procedure such as a DME arc that dumps you out on the localizer at some reasonable final like 8 or 10 miles. From that point in, the "HI ILS" looks just like a normal ILS and probably has the same minimums (not always, but mostly). Such approaches are designed with military jets in mind and may do everything off TACANs rather than using VOR's NDB's, since most single seat jets don't have ADF's and some don't have a VOR receiver either.

As was mentioned, there ARE plenty of HI approaches for 'merican fields, but they tend to be published in the military approach books and not so much elsewhere... even in an airliner that could fly such an approach perfectly easily, vectors to final is the usual way to go.

 

[ATR-DRIVR]

When I was a controller at Patrick AFB in Cocoa Beach, we had a Hi Tacan 1 Rwy 2 and one for 20. If I recall the IAP was POLARIS at FL200. Most of the intransient fighters would do them along with your occasional MAC heavy.

 

[GravityHater]

I guess youre right, it starts at FL200, 40 miles out.

 

[A Squared]

I call them 'foreign' because the idenfier all start with "M"and in my book if they aint a "K" they isnt 'merican.

Hmmmmm, so all the airports I'm flying to which start with PA aren't 'merican ??? I suppose that also goes for all the airports in Hawaii which start with PH ?

So tell me this, If I'm not in the US, why the hell am i paying a fifth of my earnings to the US government?

 

[GravityHater]

So tell me this, If I'm not in the US, why the hell am i paying a fifth of my earnings to the US government?

Sir, an unfortunate oversight on our part. In future please forward all you income tax directly to my personal address, where it should have been sent in the first place. We apologize for any inconvenience!


PS I'd thought each country got its own letter but apparently not. Thanks.

 

[A Squared]

Sir, an unfortunate oversight on our part. In future please forward all you income tax directly to my personal address, where it should have been sent in the first place. We apologize for any inconvenience!

LOL! that's good!

 

[Snoopy58]

I'd thought each country got its own letter but apparently not.

Each region gets its letter. The Lower 48 get "K" while much of the Pacific gets "P," so there's PHNL for Honolulu and PANK for Anchorage and so forth. In some places (not the lower 48), the first two letters will give you country or some other subset of the broader area: PAxx is Alaska, PHxx is Hawaii, RJxx is Japan, RKxx is South Korea, EDxx is Germany, EGxx is the UK, and so forth. There are references out there that can give you the whole breakdown, but I don't have a link handy.

Anyone?

 

[GravityHater]

Useful, Snoopy58.
Thanks.
I love to learn.
GH