How To Read Charts

Charts

An aeronautical chart is a map designed to assist in the navigation of aircraft, much as nautical charts do for watercraft, or a roadmap does for drivers. Using these charts and other tools, pilots are able to determine their position, safe altitude, best route to a destination, navigation aids along the way, alternative landing areas in case of an in-flight emergency, and other useful information such as radio frequencies and airspace boundaries. There are charts for all land masses on Earth, and long-distance charts for trans-oceanic travel.

Specific charts are used for each phase of a flight and may vary from a map of a particular airport facility to an overview of the instrument routes covering an entire continent (e.g., global navigation charts), and many types in between.

Visual flight charts are categorized according to their scale, which is proportional to the size of the area covered by one map. The amount of detail is necessarily reduced when larger areas are represented on a map.

• World aeronautical charts (WACs) have a scale of 1:1,000,000 and cover relatively large areas. Outside of WAC coverage, operational navigation charts (ONC) may be used. They use the same scale as WACs, but omit some useful information such as airspace restrictions.
• Sectional charts typically cover a total area of about 340x340 miles, printed on both sides of the map. The scale is 1:500,000.
• VFR terminal area charts are created with a scale and coverage appropriate for the general vicinity of a large airport (1:250,000). They may depict preferred VFR flight routes within areas of congested airspace.

Each Aerodrome has it´s own charts refering to specialized local procedures such as Taxing, Departing, Arriving and Approaching. According to the mentioned topics, Airport Charts can be devided into four to five catagories:

- Standard Terminal Arrival (STAR) Charts

- Approach (APP) Charts

- TAXI Charts

- Standard Instrument Departure (SID) Charts

- Reference (REF) Charts

Standart terminal Arrival (STAR) Charts

STAR Charts feature informations about multiple Arrival routes to an specific Aerodrome. Along with that, they contain informations about how the routes are to be flown and how the reader can perform the required actions. Arrivals in general lead the Pilots into the floowing approach. They also give hints about the enviroment and continious NOTAMS

Example Chart RAF Akrotiri

The given example is an arrival chart for RAF Akrotiri. It contains informations for the ANANE ALPHA, IREA ALPHA, and the MEZUS ALPHA Arrival. The name of an arrival route is about its first leg or in other words its entry leg.

Startet from the actual top, which in the example is the right side each chart has the Airports ICAO code its related to in its upper left corner, The day of publishment in the center and the full name and country in the upper right corner.

Below the firs line of information from left to right the chart contains informations about the ATIS Frequency (ex. 125.0)

Followed by the Approach Frequency (ex. 123.6) and the frequencys of the sorrounding centers (ex. NICOSIA CONTROL WEST and EAST)

At last there is the Airport elevations MSL in ft. (ex. 75 ft. MSL)