How to read route info

Another question from a relative newbie-

I am looking at two flights between the same airports. One shows a route

DUNKS J70 PMM J547 OBK BDF IRK J96 GUP
BUNTR1

The other

DUNKS J70 PMM KG69K RBA KK54C CIM ZUN
BUNTR1

Where can I learn how to interpret this info? :confused:

You can access FAA air traffic control documents at faa.gov/ATpubs/. The one that you will be interested inis 7350.7 “Location Identifiers.”

The 3 letter codes in the routings are VORTACs.

The 5 letter item in the example given (DUNKS) is an intersection formed by radials from 2 VORTACS.

The item at the end of the route (BUNTR1) is a STAR (Standard Terminal Arrival Route).

All of the above can be decoded using 7350.7 Additionally, you can download the actual STARs by clicking on the resources link to the left of any FlightAware screen and then picking the arrival airport.

“J” routes (e.g. J70) are high altitude routes. I believe the minimum altitude for these is 18,000 feet. “V” routes that are below 18,000.

DUNKS J70 PMM J547 OBK BDF IRK J96 GUP BUNTR1

decoded: from DUNKS intersection take J70 to PMM then J547 to OBK. From OBK fly direct to BDF direct to IRK then take J96 to GUP. At GUP use BUNTR1 arrival. Use 7350.7 to decode the abbreviations.

DUNKS J70 PMM KG69K RBA KK54C CIM ZUN BUNTR1

from DUNKS take J70 to PMM then KG69K direct to RBA then KK54C to CIM then direct to ZUN and then use the BUNTR1 arrival.

I’m not familar with KG69K and KK54C. If I knew what the departure and and arrival airports and aircraft type were, I could probably figure it out.

naco.faa.gov/index.asp?xml=naco/catalog gives a brief overview of different charts available. Doing a quick Google search, I couldn’t find anyplace that has online charts.

Departure and arrival procedures are are the beginning and/or end of a flight route and are a series of letters followed by a number. Those procedures are available in FlightAware’s resources section.

For example, if a flight’s route ends with BLUBL2 while en route to KHOU, that’s the KHOU BLUBELL Two Arrival

They’re airspace fixes. For example KG69K is at 41 deg 30 min N 90 deg W

Also, keep in mind some routes don’t use STARs or SIDs. Some airports don’t even have STARs or SIDs either. So a few flight plans, especially short hops or smaller general aviation (GA) planes will just fly direct to various waypoints. Even a lot of commuter routes are like that. :wink:

Yep, part of the new National Airspace Redesign/High Altitude Redesign (NAR/HAR) project, specifically the Navigation Reference System (NRS). The FAA has a cool video on this at faa.gov/ats/nar/har_section.htm

www.skyvector.com has online charts, but not IFR charts.

Speaking of this, does anyone have a website or free program that you can plug a route into and it will show you a graphical routing? The AOPA flight planner can do the reverse (print out a route plan from a drawn route), but every once in a while when I see a route like the above I’d like to see it graphically.

Graphically? Like Google Earth or over a sectional?

There are a couple Google Earth utilities out there, but I don’t have them bookmarked.

I believe fltplan.com does, but they only show where the waypoints are and don’t connect the dots.

FYI, on the mapping team’s short list is to provide the option to display navaids and intersections and a projected path of flight when viewing a specific flight.

Plotting both projected route (dashed line) and actual route (solid line) together would be a great bonus enhancement.

…exactly our intention.

Hmmm… I guess maybe over a sectional would be what I was thinking of. But I’ll take whatever people can get. I think I have a bookmarked sectional overlay for google earth, so either would work I guess.

FYI some of the 3 letter codes are just VORs rather than VORTACs.
DUNKS is the intersection of radials from 2 VOR’s and a VORTAC.

FYI some of the 3 letter codes are just VORs rather than VORTACs

Thanks for letting me know. As a non-pilot, I’ve always called them VORTACs and didn’t realize that some didn’t have a TACAN associated with them.

Actually most are VOR/DME :wink:

You’re right. But most pilots just tend to call those VOR’s. :slight_smile:

I use http://www.fsroute.com. It’s meant for flight sims, and can output the plan to your flightsim, but after you hit generate, you can click view map on the bottom, and a nice little visual map shows up.

I was just ribbin’ ya really. They’re all just VORs to me. :stuck_out_tongue: