Route Screen Overview

Modified on: Tue, 20 Jun, 2023 at 12:36 PM

Introduction

Route Screen Overview

This topic gives you an overview of the Route screen. You should begin with this topic if you have no experience with the Route screen.

We estimate that this will take 5 minutes to complete.

Detailed Explanation

Route Screen - Prerequisite

ATTENTION

Before you begin this topic, you should be familiar with the Map and Info functionality.

Route Screen Overview

This training is designed to provide an overview of the Route Interface.

Training will include:

Reviewing and sorting the route analysis
Editing a route
Building a new route
Utilizing Route Builder option.

Interaction 1 Click the Flight 0100 check box.

Interaction 1 Click the Route tab.

Once you have selected the flight, the route is displayed on the map. You may have to move and adjust the map to see the full route.

The Info panel displays information about the flight as well.

Interaction 1 Click the CMP (MAN) list item.

Saved routes are displayed here. If multiple routes exist you can sort them by Fuel, Dist, Time, FuelCost, DOC, OFC, or Cost. You can click on one of the headers to sort.

ATTENTION

It is important to note that the information displayed here are estimates only. Routes may change during a compute.

HINT

There are two possible flags that may be added to a route:

CAP indicates there is a flight level cap on the route (MFL) that either comes from the Route itself or Aircraft Characteristics (FOMS 220).

PROF indicates this route makes use of flight level profiling.

Interaction 1 Click the New button.

The New button, along with the ones to the right, are used when editing or creating a new route. They will be explained in later topics.

Route Information for the selected route is displayed in the Info panel.

Route Legs

The Route is displayed in individual legs. Each leg shows where it originated (From), the airway used (Airway), and where it terminates (To). Flight Level and Orbit Time (above) are also part of each leg.

Flight Level

Each leg of the generated flight includes a provision for a flight level to be entered for it. The Flight Level fields are located to the right of the corresponding leg. Clicking in the field enables it for data entry. The flight level that you enter corresponds to the waypoint listed to the left of it in the To column.

To illustrate, in the example below, the flight level for the leg from waypoint HEMIS to waypoint FNT is entered as 380. This means that at waypoint HEMIS, the pilot begins to ascend from flight level 320 (the flight level entered for the previous leg) so that the aircraft is at flight level 380 by the time waypoint FNT is reached.

Orbit Time

These fields allow you specify an orbit time (i.e., time in a holding pattern) for any waypoint in the route, in minutes. This can be any positive number up to three digits.

If a value is entered for one of these fields, the flight level must also be specified for the associated waypoint.

Profile

The Profile list displays all available cruise profiles for the selected aircraft.

Interaction 1 Click the Departure Runway dropdown button.

The New button opens the Route Builder screen.

Interaction 2 Click the Best Route list item.

Departure Runway

If the Default Runways field in FOMS Menu 170 (Airline Parameter File) is set to Y, then the Departure Runway dropdown list will default to Max Headwind, but you can select any of the following options:

None: Generic SIDs/STARs are used.
Use specific runway: A specific runway can be selected from a drop-down list under the ORIG and/or DEST headings. The dropdown list of runways comes from FOMS Menu 107 (Runways Program).
Best Route: This option picks an optimized route result based on time, and the optimizer used (LC,LT,LF). Procedures are weighted so that ones tied to runways with higher headwinds are chosen over runway-specific procedures; however, the N-FP system can choose a runway specific procedure that isn't the highest headwind if it is the most optimal route. You can set Best Route as your default in the FOMS 170 menu by setting the Default Runway field to.
Max Headwind: This option prioritizes procedures tied to the departure/arrival runway with the maximum headwind component. This is a strict component when choosing procedures as the best route will not be chosen over a route with maximum headwind.
Longest Procedure: The runway causing the longest distance is selected from the available runways. Once the route generator has chosen a SID/STAR, then for all the runways that the SID/STAR can use, the runway giving the longest procedure distance is chosen (as long as it is suitable). A similar ranking system would occur where the longest distance gives a better ranking, but unsuitability gives a lower ranking.
Max Tail Wind: Entering a value in the Max Rwy Tail Wind in the FOMS 170 sets a maximum tail wind for runway selection. This ensures the N-FP system does not use a procedure with forecasted tail winds greater than this value. This setting primarily affects the Best Route and Longest Procedure options.

Interaction 1 Click the Use a specific SID check box.

When you select a specific SID from the dropdown list the procedure is automatically displayed on the map screen. The procedure is available immediately, you do not need to select the Generate button.

Use a specific SID

When you click on the checkbox allows a dropdown list of SIDs that apply to the selected runway from FOMS Menu 320 (SID Routes Program) is made available for you to choose from.

Do not use SIDs

Clicking the on Do not use SIDs checkbox instructs N-FP to not use SIDs when generating the route. N-FP generates a route to fly direct to the most efficient enroute waypoint.

Use a preferred departure

Clicking the Use Preferred Departure checkbox allows you to make use of a preferred departure in your route. A dropdown list of preferred departures from FOMS Menu 316 (Preferred Departures Program) appears for you to choose from.

Interaction 1 Click the Use Tracks check box.

Use Tracks

Clicking the Use Tracks checkbox allows you to make use of tracks in your route. A dropdown list of tracks (NAT, PAC, AUS, or NOR) appears for you to choose from.

Use a preferred arrival

Clicking the Use a preferred arrival checkbox allows you to make use of a preferred arrival in your route. A dropdown list of preferred arrivals from FOMS Menu 317 (Preferred Arrivals Program) appears for you to choose from.

Interaction 1 Click the Use a specific STAR check box.

When you select a specific STAR from the drop-down list the procedure is automatically displayed on the map screen. The procedure is available immediately, you do not need to select the Generate button.

Use a specific STAR

Clicking the Use a specific STAR checkbox allows you to make use of STAR in your route. A drop-down list of STARs that apply to the selected runway from FOMS Menu 325 (STARs Routes Program) is made available for you to choose from.

Interaction 1 Click the Arrival Runway dropdown button.

Interaction 2 Click the Best Route list item.

Arrival Runway

If the Arrival Runways field in FOMS Menu 170 (Airline Parameter File) is set to Y, then the Arrival Runway dropdown list will default to Max Headwind, but you can select any of the following options:

None: Generic SIDs/STARs are used.
Use specific runway: A specific runway can be selected from a dropdown list under the ORIG and/or DEST headings. The dropdown list of runways comes from FOMS Menu 107 (Runways Program).
Max Headwind: The best runway based on wind is selected from the available runways. For Max Headwind, the route generator ranks all the runways for that airport based on suitability and METAR/TAF wind.
Longest Procedure: The runway causing the longest distance is selected from the available runways. Once the route generator has chosen a SID/STAR, then for all the runways that the SID/STAR can use, the runway giving the longest procedure distance is chosen (as long as it is suitable). A similar ranking system would occur where the longest distance gives a better ranking, but unsuitability gives a lower ranking.

Interaction 1 Click the MTTA input field.

Route String Window

The Route String window allows you to enter a specific route using MTTA (Minimum Time Track Airway), DCT (Direct), and/or specific airways.

See MTTA Expansion Options on the Route String Parser page for information on MTTA options.

When selected, the informational context arrow opens a text box displaying FAA preferred routes. Selecting a route string updates the Route String window with the selected route string. If you are building a new route with another route previously stored, the route string window automatically populates with the previously stored route instead of defaulting to MTTA. This makes for easier route editing.

The Route String window can be resized by dragging the bottom right corner.

Interaction 1 Click the Comments input field.

You can get more information on a field or dropdown menu when you click to use it.

The Back, Generate, and Reset buttons are used when creating or editing a route. They will be covered in later topics.

Comments

Enter any comments that are applicable to the route. If the route exists as a city-pair on FOMS Menu 305 (City-Pair Routes Program), the comments entered here are added to the FOMS file.

The Comments window can be resized by dragging the bottom right corner.

Interaction 1 Click the Apply Rules dropdown button.

Apply Rules:

Ignore: If the flight does not comply with the rules a warning or error won't be received. Note: This is not recommended for planning in IFPS airspace.
RAD only: When used, a country's preferred route rules are not applied to the MTTA, only RAD and NOTAMs are applied. A warning is displayed if route generation fails or if a rule is broken. Note: This option gives the N-FP system a better chance of successfly generating a route over complex airspace.
Warn: If the flight doesn't comply with the rules a warning will be displayed in the notification box and the flight will still compute.
All: All rules are applied even if you have set rules to ignore using the Ignore Rules Configuration screen.
Error: If the flight doesn't comply with the rules, the flight will not compute and will display and error.

Note: To configure the rules dropdown default see FOMS Menu 170.

Changing the value in the Options group also changes the Apply Rules dropdown list on the Route Group section on the Plan screen.

Must not use:

Note: Changes made here only apply if Apply Rules is set to Error or Warn.

Enter waypoints, airways, restricted areas, and/or FIRs that you do not want to use in your routes.

Rules are specified as follows:

Waypoints - add the name of the waypoint, e.g.: YYZ+CY
Airways - add the name of the airway, e.g.: YQT+CY J500 YOW+CY
Restricted Areas - add the keyword (AREA) and the name of the restricted areas, e.g.: AREA CY:609M
FIRS - add the keyword (FIR) and the name of the flight information region, e.g.: FIR CZYZ
Countries - add ther keyword COUNTRY and the country code, e.g.: COUNTRY CA

Rules are separated by forward slashes or commas. For example:

YYZ+CY, YQT+CY J500 YOW+CY, AREA CY:609M, FIR CZYS, FIR CZUL, FIR CZWG

Interaction 1 Click the Avoid Restricted dropdown button.

Interaction 2 Click the Error list item.

Avoid Restricted:

The Avoid Restrict dropdown box has the following options:

Ignore: no warning or error is received for restricted areas.
Apply: will apply restricted area avoidance if MTTA is used to find a route, but no warning will be given if a fixed route through a restricted area is used.
Warn: warnings are displayed if a restricted area cannot be avoided.
Error: error messages are displayed if a restricted area cannot be avoided and the route is not built and the compute fails.

Interaction 1 Click the Avoid UDA dropdown button.

Interaction 2 Click the Ignore list item.

Avoid UDA:

The Avoid UDA dropdown box has the following options:

Ignore: If the flight does not avoid UDAs, a warning or error won't be received.
Warn: If the flight does not avoid UDAs, a warning will be displayed in the notification box and the flight will still compute.
Error: If the flight does not avoid UDAs, the flight will not compute and will display an error.

Avoid NATs:

Click Avoid NATs checkbox to generate a route that avoids the North Atlantic Tracks.

Avoid Turbulence:

Use this checkbox to generate a route that avoids turbulence using the value set in the Avoid Turb field in the FOMS 170 menu. Select Y on the FOMS 170 menu in the field beside Avoid Turb Edr to make this checkbox selected by default.

Avoid icing (if flying low):

Use this checkbox to generate a route that avoids icing using the value set in the Avoid Icing field in the FOMS 170 menu. Select Y on the FOMS 170 menu in the field beside Avoid Icing PPI to make this checkbox selected by default.

Avoid thunder storms:

Use this checkbox to generate a route that avoids storms using the value set in the Avoid ThunderStorm field in the FOMS 170 menu. Select Y on the FOMS 170 menu in the field beside Avoid ThunderStorm to make this checkbox selected by default.

Check

If deselected, there are no warnings for missing permits when generating a flight plan or route. If selected, warnings are generated.
By default the checkbox is selected. It will be deselected if the Permit Check button is deselected in the Route group on the Plan screen.