IVAO Belgium

After collecting the necessary information, it’s time for the briefing. Our plane, the “Pilot in Command 737-300”, is equipped with a professional FMC and will, after applying the correct settings, automatically fly the programmed route. Of course, the pilot can also fly manually following the route shown by the FMC. As indicated in the ATIS of the controller in Brussels, runway 25R is in use (see Active Controllers).

The departure.

When departing from runway 25R to Schiphol, we will probably receive the HELEN2C-departure which is the standard SID for our destination.

The HELEN2C departure is not really hard to fly.

After take-off, when you’re flying at an altitude of 700ft (1feet = 0,3048m), you turn right to intercept radial 317 of the Huldenberg VOR[1] (heading ±317°) until you’re above the intersection named Helen. From here on, we’ll continue our route.

The route and arrivalprocedure.

The route we fly is actually quite short since the STAR for Schiphol already starts at Helen.

The Helen-arrival STAR is defined as the route Helen – HSD – River. River is the endpoint of this STAR!

From this point on, we’ll have to receive the necessary information about the runway and approach to use by the controller at Schiphol Approach.

The approach.

The runways in use are 18R (Polderbaan) and 18C (Zwanenburgbaan). This is shown in the ATIS of the active controller.

The runway you need to use will depend on the current traffic, the type of airplane you fly… and is chosen by the controller. As pilot, you can state you preferences.

The route in FSCommander.

When we plot our route in FSCommander, we get the following result. The most important points are Helen, HSD and River.

Helen and River are 2 intersections; HSD (abbreviation for Haamstede) is a VOR.