Introduction 

Defining a Route 

This topic will cover the two ways you can define your route. 

We estimate that this will take 2 minutes to complete.

Detailed Explanation 

Route entry

Defining a route is the means of inputting a route one of two ways, manually or by copy and pasting from a flight plan. Manual entry will involve you to add waypoint/navaids and airways to your route by typing the ident of your waypoint/navaid or airway eg UM185 OCK.

The other possible way you can enter it is by copy and pasting from a flight plan. Once the route has been entered you will be able activate the route and then you will be able to view the route on the enroute screen. Let's start by entering a route manually.

The general structure of the route is:
 

• If you have entered FROM, TO, ALT in the route ribbon: WAYPOINT ROUTE_NAME WAYPOINT.
  Example: LACOU UM184 CHALA UY120 TUPAR UN861 DIKRO UZ273 NEVIL
  
   
• If you have not entered the FROM, TO, ALT in the route ribbon: FROM ROUTE TO ALT1 ALT2 ALT3. In this case use only ICAO code for aerodrome.
   Example: LFBO LACOU UM184 CHALA UY120 TUPAR UN861 DIKRO UZ273 NEVIL EGKK EGLL

Click the Route button.

You can enter your departure and arrival destinations into the FROM and TO respective fields. This is not necessary on this occasion as you can include them into your route entry and this will automatically place the aerodromes in their relevant fields.

Click the Route list item.

You enter your route in here. In this example one has already been put in there for you. You can see that it has started off with a departure aerodrome LFBO and finishes with an arrival aerodrome LFPG. You can add waypoints/navaids and airways to your route simply by typing in the ident of the waypoint/navaid or airway as per your ATC route.

The application will validate each of your entries as you enter the ident of the next waypoint/navaid or airway. Once the route is validated correctly, the activate button will turn green.

Click the Activate button.

  Individual elements of a route (SID, STAR, WPT, Navaid, AWY) need to be separated by a <space>.

    Fixes can be defined through coordinates and must be entered in one of three different formats

    [NS]99-99/[EW]199-99 or [NS]9999/[EW]19999
The first letter defines the latitude (N for North, S for South) The second letter
defines the longitude (E for East, W for West). Degrees are shown in the first
two or three figures: the longitude is divided into east and west from 0° - 180°,
while the latitude is 0° - 90°.
Example: North 75deg 30 min, East 154 deg 25 minutes are entered as:
N75-30/W154-25
or
N7530/E15425
 

    [NS]99[EW]199 or [NS]9959[EW]19959
or
 [NS]9959.9(9)[EW]19959.9(9)
(second decimal digit is optional)
Example: North 75deg 30 min 21 seconds, East 154 deg 25 minutes 42
seconds are entered as:
N753021/W1542542
Example: North 75deg 30 min 21.25 seconds, East 154 deg 25 minutes 42.32
seconds are entered as
N753021.25/W1542542.32
 

    99[NS]199[EW] or 9959[NS]19959[EW].
 Full degree:
Format: 2-digit latitude in degree, “N” for North, “S” for South, 3 digit degree
longitude, “E” for East, “W” for West
Example: “55 degrees, 0 minutes 0 seconds North, 50 degrees 0 minutes 0
seconds West” are entered as:
55N50W
Half degree:
4-digit latitude in degree and minutes, “N” for North, “S” for South, 5 digit
degree longitude, “E” for East, “W” for West
Example: 55 degrees 30 minutes 0 seconds South, 178 degrees 30 minutes 0
seconds East” are entered as:
 0530S17830E

Click the Route button.

Copy and Paste a route

You will be able to copy and paste a route from a flight plan received in a text format i.e. email, PDF into the application to plot the route entry. The flight plan route must be in the ICAO standard format for flight plans.
 

Example of a standard flight plan. Using the flight plan you can either copy & paste the “General overview route info”, or “ATC flight plan route info”. The application has the capability to identify appropriate route segment for plotting. 

General overview route information which you can copy and paste into your route.

 

 ATC flight plan route.

In this example we have already copied the following route from a flight plan.
 Using the Paste button will paste the route into the box once copied from the flight plan.

Click the Activate button.

  When pasting from an ATC flight plan route, you must only copy the route string starting from the FROM aerodrome and finishing at the TO or the final ALTN aerodrome. See below for example.Do not copy first part of the ATC flight Plan i.e. Flight Number/Aircraft as this
may not be processed by the application when validating the route.
 

Your route is now visible on the enroute screen.