The arrival

STAR or vectors, planning the descent, and the approach clearance that hands you from ATC’s route to the published procedure.

15 min read · Flying IFR: departure to landing

After this lesson you can

  • Explain the difference between "cleared [arrival name]" and "descend via" clearance phrasing.
  • Plan a descent using the standard optimum-rate technique and know when to report an inability to comply.
  • Read a Minimum Safe Altitude circle on an approach chart and know what it is for.
  • Recognize the structure of a vector-to-final-approach-course clearance.

Forty miles out, Boston Approach has N7421G in hand and the ATIS is already tuned in on the second radio: Runway 4 Right is the active approach, wind light, ceiling 700 overcast. A flight this size, coming from this direction, will not fly Boston’s published ROBUC3 arrival - that STAR is built for higher, faster traffic descending from the flight levels on transitions from JFK, MERIT, or RUIZE. What N7421G gets instead is exactly what a great many IFR arrivals get: direct radar vectors from the controller straight to the final approach course.

Both methods are doing the same job - getting the aircraft from the en route structure down to the approach in an orderly, separated way - and a pilot who understands one understands the logic of the other. This lesson covers both, plus the descent planning and the clearance phrasing that ties the arrival to the approach that follows.

The rest of this lesson

  1. 1.STAR, or "descend via"
  2. 2.Planning the descent
  3. 3.Minimum Safe Altitudes on the plate
  4. 4.The approach clearance
  5. 5.What N7421G actually hears

These 5 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the IFR track. Paid once, yours for good.

See what the IFR track costsEvery module 1 is free to read, no account, no card.

Key terms

Try to recall each definition before turning the card.