jpeterson1346
commented
7 years ago The New York airspace (N90 TRACON) is very congested. Traffic throughout the region is heavily restricted to coordinated procedures so that the three major and countless minor airfields can operate efficiently. On top of that, KJFK Airport is New York's main international gateway (though that can be argued by Newarkers). Nonetheless, heavy traffic arriving and departing is essentially constant with surges during the morning rush, afternoon international arrivals rush, and the evening departure rush. I'm going to include some (what I find useful) guides to managing traffic in the region, though keep in mind, you are free to deviate from these methods at your convenience.
Overview
The way the configuration is setup in the game favors departures and arrivals on the 31s (31L/31R). The SIDS in the kjfk.json file reflect the preferred configuration and have corresponding climbouts. Further, arriving traffic--particularly ROBER# and PARCH# arrivals--is vectored and descended to altitudes and speeds that favor 31L/31R arrivals.
Departures
There are three SIDS from KJFK: JFK# (Kennedy; "Ken-e-dee" #), SKORR# ("score" #), and DEEZZ# ("deez" #). In the real world, these departures are assigned based on
- assigned runway,
- departure gate (which I will briefly explain in a minute),
- airport configuration,
- aircraft equipment, and,
- local time.
Unfortunately in this simulation, neither us editors nor controllers have that kind of flexibility. Thus, the setup is as follows.
Climbout
JFK# Climbs
In the simulation, JFK# is only valid for departures on 31L and on 31R. In the real world, JFK# is the standard SID for all departures (regardless of runway) at KJFK, except for RNAV-equipped aircraft (a certain type of equipment that enables greater ability to navigate via inferred distances and bearings to radio beacons) departing 31L or 31R, where SKORR# is assigned. Furthermore, the JFK# departure defines certain "climbs" for 31L/R and 22R departures, depending on an aircraft's route of flight, though the specifics are not necessarily applicable to the current state of the simulation. In short, departures to the southeast (SOUTH 1 gates: ARD, RNGRR, RBV, DIXIE, WHITE) are assigned the Breezy Point climb whereas all other gates (i.e., other directions) are assigned the Canarsie climb (for turbojets). For the purpose of the simulation, a similar approach was given.
Since departures from both runways require a climbing left turn direct CRI (Canarsie) VOR/DME within JFK 4.5 DME (i.e., hard left turn as soon as able after takeoff), parallel departures in short succession will cause a loss of separation. Likewise,
Other Departure Climbs
SKORR# departures require a similar hard left turn after takeoff and similar loss of separation will occur. (DEEZZ# departures follow SKORR# climbouts nearly identically, including hard left turns from 31L and 31R).
After Climbout
JFK# and SKORR
Departures via these SIDS will exit (or "transition") in generally four directions. In the real world, there are five so-called departure "gates", though since the WEST gate consists of only SBJ (Solberg) and LANNA , I felt it safe to leave it out. In addition, the gate has certain specifics to the way aircraft are vectored to it and I felt it unnecessary to figure out how to incorporate those two transitions into the simulation. The four directions are
- SOUTH 1 (southeast of the field):
- ARD (Yardley),
- RBV (Robinsville),
- RNGRR ("ranger" or "rain-jer"),
- DIXIE, and
- WHITE;
- SOUTH 2 (southwest, over the ocean):
- WAVEY ("wave-ee"),
- SHIPP,
- HAPIE ("happy"), and
- BETTE ("bet-ee");
- EAST (northeast of the field):
- BDR (Bridgeport),
- BAYYS ("bays"),
- MERIT ("mare-it"), and
- GREKI (I've heard "greek-ee" and "greck-ee");
- and NORTH (northwest of the field):
- SAX (Sparta),
- DEEZZ (like the SID),
- GAYEL ("gale" or "gail" or "gay-ell"),
- HAAYS ("hays" or "haze"),
- NEION ("neon" or "nee-on"), and
- COATE ("coat").
DEEZZ
DEEZZ# has its own transitions: CANDR ("can-der") and TOWIN ("tou-in"; rhymes with "now in"). It follows the same climbout as SKORR# but instead of departing through a particular gate, aircraft are radar-vectored to DEEZZ where they then rejoin the published RNAV route (DEEZZ..HEERO ["hero"]..KURNL ["ker-nul" or "kernel" {or "colonel"}]..CANDR..TOWIN*).
In brief, once you caf, everything should be good to go. Here's a rough guide to where aircraft go after climbout:
What I do
With this configuration, I prefer using 31L as my dedicated departure runway. If things get particularly busy, I will use 4L for departures, assigning DEEZZ# for SIDS W 4L SID DEEZZ4 CAF CVS, and staggering them with 31L to prevent incursions. Alternatively, I sometimes use 31R as an overflow runway, however, this forces me to stagger departures with 31L (not to mention arriving aircraft).
Arrivals
KJFK accepts arriving traffic via six STARS: PARCH# ("parch" #), ROBER# ("row-bur" or "roe-bur" #), CAMRN# ("cam-ren" #), IGN# (Kingston; "Kings-ston" #), PWL# (PWL; "paw-ling" #), and LENDY# ("len-dee" #).
LENDY# and IGN
LENDY# and IGN# handle traffic from the North and West (e.g., Cleveland, Montreal). The important thing about them is that their last leg takes them along a route from LENDY to LGA (the VOR/DME) at FL190 and 250 kts. I usually split the flows so that LENDY# arrivals turn immediately south (heading 180-190 or direct COL [Colt's Neck]). I also descend this traffic to somewhere intermediate (like 5,000 ft) until closer in at which point I'll descend them to 3,000 ft to join the flow with CAMRN# traffic. IGN# traffic, I leave them on course but descend them to something like 6,000 ft until they're past the field. Then, I descend them to 4,000 ft to join ROBER# arrivals.
CAMRN
CAMRN# handles nearly all traffic from the South (e.g., San Juan, Atlanta). Arrivals will enter at 9,000 ft and 250 kts. Your best bet is to get them down to at least 4,000 ft as soon as you can so you don't have to worry about them. Sometimes I overflow arrivals onto 4R when things get especially busy. CAMRN# arrivals are very easy to vector there, as well as LENDY# traffic. Once closer in to the airport, I get arrivals down to 2,000 ft if landing 31L and if needed, 3,000 ft for 31R.
ROBER#, PARCH#, and PWL
ROBER# and PARCH# are essentially identical. They handle the vast majority of incoming European, New England, and Middle Eastern traffic (e.g., London, Boston). These arrivals come in crossing ROBER at 9,000 ft and 250 kts. I tweaked the routing after ROBER as follows:
- for ROBER# arrivals:
- ROBER, direct DEERY, cross DEERY at and maintain 4,000 [ft], speed 230 [kts]. Thence, direct DEUCE at and maintain 210 [kts].
- for PARCH# arrivals:
- ROBER, direct JFK, crossing JFK at 4,000 [ft], speed not exceeding 250 [kts]. This is the published routing (no change).
Once these arrivals come into the airspace, I try to get them to 3,000 ft or 4,000 ft and spaced enough for me to be able to leave them alone. Depending on how "extended" I have the 31R final leg, I will either route them direct CATOD (I've heard "kay-tod" and "cat-tod"), direct MALDE ("mall-dee"), direct ZULAB ("zoo-lab") route CATOD..MALDE..ZULAB or rr CATOD..MALDE..ZULAB. This works when I have a relatively short final leg; however, if the final is long, I just assign a southwest heading (heading 210-250) fh220 and turn them towards the field when I need them to. Additionally, if I can't fit in an arrival and have to move it to 31L, I descend it to 2,000 ft to discriminate it from other 31R arrivals.
PWL# is only used by prop/turboprop aircraft operating at 250 kts or less. Arrivals come in descending to 4,000 ft, direct DPK (Deer Park), crossing at 210 kts. After DPK, they will proceed direct DEUCE at 4,000 ft, 210 kts. This portion (direct DEUCE) is different than published. These arrivals are pretty straightforward--all you have to do is watch for them and join them in with the IGN# arrivals and then ROBER# arrivals.
Summary
In summary, I like to divvy up arrival flows between runways. To better organize them, I descend 31L arrivals to 2,000 ft and 31R arrivals to 3,000 ft. The wind permits overflows onto either the 22s (preferably, 22L) or the 4s (preferably 4R). A 31L/31R arrival + 31L departure configuration favors arrivals, so might not be preferable during the beginning of the simulation. As such, departures are favored using
- 31L and 4R or 22L (equivalent)
- No runway conflicts, though pay attention to loss of separation when departing 22L
- 31L and 4L
- Alternating departures so that intersecting traffic does not conflict. 4R for arrivals is best for this configuration so that there is less interdependence on arrivals/departures on other runways
- 31L and 31R
- Alternating departures so that adequate spacing is maintained during climbout.
During heavy arrival pushes,
- 31L and 31R
- 31L departures dependent on arrivals
- 31R and 4R
- Caution crossing departure traffic; you might have to issue departure altitudes to ensure proper vertical separation
- 31R and 31L and 4R
- Lots of moving parts
- 31R and 4L and 4R
- Ensure proper separation between arriving traffic (stagger it). 4L missed approaches fly heading 100
fh100and 4R missed approaches fly heading 140fh140to maintain adequate separation after go-around.
- Ensure proper separation between arriving traffic (stagger it). 4L missed approaches fly heading 100
These configurations are useful to know, especially when traffic becomes extremely hectic. That way, you won't be wasting time thinking about how the setup should occur. Though, the time you spent reading this probably outweighs any time you could be playing the game.
doofus
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Fechulo
erikquinn
Updated configuration to favor 31L/R. Reworked STARS and their traffic. SIDS now have climbouts incorporated in them (e.g., Canarsie, Breezy Point). This better handles departing traffic by directing aircraft in the correct direction depending on the departure gate.