How do airline pilots know the route they need to follow on a flight?
In: Engineering
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As we have commercialized the sky we have developed uniform rules and routes
Pilots follow assigned routes for going from place to place; and there are even “lanes” just like on a road.
If you have 2 planes flying to London and one leaves from Washington DC and one from Baltimore; they will fly almost the exact same route….but one in lane a and one in lane b to keep them separated
A flight plan is filed by the airlines dispatcher, and that flight plan is entered into the Flight Management System by the pilot. Generally this is via GPS waypoints. It’s more complicated than that, but that’s the basics.
There’s a flight plan that knows when to turn how many degrees and etc all programmed in. They have multiple navigation systems for the plane to know it’s location, therein knowing if it’s on course. Most planes take more or less the exact same routes so it’s not really something that has to be modified much.
Nowadays airline pilots can “know” a route they need to follow the same way you “know” how to follow the instructions from your GPS navigator app on your smartphone. It isn’t much different from navigating in your car other than there are no visible roads and you have to think about the vertical dimension.
However, as a pilot myself (not an airline pilot), I can say you are trained in all manner of navigation methods starting with dead-reckoning by identifying visual landmarks while following a map (called a “sectional chart”) made for the purpose, to navigating without looking out the window at all, relying on your instruments and radio navigation aids, all the way up to fully-automated GPS navigation with integrated autopilot. And combinations in between.
During Flight the pilots are following what they programmed into the flight computer prior to departure.
When it comes to route planning, there are often predetermined tracks that the pilots can or need to follow, such as the North Atlantic Track, which ensures adequate separation between planes. The approach plate for the airport they are landing at may also have waypoints to be followed on the final approach.
A dispatcher at the airline is assigned to the flight and starts with the “usual” route it flies that minimizes fuel use and is usually the shortest path. Then they look at weather along the route that day, upper wind forecasts, and traffic flow programs that in the U.S. anyway the central ATC headquarters communicates to all the major airlines throughout the day. The dispatcher then “files” their requested route with ATC. About a half hour before departure, ATC confirms the routing (or might make minor changes if situations have changed) and the pilots get an automated printout or verbal confirmation of their route.
They then program it into their onboard navigation system. After departure, ATC occasionally may have a re-route mostly due to weather or traffic flow, or often the pilots will request shortcuts if they are running late.
Simply put, it’s already been planned before they even board the plane. Someone has filed a flight plan so that it’s in the air traffic control system’s network, it’s been approved, and they’re ready to go. Prior to the actual flight, it’s programmed into the plane’s computer and the autopilot can execute it.
Though, Air Traffic Control is free to give the plane other instructions, or the pilots can request deviation if there’s a good reason.
In terms of the actual flight, mostly it’s GPS based these days, but alternatives exist. Planes know where they are, and even if GPS fails they have a very good estimate using other techs.
Most countries have similar but my experience is mostly with the United States system.
Basically for the pilots at an airline it’s Departure paperwork from dispatch and they are just confirming it makes sense and that they have what they need to accomplish the flight for conditions. In commercial aviation the pilots operate the equipment and are responsible and sometimes have to make decisions without dispatch but most of what they do outside of an emergency is directed by ATC or dispatch department.
Dispatch at an airline has people that are certified in this and use various resources and parameters to figure out what route to fly based on weather (to include wind, as-well as severe weather like thunderstorms turbulence and volcanic activity), airspace closures, airport closures. There are routes based on ground based navigational aides and/or GPS waypoints that also work well for routing as this makes things easier for ATC to figure out later and in the event of communication loss it gives a very predictable routing. They also usually have experience in sending these flights multiple times a day on these routes so they know what routing works and doesn’t even if the flight crew isn’t as experienced with it but usually they are also or at least one of the pilots. Another thing dispatch looks at is fuel burn and can change things off that. Most people don’t know this but most airliners are not using full power on takeoff or climb it’s usually a lower power setting. This is also on the paperwork what to set the flight management system to. Flights can also usually be reached different ways if changes need to be made and pilots can usually get a hold of dispatch if they think something should change even enroute.
On the flying side ATC sees where you coming from and where you are going and your planned route and as things change can often minorly adjust routing to shave off some time if able. As weather changes though sometimes they add time vs take it away to make sure they don’t get overwhelmed with traffic into a place all at once. Larger airports have people that work in what’s called a “center” which is an area that controls a large section of airspace like multiple states big. They have controllers that actual work traffic management and speed up slow down planes so they don’t inundate airports and have lots of holding to get in.
There are “roadsigns” in the sky and published maps and routes that pilots follow. When the pilot files his flight plan with air traffic control, he let’s them know the route(s) they want to follow. ATC tries to give it to them, but sometimes things like weather or congestion cause changes to be made.
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