Departure Procedures (DPs)

In this TOPIC, we’ll cover Instrument Departure Procedures, and how not to be that guy in the picture above!

The Procedures we will talk about are:

• Standard Instrument Departures (SIDs)
• Obstacle Deparure Procedures (ODPs)
• Diverse Vector Areas (DVAs)
• Visual Climb Over Airport (VCOA)

As you can see, we love acronyms in instrument flying just as much as in VFR flying!

Before we can talk about the Departure Procedures, there’s one more acronym we need to cover, TERPS Specialists (Terminal Instrument Procedures Specialists).

These are the guys that design, build, and test fly instrument procedures of all types.  For our purposes, I’ll make it simple.  What we care about is the specific criteria that will make them post a DP or not.

When no obstacle penetrates the 40:1 slope (152′ per nm slope), then no DP will be published for that Airport.  The TERPS guys look out either 25nm from the airport (non-mountainous terrain), or 46nm (mountainous terrain) from the airport to determine this (using that 40:1 or 152′ per nm slope).

Let’s Go See Some Aliens!

Off we go to Roswell, NM.  I hear the flying out that way is truly “out of this world”!  Before we get too far along here, We’ve got some questions for you about flying into Roswell.  If they stump ya, go ahead and review the En Route Chart Lesson.

Time to fill up that tank with a little more AvGas!  Click Below to start the quiz!