Aim for the STARs!

Well first, what is a STAR?  A STAR is a Standard Arrival Procedure.  Much like a SID, it gives you a standard way to approach an airport, helps streamline traffic flow for ATC, and gives you terrain clearance!

How do we use this?

Well this is something you could file as part of your flight plan or ATC could assign you.  Say you want to fly from KSRQ to KFLL, you could simply file your ROUTE as:

• SRQ.FORTL7

That route is going to get you all the way from taking off out of KSRQ, (ATC will likely assign a vector to join the 146 degree radial from the SRQ VOR) flying the 146 radial from SRQ, joining the 122 radial from RSW, then to KUBIC, and after passing KUBIC, flying a heading of 090 and having ATC give you vectors to final for the airport you are landing at (KFLL).

How do I know that, well simple, just read the “ARRIVAL ROUTE DESCRIPTION” at the bottom of the chart.  Remember: when the description ends with four dots after THENCE, you have to start again with four dots to finish out the route.

All the same rules apply to these STARs as SIDs.  Keep an eye out that you are reading all the applicable notes and that the procedure actually applies to your type of airplane.  Also, make sure there are not any restrictions on the procedure that would prevent you from legally being able to fly it (like DME required, or some other restriction or requirement).