I though I had a good understanding of charts until...

[Aiden327]

...I went international. Actually no, that doesn't work, change it to completely insane. I wanted to see what ICAO plates looked like and sectionals becuase I almost completely understand basics of FAA navigation. (still some rough times with vor/dme approaches and flight plan aspects but I am more than capable of using the charts to their full potential.)

I googled EHAM Approach Plate and the first link is this pdf...(Warning, its HUGE) http://www.vlieghinder.nl/knipsels_pmach/pdfs/EHAM.pdf

I am lost at LISDA APCH & CAT II ILS Rwy 06 on page 44. I can barely follow the Sid and Stars but the Approaches are just nuts. If I am reading that correctly that there is a Procedure Turn with an ILS or am I seeing things? I think that LISDA is referring to a STAR.

[BFMF]

That's why I stick with smaller airfields....

[Brett_Henderson]

Looks like a government department got paid by the page 


Yeah... that's pretty much a procedure turn. There must be some really tough noise restrictions to make jets fly in and reverse course.. same deal for the fifteen thousand different ways to  'SID'  your way out of there 

I always thought pilots should be more involved with FAA decision making..  looks like they're not only not involved there, but someone is trying to spite them. 


It is ridiculous.

[C]

Schipol's probably the worst example; the RAF produce TAP books for various airfields around the world, and until recently Schipol was the only one I know of to have been over 2 volumes...

As for the SID and STARS, Schipol has about a million runways, as Brett alludes to, noise is a much bigger issue in European airspace, so at different times it's not unusual for them to change SID or more commonly, just the runways in use for take off and landing (London Heathrow is famous for this).

The approach you mention, yes, that's a procedure turn, although in reality at most major airports, you'll receive radar vectors off the STAR onto the final approach.

I also don't understand how they label the taxi ways? Seems like every taxi way pointing in the same direction gets a number like, S1,s2,s3,s4 instead of a separate character or is that becuase Schipol is so big?

Just a form of labelling, made more complex due to Schipol's size. Hence the extensive use of of letter and numbers, instead of just the normal lettering at smaller airports.

For example, a smaller airport might have a parallel taxyway "A", and runway exits (and holds) "B", "C", "D", "E". With an airport with more than 26 taxyways, hold etc, obviously a new system is needed. You can see it at smaller airfield with 2 or 3 holds on the same taxyway, for example if "B" was the departure end of runway taxyway, you may have holds "B1", "B2" etc.