ATL Departure question

[futurepilot1]

Question for those of you that fly out of KATL a lot.

I am a pilot in training, but I am fascinated with Approach plates, IFR procedures and all of that stuff.

I have been looking at the terminal procedures for KATL, and I understand most of it. One thing I noticed is that KATL has a ton of departure procedures, each with a catchy name (DAWGS, BRAVES et al) But there is also one that seems to be a universal one that has 8 different GPS fixes, North one and two, East one and two etc.

What determines wich one you use, and why?

Thanks.

 

[Baronman]

It usually has to do with which direction you're going. Some are related to aircraft type (T-Jet vs T-Prop). Some relate to type of navigation available (RNAV vs VOR nav).

Remember the departures lead into the en-route airways typically so the departure ends at some Fix on an airway. Then that airway may be the airway that is a preferred airway into a certain arrival for the destination airport.

 

[aevfo]

Question for those of you that fly out of KATL a lot.

I am a pilot in training, but I am fascinated with Approach plates, IFR procedures and all of that stuff.

I have been looking at the terminal procedures for KATL, and I understand most of it. One thing I noticed is that KATL has a ton of departure procedures, each with a catchy name (DAWGS, BRAVES et al) But there is also one that seems to be a universal one that has 8 different GPS fixes, North one and two, East one and two etc.

What determines wich one you use, and why?

Thanks.

The one that has 8 different fixes is the ATL5 departure. It is usually only used when the aircraft is non RNAV equipped. The other ones are the ones that we use all the time. Basically all the routes we fly have "canned" routes that the company files for us. For the most part, the most direct route is the one they file. They file and we pick up the clearance and fly the cleared route. The routes pretty much stay the same unless there is weather to go around or something else that we are trying to avoid.

 

[futurepilot1]

Cool thanks for the info.

 

[cime_sp]

Cool thanks for the info.

The ATL5 is the vectored departure that was used before the development of the RNAV SID's. All arriving traffic comes over the "corner posts" (NE, SE, NW, SW). All departing traffic leaves in the remaining voids (N, S, E, W).....hence the North one, North two, South one, South two, East one, etc.....

The new RNAV SID's do the same things but obviously more accurately and with less controller workload and radio congestion.

Non RNAV aircraft still use the ATL5