CyberAirVA

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SID

SID stands for Standard Instrument Departure Route and is an officially established procedure for departing an airport area. Below is an example of an SID, it's for KLAS, Las Vegas.
1. On the lower right side we can see that this is a SID. On the lower side we can see that it is the SID for Las Vegas Mc Carron.
2. On the left we find the notes box which contains valuable information about the SID procedure.

So how to use it? Let's take an example.
We have been cleared for a DRAKE departure from Mc Carran. We will use runway 19L.

(1) Let's check the notes box. It tells us to climb on 191 degrees until D3 LAS, turn right to 360 degrees. When we pass the LAS VOR on OBS 280 we will turn to BLD (boulder city) VOR.

(2) Ok, so what then, if we read the SID we can see that after BLD we will head for a fix, called SISKL (D20 BLD), after that one we will head to EBBRT fix, and last to DRK (drake) VOR.

So that wasn't that hard was it?
Of course it will greatly help if you have a flight management system (FMS), or some other navigation system than the VOR and NDB, since the FMS will directly show you were the fix is. If you don't have a FMS, here is what you do:

A fix, in some cases lies in between two known points, like between two VORs. And if we check our charts, like the one below we find that we have an OBS course from the VOR (in this case from Biggin = 257 degrees) and our intercept course for the VOR after the fix (in this case Ockham = 108 degrees). And when we intercept the Ockham 108 radial we are at the fix, DORKI. Not that hard! In the above example we have two fixes after each other, here is what we do: We fly away from BLD, OBS course 111 until we intercept the DRK 107 radial. When we do this we are at EBBRT. And as you can see on the chart we won't have to do anything at SISKL, but at EBBRT we might be instructed to hold, so it's good if we know were this is! Still some fixes will have no way of localizing with VORs or NDBs, then it might be good to have a FMS, or we can just ask ATC for a heading.

Notes
* that the MNM is the lowest altitude you are allowed to pass the point on.
* that if we would have started our journey after EBBRT our SID would have been called EBBRT 1

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