Departure, En Route, and Arrival Operations

• ODP — Obstacle Departure Procedure: exists purely for obstruction clearance, no ATC flow requirements. Textual, printed in the TPP Takeoff Minimums section; charted graphically only when complex, with "(OBSTACLE)" in the title.
• SID — Standard Instrument Departure: an ATC-requested route for traffic flow, workload, and noise abatement — obstacle protection is considered, but flow is the point. Always charted graphically (IPH ch. 1).

That you cross the departure end of the runway (DER) at least 35 feet up, climb to 400 feet above DER elevation before the first turn, and climb at least 200 ft/NM until reaching the minimum IFR altitude — unless a higher gradient is published. TERPS assumes all engines operating; engine-out contingency planning is entirely on you, the operator (IPH ch. 1).

Departures are assessed against a 40:1 obstacle clearance surface; wherever something penetrates it, an ODP must be developed — one per runway, only at airports with instrument approaches. It's the default IFR departure, flyable without an ATC clearance in the absence of radar vectors or a SID, and at a nontowered field in IMC you'd be foolish to skip it.

If nothing penetrates the surface, the runway passes the diverse departure assessment instead: no ODP is published, and you may climb in any direction, protected until obstacle clearance grows to 1,000 feet (non-mountainous, about 25 NM out) or 2,000 feet (mountainous, about 46 NM); beyond that, off a published route and below the MEA/MOCA or an assigned altitude, terrain is your problem (IPH ch. 1).

• You can meet the required performance — if you can't make the climb gradient, you must not accept the procedure
• You can navigate to the accuracy required
• You possess the charted procedure
• You understand the SID in its entirety

Don't want SIDs at all? File "NO SIDs" in remarks — ATC then clears you via your filed route where possible (IPH ch. 1).

An abbreviated clearance: comply with the SID's lateral path and all published speed and altitude restrictions. "Climb via the WILIT departure except cross 30 north of CHUCK at or above FL 210" keeps the whole procedure but swaps one restriction. Expanded climb-via procedures live in the AIM — know where they are before an examiner hands you one (IPH ch. 1).

Convert to feet per minute using groundspeed: fpm = gradient × GS ÷ 60. At 90 knots groundspeed that's 350 × 90 ÷ 60 = 525 fpm — climbing, in IMC, possibly heavy on a warm day at altitude. The front matter of every TPP has a rate-of-climb table doing this math for you. Compare against your POH climb performance at weight and density altitude before accepting, and tell ATC if unable (IPH ch. 1).

Obstacles within 1 NM of the DER that penetrate the 40:1 surface but are too close for a meaningful published gradient — think trees and poles just off the pavement. They're listed in the TPP Takeoff Minimums and (Obstacle) DP section by distance and bearing, and you avoid them by seeing and avoiding, delaying the turn, or improving the initial climb — a published 200 ft/NM won't save you from a 40-foot tree 300 feet past the runway (IPH ch. 1).

• Victor airways — VOR-based, 1,200 feet AGL up to but not including 18,000 MSL, 4 NM each side of centerline; typically odd numbers north/south, even east/west
• Jet routes — Class A, 18,000 to FL 450, "J" prefix
• T-routes — RNAV (GPS or GPS/WAAS required), low-altitude structure, charted in blue
• Q-routes — RNAV, high-altitude structure (IFH ch. 1; AIM 1-1-17)

MEA — Minimum En Route Altitude: lowest published altitude guaranteeing both obstacle clearance (1,000 ft non-mountainous / 2,000 ft mountainous) and navigation signal reception for the segment. Communication is not guaranteed.

MOCA — Minimum Obstruction Clearance Altitude: same obstacle clearance, but VOR signal assured only within 22 NM of the NAVAID. Charted with an asterisk (*3400). You may fly below the MEA down to the MOCA only inside that 22 NM (IFH ch. 1; 91.177).

• MRA — Minimum Reception Altitude: lowest altitude where an off-course NAVAID can identify an intersection
• MCA — Minimum Crossing Altitude: altitude you must be at before crossing a fix where a higher MEA segment begins — start the climb early (91.177(b))
• MAA — Maximum Authorized Altitude: highest usable altitude with reliable signals
• OROCA — Off-Route Obstruction Clearance Altitude: grid altitude with a 1,000/2,000-ft buffer, but no guarantee of nav signal, radar, or communication coverage — a situational-awareness and emergency tool, not a cleared altitude (IFH ch. 1; IPH ch. 2)

The bare 91.177 minimums behind these numbers — the off-route floor itself — are covered under Task I.C.

• "Cleared HADLY ONE arrival" — lateral routing only; no descent authorized
• "…descend and maintain FL 240" — descend to the assigned altitude only, ignore charted crossing altitudes
• "Descend via the HADLY ONE arrival" — fly the lateral path and the published altitude (and speed) restrictions

A STAR connects the en route structure to the terminal area — DPs start at the pavement and climb to the en route structure; STARs start at the en route structure and never reach the pavement (IPH ch. 3).

• Non-RNAV DP — flown with ground-based NAVAIDs (or dead reckoning)
• RNAV DP — requires RNAV avionics; all public RNAV SIDs and graphic RNAV ODPs are RNAV 1, meaning total system error within ±1 NM for 95% of flight time (RNAV 2: ±2 NM). With TSO-C129 GPS, check RAIM availability before an RNAV departure
• Radar DP — ATC vectors you; annotated "RADAR REQUIRED" (IPH ch. 1)

Because radar SIDs often carry nonstandard lost-communication procedures printed on the chart. Lose the radios while being vectored on one, and ATC expects you to fly the charted lost-comm procedure — not the generic AIM/91.185 sequence. That's a detail you cannot look up while hand-flying IMC at 700 feet (IPH ch. 1).

Both jobs run at once. When you accept a SID or radar vectors, ATC is responsible for traffic separation — but you're still expected to remain vigilant in scanning for traffic when departing in visual conditions. And meteorological conditions permitting, you are required to use "see and avoid" techniques to avoid traffic, terrain, and other obstacles, IFR clearance or not (IPH ch. 1).

They show less than they seem to:

• TIS is a ground-based service delivered by Mode S data link — no ground station processing your Mode S signal, no traffic picture
• Only transponder-equipped aircraft appear at all
• Service volume is about 7 NM laterally and 3,500 feet above and below; some units display only eight intruding targets
• TCAS I and traffic alert systems issue advisories to help you visually acquire the intruder — they don't resolve the conflict

The display is an aid to see and avoid — never a replacement for it (IFH ch. 5, ch. 11).

At the point where the higher minimum applies — climb after passing the break so you reach the new MEA promptly, except where an MCA is charted: then obstructions or signal reception demand you cross the fix already at the MCA, so the climb starts early. On charts, a sideways "T" flags where the MEA, MOCA, or MAA changes at other than a NAVAID (91.177(b); IFH ch. 1).

STARs are designed around a descent gradient of about 318 ft/NM — roughly a 3° path — adjusted where crossing restrictions require. Deceleration planning allows about 1 NM per 10 knots of speed reduction. Practical use: from FL 200 crossing a fix at 11,000, you need roughly 28 NM of descent at 3° — start down late and you'll be diving or dragging speed brakes you don't have (IPH ch. 3).

Track the arrival laterally and vertically, complying with all published altitude and speed restrictions — except at BRUNO, where the ATC-issued 13,000 replaces whatever is charted — then, after BRUNO, maintain 10,000 until cleared lower. On RNAV 1 STARs you're also required to use a CDI, flight director, or autopilot in LNAV mode on the RNAV courses (IPH ch. 3).