Cross the Pond Westbound 2015
MARCH 28, 2015
KIAD Washington Dulles Intl Airport
ARRIVAL PILOT BRIEFING
Page 1
Introduction to Dulles International Airport
On behalf of the staff and controllers at ZDC we would like to thank you for choosing Dulles International Airport for a
Cross the Pond 2015 arrival field. Dulles Airport can trace its roots back to 1950 when the post WW2 aviation boom
prompted Congress to pass the Washington Airport Act with which the authorization to build a new airport in
Washington DC was given. However, it was not until 1958 that President Dwight Eisenhower selected a 10,000 acre site,
26 miles west of Washington as the position of the capital’s new premier airport. Four years later in 1962 President John
F. Kennedy personally dedicated Dulles International Airport honoring past Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. The
airport’s main terminal, designed by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen, is widely known for its interesting design and
beauty. The airport was extremely modern for its time, featuring two parallel 11,500 foot long north-south runways and
a northwest-southeast 10,000 foot runway. Adding to the cutting edge in airport design, every runway featured an ILS
and high speed turn offs. The original main terminal was expanded upon several times until the early 80’s when a
midfield terminal expansion created concourses C and D which were connected to the main terminal by moving lounges
or ‘people movers’. In 1998 the new concourse B opened followed one year later by concourse A as plans were created
to connect the midfield terminals by underground tunnel completed in 2004. In 2007 the new Dulles ATC tower was
opened amidst continuing expansion of existing terminal buildings. In 2010 the AeroTrain was added to the
underground connection tunnels for the terminals. Finally, last year, the FAA began to implement NextGen Air Transport
System at Dulles by instituting new, efficient RNAV arrival procedures which will be used for the first time in Cross the
Pond this year. Today the airport is continuing to grow and serves 55 million passengers per year. Of these Dulles Airport
sees an estimated average of 6.2 million international passengers a year which makes it the 9 th busiest airport in the
United States for international travel. Because Dulles is located closely to the greater Washington DC area, it features
some of the most challenging and complex airspace in the country. The information contained in this packet is meant to
assist you, the pilot, in your arrival into the capital of the United States as well as to help make your experiences with
Cross the Pond 2015 enjoyable.
On behalf of the controllers of the Washington ARTCC
We wish you a pleasant flight and we look forward to your arrival,
Matt Grastorf
Air Traffic
Manager
Rick Rump
Deputy Air Traffic
Manager
Brad King
Events
Coordinator
Steve Fedor
Training
Administrator
Stephen Higgs
Webmaster
Page 2
1.0 Enroute-Approach Transition
All aircraft should expect to be transitioned onto either
the HYPER5 (Figure 2) or GRAVZ2 (Figure 3) Standard
Terminal Arrivals (STAR). (Figures can be found in the
appendix at the back of the packet) Those aircraft
arriving via the HYPER5 will be routed from their NATs
to ALB VOR (Albany) and those arriving via the GRAVZ2
will be routed via the PSB VOR. (Phillipsburg) Both
STARs are for RNAV capable aircraft and feature vertical
navigation profiles. Both arrivals are relatively new. The
HYPER5 differs greatly from the HYPER4 so all pilots
should ensure they have the latest AIRAC and that the
fixes programmed into their FMC match the fixes
denoted on the charts provided in this briefing. On
initial contact with the Potomac approach controller
pilots should expect to receive a runway transition to fly
and approach to expect. The runway transitions are
described in the “ARRIVAL ROUTE DESCRIPTION” boxes
on the charts and graphically shown on the charts
themselves.
Note: Aircraft must maintain their last assigned altitude
until instructed to “DESCEND VIA THE
[HYPER5/GRAVZ2] ARRIVAL, DULLES LANDING
[NORTH/SOUTH].” Your initial approach controller will
assign the runway transition.
1.1 South Operations
The preferred operational format for arrivals into KIAD
is for south operations utilizing runway 19L, 19C, and
19R. If weather allows this will be the arrival pattern in
use. For aircraft utilizing the HYPER5 and GRAVZ2 arrival
pilots should expect the runway 19L, 19C, or 19R
transition on initial contact with the approach
controller. In the case of a south operational
configuration it is important to note that the runway
19L, 19C, and 19R transitions terminate at DADEY,
HOOSR, and BEEZY respectively. These three fixes serve
as the initial approach fixes (IAF) to their respective
runways. The approach controller may elect to clear
aircraft directly off of the STAR onto the instrument
landing system (ILS) approach or may elect to have
aircraft simply join the localizer for visual approaches. In
either case pilots are encouraged to tune the ILS
frequency of the runway assigned in their transition.
(Links to the ILS charts can be found in other figures of
the appendix located at the back of the briefing packet)
1.2 North Operations
If the weather causes too much of a hazard to aircraft to
utilize the south configuration then north operations
will be utilized. If this is in effect aircraft can expect the
runways 01R, 01C, and 01L transitions on initial contact
with the approach controller. Unlike in south operations
the two STARs do not transition onto an IAF and so
vectoring will be required whether instrument
approaches or visual approaches are in use. For the
runway 01R and 01C transitions both the HYPER5 and
GRAVZ2 terminate at the TICON fix and for runway 01L
both approaches terminate at MIKEJ. If aircraft have not
received vectors prior to these fixes they are to fly a
track of 191 degrees as dictated in the textual
description until given vectors to the final approach
course.
2.0 Landing
Once aircraft have cleared on the approach and have
been frequency changed to tower they should make
initial contact with their assigned runway. Aircraft may
or may not receive their landing clearance immediately.
For aircraft landing runway 19C/01C it is important to
note that exit should be made to the east side of the
runway. Once clear of the runway aircraft should
contact the ground frequency assigned by their tower
controller.
3.0 Taxiing
Once on frequency with the ground controller pilots
should inform them of the desired terminal and side
they wish to taxi to. For example an aircraft seeking
gate B67 should say “North side terminal Bravo”.
Alternatively aircraft can inform the ground controller
of their desired gate if they have a specific request.
However it is important to note any given gate may
already be occupied. You can check gate availability on
the live gate map provided by vZDC. After this aircraft
should expect taxi instructions to hold short of taxiways
A, B, C, D, or E depending on where aircraft requested
taxi to. At this point ground control will handoff the
pilot to ramp control. Taxiway F for the parking stands is
controlled by a ground controller.
Page 3
Figure 1 Ramp Diagram of KIAD. Click the red button in the bottom right of the diagram to open a link to vZDC's Live
Gate Checker web Page
3.1 Ramp and Parking
After handoff to ramp control aircraft should call in with
their desired gate for parking. Ramp control will do their
best to accommodate the requested parking position
however if the gate is occupied ramp control will assign
a new one. You can check gate positions and taxiways
using the ramp diagram above. A larger figure is also
located in the diagrams and charts section at the end of
the briefing. Aircraft may experience a short delay
before being given taxi instructions by ramp to their
gate as there may be departing traffic, or arriving traffic
from the other runway(s) going the opposite direction.
Additionally there may be aircraft queued in front of
you. Once given taxi instructions please proceed
promptly to your gate to clear the taxiway for the next
aircraft. Once pulled into your parking position there is
no need to inform ramp control of engine shut down or
positioning at the gate.
Welcome to Washington DC
After arrival at the gate you have completed your arrival
into Dulles International Airport. We welcome any
aircraft that wish to depart out of Dulles during the
event if you choose to make a subsequent flight after
your CTP event flight. Keep in mind that any CTP traffic
still in the air has precedence and so delays may occur.
Aircraft departing should file their flight plan and expect
a pre-departure clearance (PDC) issued by text. If pilots
have not received PDC or some other form of contact 5
(five) minutes after filing their flight plan they should
contact Dulles East Ground on 121.90 who will be
operating the combined delivery position. Please see
section 4.3 below for more information about
departures.
4.0 Non Event Traffic
Non CTP event traffic is welcome to fly into and out of
Washington Dulles during Cross the Pond however it is
important to note that delays may be experienced. This
Page 4
may lead to holds of arrival aircraft or taxi/departure
delays for departing traffic.
4.1 Arrival (Trans-Atlantic flights)
All aircraft making trans-Atlantic crossings that are not
part of CTP should utilize the non-event NAT as
designated on the CTP website. After this we request all
nonevent traffic to route from their NAT to the
GRAVVZ2 STAR via PSB. Trans-Atlantic arrivals may
experience delays on arrival as the airspace to the North
of KIAD will be congested.
4.2 Arrival (Non Trans-Atlantic)
Domestic arrivals or arrivals not transiting the Atlantic
should conduct normal flight planning to any of the
KIAD STARs. Be advised however that delays may be
experienced on any arrival resulting in holds especially
for aircraft arriving from the north.
4.3 Departures
All departures should expect to receive a textual PreDeparture Clearance (PDC) from Dulles East Ground
control who will be acting as the delivery controller. If
any aircraft does not receive a PDC within 5 (five)
minutes of filing a flight plan and/or connecting they
should contact Dulles west ground on 121.90. Receiving
a PDC is the same as receiving a verbal clearance. After
receiving clearance aircraft can expect to contact Dulles
ramp for pushback and start clearance. Ramp control
will taxi aircraft along A,B,C,D, or E to hold short of a
taxiway. Once in position aircraft will be handed off to
the ground controller. Departing traffic should expect
runway 30.
5.0 Airport Sceneries
Default KIAD sceneries may be missing runway 01L/19R
as well as contain other inaccuracies. We encourage all
participating pilots to install the add-on sceneries
recommended below or of their own choosing to assist
controllers as well as enhance your pilot experience.
Please note that we have only suggested one payware
and one free-ware scenery product for each generation
of flight simulator. There are other alternative sceneries
which pilots are free to utilize.
Flight Simulator 2004 (FS9)
Freeware:Washington Dulles Intl
•Kevin Yang
•Published 1st April, 2011
Payware: KIAD Washington Dulles
•Imagine Simulation
•Published 29th November, 2008
Flight Simulator X (FS10)
Freeware: FSX KIAD AFCAD Update
•Kambiz Agazi
•Published 26th May 2013
Payware: KIAD Washington Dulles HD
•FlightBeam Studios
•Published 23rd June, 2013
Page 5
This concludes the pilot information briefing for Washington-Dulles International Airport. Following this page are the
charts, figures, and diagrams suggested for use when arriving into KIAD. We thank you for reading this and are confident
that after doing so you are prepared for your arrival into Washington DC. Thank you for participating in CTP2015:
Westbound, and once again thank you for choosing Dulles International Airport and Virtual Washington ARTCC as your
arrival airport. We look forward to seeing you on our scopes!
Virtual Washington ARTCC Wishes you a pleasant flight!
A special thanks to all of our partners in VATUSA, VATEUD, and VATSIM UK.
London 3195nm
Amsterdam 3360nm
Köln-Bonn 3476nm
København 3540nm
Zürich 3613nm
vzdc.org
Disclaimer: The contents of this briefing are for simulation purposes only. The Virtual Washington ATRCC (vZDC) is not associated with
nor affiliated with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or the National Air Traffic Controller’s Association – ZDC section. (NATCA)
FOR FLIGHT SIMULATION USE ONLY
Page 6
Figure 1- Ramp Diagram
Page 7
Figure 2.1 (HYPER 5, Page 1)
Page 8
Firgure 2.2 (HYPER5, Page 2)
Page 9
Figure 3.1 (GRAVVZ2, Page 1)
Page 10
Figure 3.2 (GRAVVZ2, Page 2)
Page 11
Other Figures (Links):
Airport Diagram
ILS19L
ILS 01L
ILS 19C
ILS01C
ILS19R
ILS01R