A friend and I were planning a flight from EGLL to ZSPD and although we were using a RW flightplan we were getting the MSG ‘AIRWAY DIRECTION ERROR’ in our FMC’s whilst importing the flight plan.
I did a little research and it appers to be an issue with Navigraph/SimBrief having incorrect airway info in it’s database?
As far as I can tell, the segment GOVSA W66 DKO should indeed be flown in the opposite direction according to the Chinese AIP. So I believe the AIRAC data is correct, your route does use the airway in the wrong direction.
I cannot comment on why the real-world route might have used this airway. Perhaps it’s permitted under some circumstances or at specific times, I wasn’t able to find much official information on this.
The directionality restriction appears to have been introduced in cycle 2513, as the full route works including the GOVSA W66 DKO segment using cycle 2512 data; it’s only with this latest cycle that said segment no longer works.
Given how recent this change is, it makes sense that no-one has planned a route around this new direction limitation yet.
Of course it doesn’t help that Simbrief (unlike the aircraft FMSes) does not check for airway direction restrictions yet.
You can simply replace GOVSA W66 DKO with GOVSA W271 BOTKI W270 DKO
Regards,
Tim
P.S. this is probably (arguably, “clearly”) the intended replacement route, in that the BOTKI intersection is new with cycle 2513, as are airways W270 and W271 in this part of the world.
Edit 2: SkyVector’s airways data is often lagging about one cycle behind outside the United States, which here allows me to illustrate the difference between the airway structure as of cycle 2512 (one airway, bidirectional) vs. the new one (two directional airways):
So, what you’re suggesting we do is to insert GOSVA W271 BOTKI W270 to DKO to overcome this discrepancy and will it be updated in either the next AIRAC or as an update to the current one?
There are two allowable basic Chinese routings for entering China from SARIN to ZSPD, and there is no flexibility with these. About the only time these are changed are via a Mid Cycle NOTAM, or a day-of NOTAM closing airspace, usually for day-of Military Opns, which probably happened here. In China, youre either on the airway centerline, or a radar vectored offset, or you’re in prohibited military airspace.
starting with cycle 2513, it appears this route segment / airway was “split”, with distinct westbound vs. eastbound routings
I was suggesting GOSVA W271 BOTKI W270 DKO is most likely the new eastbound routing going forward and should be used instead (starting now, and also in the future – until further notice).
This superseded by the information provided by Doug.
(in addition to being on airway R343, EKIMU also appears to be a waypoint on the SASAN STARs, so this modification seems to make sense at least in the context of the sim, and might be a thing IRL too, not sure).
The archive 2513V2.zip contains a number of files, including “International Flights to Mainland of China Nr2513.pdf” where those standard routings are listed.
Edit 2: (not terribly important) now that I am back home, I checked the document a little.
routes such as PURPA-ZSPD-01
used PURPA B215 MAGIV W187 IBANO B215 NUKTI W66 DKO in cycle 2512
now use PURPA B215 MAGIV W187 DNH W621 NIXUK W271 BOTKI W270 DKO
since 2513 and the “airway split”
routes such as SARIN-ZSPD-01
used SARIN A368 FKG W188 GOVSA W66 DKO in cycle 2512
now use SARIN A368 FKG W188 LIKMI W270 DKO
since 2513 and the “airway split”
The China routes are loaded here - text in Red is changed from the previous route file. USUALLY these are updated on the 56-day AIRAC cycle, but they do things differently there. The USUAL standard is new AIRACs become official at 0901Z on AIRAC day; but in China its Midnight local time on the Zulu day, same as Japan.
Thanks for all the help Chaps, it’s really appreciated.
So, based on the eaipchina.cn I’ve built this flight plan, DET2G DET L6 DVR L9 KONAN UL607 MATUG BOMBI TENLO DEXIT PESAT TEGRI LUGEB UDROS UM859 KARDE UN644 ROLIN N644 TETRO BARAD M747 SUBUT T916 LEYLA N161 SARIN A368 FKG W188 LIKMI W270 DKO W64 NUTLO B208 CGO W129 KAMDA W128 FYG B208 HFE R343 EKIMU SASAN SAS01A into ZSPD and it all works out (not tried it in the A/C yet.)
Would you say this seems correct given what’s been commicated here?
