Coming into KDFW from RRNET. SimBrief planner gave me a sensible landing runway 18R but BRDJE5 for the STAR, which is for the northerly runways instead of the sensible SEEVR4 for southerly runways.
Is that to be expected and for me to check?!
Hello, I don’t know why it would give you a northern STAR, were you in a turbojet? In any case I will send this up to the team.
Hi, in a few rare cases, some STARs which are intended for a certain set of runways are not identified as such in the AIRAC data. Since they aren’t coded for specific runways in the AIRAC, SimBrief can’t “know” that the STAR is actually meant for certain runways. As far as SimBrief can tell, BRDJE5 is valid for all runways at KDFW.
Most other airports with runway-dependent STARs do have them coded in the AIRAC, and SimBrief therefore selects them correctly. So it isn’t really a bug, more of a limitation in the data in a few rare cases.
In general, we will always recommend that users verify the values SimBrief has chosen and make any adjustments as needed. Remember that in the real world, airline flight plans are created by trained human dispatchers with detailed knowledge of the routes, airspace, and airports they are planning. SimBrief, on the other hand, is doing this all automatically. Even if it gets things right most of the time, it’s always a good idea to double check things yourself. Just as the real pilots and dispatchers do before every flight.
With all that said, even if SimBrief had chosen the other STAR, it’s always possible that the runways in use will change by the time you land 10 hours later. In that case, ATC would have cleared you on a different STAR than the one SimBrief had planned anyways. This happens all the time in the real world, and it isn’t a big deal if you end up flying a slightly different route than was originally planned.
Remember that the initial flight plan is just a planning exercise, once in flight it’s actually quite rare to fly exactly the same route, altitudes, and runways that were planned by the dispatcher. This is one of the main reasons that some amount of extra or contingency fuel should always be planned.
Best regards,
We have the same problem in the real world. When I’m working a flight to almost any domestic airport, specifically with a zillion different arrivals like DFW or ATL, my nose is buried in the charts making sure it selected the correct arrival for the runways I’m planning.
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