On Discord a question was asked (by luckol3) about VOR approaches being removed as the runway was selected in the Flight tab for airport LPMA (Madeira), and the other way around the VOR approach is removed when the Runway is selected.
Malte asked to post this on the forum, so I happily oblige this request
LPMA is indeed an interesting case, where the VOR are available for both runways. In the charts section they can be found for both runways too: VOR VISUAL APCH RWY 05 and -23.
When you set LPMA as destination, choose runway 5, you only get the RNAV approaches and the both VOR approaches, now called VOR A and VOR B are classed as âother approachâ. When you chose those, you can never also choose a runway: âProcedure VDM A does not connect runway 05⌠etcâ. So yes, a third name has been added here, VDM A.
VOR VISUAL APCH RWY 05/23 is not on the list.
Viewing the maps, I have some theories on why they cant be added to a runway and the other way around, but to confirm that is something for the professionals here
I have checked with the team, and this is currently a limitation that we canât get around in charts.
The underlying reason is technical and has its root in the specific coding rules of ARINC424, which is way beyond our sphere of influence. Here is a basic summary of my understanding of the situation:
These VOR approaches are technically defined as circle-to-land approaches. From a coding perspective (due to ARINC424 rules), a CTL approach can not be associated with any particular runway. This is because the MAP (missed approach point) is set before any specific runway becomes relevant. In other words, these procedures themselves are not associated with any particular runway.
This, however, does not prevent the charts from showing such correlations. That is where there might be some confusion - the chart shows the procedure for a specific runway, but the procedure itself is agnostic and can be used for several or even (theoretically of course) no runway at all!
We have applied a couple of workarounds for this in the datasets that we provide to our customers. For example, the Fenix A320 sees these approaches not as VOR A and VOR B, but rather as VORA04, VORA23, etc⌠This technique is currently not used by the Charts application.
This, combined with the fact that the Charts app currently only allows you to select runways that are associated with the corresponding procedure, means that currently doesnât support this combination.
Weâll look into experimental ways of supporting this in the future!
