This post is the first in a series about preparing (and hopefully executing) an IFR flight from Bournemouth to Guernesey. Everything going well, this flight should take place in August. It’s an early time to start preparing it, but I did not flew IFR for a while, so diving into it again is not bad.

Planning an IFR route always starts the same way: by the destination. Trying to navigate the airways’s maze from origin to destination is not obvious. But if you know where to which point you’ll have to go with the airways, it’s then possible to go backwards to the departure aerodrome.

Standard arrivals (STARs) to Guernesey from the North start from four different intersections: SKERY, BIGNO, LELNA and ORTAC. Looking at the en-route chart, it’s clear that SKERY and BIGNO are too far west. LELNA is connected to a single airway, with a minimal en-route altitude above 18′000 feet, well above what a non-pressurized, non-turbo single engine will ever reach, so it’ll have to be ORTAC.

As Bornemouth is not that far, it’s time to look at the existing departures. All departures to south and west end-up at THRED intersection. THRED is on the R41 airway… goind to ORTAC. Here’s our route, THRED R41 ORTAC. Easy to intercept and follow, it corresponds to radia 206 of the SAM VOR – there will be a back-up for the GPS.

Interestingly, there is not track guidance to THRED. If departing from runway 26, the left turn is at 2′000 feet. Departing from runway 08, there is a right turn at 4.1 DME. As far as I understand this procedure for the time being, finding a heading to THRED is up to the pilot. Each country have different procedure design, and my limited experience never included something like that. I’ll have to cross-check that later on.

The minimal altitude on the R41 is 4′000 feet, not exactly a problem. I’ll file something higher however, to ensure good radio and radar contact. Flying towards west, FL080 sounds good at a first guess. And 4′000 extra feet between water and the plane are quite good either.

Depending the runway in use at Guernesey, the distance between ORTAC and GUR VOR is 41 or 45 nautical miles, and the approach starts at 2′000 over GUR. With the typical 300 feet descent per nautical mile, this is more than enough. FL080 will be fine.

Next step will be a much more detailed study of the possible departure and arrival procedures, as well as the approaches. The inbound course to GUR VOR could require flying a reversal procedure there before flying the outbound leg. IFR joy at its best. Stay tuned to see the next steps of the preparation process.