FE-Buddy Alias Command Guide

How to read this guide

• Plain text, typed exactly as shown. For example: ".apt"
• Highlighted Replace it with the real value. Its colour shows what goes there:
  • Airport ID
  • ID or name
  • Approach type
  • Variant or circling letter
  • Runway
  • Page number
• Dashed Optional.

• Commands are not case-sensitive
  • These two work the same:
    • .aptdtw
    • .aptDTW
• Airport IDs
  • Use the FAA ID, not the ICAO ID, unless the command says otherwise. For example, DTW, not KDTW.

In-Scope Reference (ISR)

Information cards for airports, NAVAIDs and airlines (may include Virtual Airlines, if your FE has set it up).

Data Display

Draws an airway's or a procedure's fixes on your scope. Your facility may include only the airways and procedures in its own area.

Procedure Names

• A departure name is the first part of its FAA computer code without the version number. For example: ROG4.RZC is ROG.
• An arrival name is the second part of its FAA computer code, without the version number. For example: AALAN.BLAID2 is BLAID.
• A chart with no computer code is spelled out in full instead, without its version number, bracketed words, or the words RNAV, OBSTACLE and COPTER; spaces and punctuation are also removed. For example, TURNAGAIN EIGHT at ANC is .ancTURNAGAINf.

Chart Recall

Opens an FAA chart in your web browser, straight from the FAA's d-TPP. Every airport the FAA publishes charts for is included. A command is a period, the airport's FAA ID, the chart's code, then c.

Approach type codes

FE-Buddy uses the eight approach types in common use across the FAA.
A /DME approach adds D to its type's code, while a back course approach adds BC.

Reading an approach's command

• One command per approach
  • A chart for more than one approach has a command for each:
    • ILS OR LOC RWY 22L at DTW is both:
      • .dtwI22Lc
      • .dtwL22Lc
• Variant letters (X, Y, Z...)
  • Come after the type code.
  • If the FAA indicates the variant on only one of the approaches on the same chart, the command applies the variant to both:
    • ILS Z OR LOC RWY 04L is both:
      • .dtwIZ4Lc
      • .dtwLZ4Lc
• Runways are written without a leading zero
  • RNAV (RNP) Z RWY 07R at LAX is:
    • .laxRZ7Rc
  • The FAA prints some runways both ways, such as RWY 06 and RWY 6; either way the runway is 6.
  • A chart for two runways has a command for each
    • TIPP TOE VISUAL RWY 28L/R at SFO is both:
      • .sfovTIPPTOE28Lc
      • .sfovTIPPTOE28Rc
• Circling approaches
  • Keep their letter where the runway would be, for example VOR-A at PDX is:
    • .pdxOAc
• RNAV
  • R = RNAV, regardless of what the brackets say, (GPS) or (RNP)
  • Only a GPS approach with no "RNAV" in its name is G.

Charted visual approaches

• The approach's name is spelled out in full, without the words VISUAL and RWY; spaces and punctuation are removed.
• Its runway comes right after the name.

Departures, obstacle departures and arrivals

• A departure name is the first part of its FAA computer code without the version number. For example: ROG4.RZC is ROG.
• An arrival name is the second part of its FAA computer code, without the version number. For example: AALAN.BLAID2 is BLAID.
• A chart with no computer code is spelled out in full instead, without its version number, bracketed words, or the words RNAV, OBSTACLE and COPTER; spaces and punctuation are also removed. For example, TURNAGAIN EIGHT at ANC is .ancTURNAGAINc.

Other charts

Takeoff minimums, diverse vector areas and radar minimums open straight to the airport's own page of the FAA's shared document.

Charts with no command

• High-altitude (HI-) and COPTER charts
• PRM approaches
• Category II and III approaches, and other special-authorization approaches
• CONVERGING approaches
• GLS approaches (the other approaches on the same chart still have a command)
• Numbered approaches, such as VOR-1
• Attention All Users pages (AAUP)
• Alternate minimums