SID & STAR: KJFK → KBOS

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📍 Route: KJFK → KBOS — SID + STAR practice⏱ ~6 minutes📊 5 steps🎓 Line Flying

A short, pure procedure drill: a SID out of JFK and a STAR into Boston, using real FAA procedure data and nothing else.

What this scenario covers

JFK to Boston is under 200 nautical miles — the enroute portion barely exists, so the whole flight is a departure procedure joined to an arrival procedure. That makes it the cleanest possible exercise in the DEPARTURES and ARRIVAL pages.

The drill is selection and verification: pick the procedure, then look at what it did to the flight plan. Procedures insert several waypoints and often constraints, and the state of the plan after selection is what you will actually fly.

How it applies in flight ops

Northeast-corridor sectors like this one are flown constantly and are heavily proceduralised precisely because the terminal airspace is saturated. The crew rarely gets a direct; the plan is the procedure.

On sectors this short the aircraft is climbing, level briefly, then descending, so any programming error has almost no time to be caught. Airline practice is to have the arrival loaded before departure.

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Step-by-step: SID & STAR: KJFK → KBOS

  1. Enter the route KJFK/KBOS. Type KJFK/KBOS and press 1R.

    JFK→BOS is one of the busiest short-haul routes in the US — Delta, American, and JetBlue all run shuttle services. The procedure-heavy nature makes it good SID/STAR practice.

  2. Set cruise FL300 (short-haul, odd for eastbound). Type 300 and press 6L.

    On a ~185 nm leg the climb and descent each take ~10 minutes; only ~30 minutes of actual cruise. Going to FL400 is pointless — you'd barely level off before descending. FL280–FL340 is the sweet spot.

  3. Press F-PLN, then click LSK 1L on the KJFK row to open LAT REV.

    LAT REV at the origin airport surfaces the DEPARTURE option — this is the only place on the MCDU where you select a SID.

  4. Press 1L (<DEPARTURE). Pick runway 31R, then SKORR6, then an en-route transition from the right-hand column, and 6R to INSERT.

    SKORR6 is the KJFK departure to the north and northeast — exactly the direction BOS sits — and it is coded only off the 31s, so picking a 04 or 13 runway would not offer it at all. Its en-route transitions are alternatives, not a sequence: choosing one puts that route into the plan and leaves the others out, which is what makes the inserted departure flyable. After INSERT the departure's fixes appear in the F-PLN after the KJFK row.

  5. Click LSK on the KBOS row to open LAT REV, then 1R (ARRIVAL>). Pick an approach, then the WOONS STAR, then 6R to INSERT.

    WOONS is the KBOS STAR for arrivals from the south and southwest — exactly the direction JFK traffic comes from. ROBUC handles arrivals from the south coastal corridor. The approach comes first because it settles the runway, and the runway settles which branch of WOONS you fly; after INSERT the arrival and the final approach both sit in the plan before KBOS.

What to take away

  • On a short sector the SID and STAR effectively are the flight plan.
  • Selecting a procedure inserts waypoints and constraints — verify what changed.
  • Congested terminal airspace means procedures rather than directs.
  • Load the arrival before you depart; there is no time later.

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Background reading

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