Originally Posted by
hans brinker
Mainly fly FAA, so: (IMHO) I think the tops/bottoms are specifically excluded, so that if an altitude is given by ATC it is more likely to be noticed by the pilots.
Haven't flown into Germany for a while, so what does "transition and profile" mean????
1. "Cleared xxx Transition": Authorization to fly the lateral part of a GPS/FMS routing, including assigned speeds. Altitudes will be issued by ATC.
2. "Cleared xxx Transition and Profile": Authorization to fly the GPS/FMS routing including assigned speeds and altitudes. AKA descend via the arrival in the US.
These are for "RNAV transitions" which are under the STAR charts section of my terminal procedures, so I still call them arrivals. They're pretty much RNAV arrivals that get special phraseology treatment by the Germans for some reason which I'm sure someone will be along shortly to describe. With that said, I very rarely hear them use it.