Mutt, sorry if I frighten you. On the other hand are you suggesting there is always only one correct flight path?
Those of you flying for airlines should have strict procedures to follow at each port you service, surveyed flight paths.
Those of us in the 'Bizjet' world don't as it would be impossible.
I do my best to ensure that my pilots, some of whom don't have an airline background, know and understand their responsibilities under CAO 20.7.1b and can apply that to the many 'one offs' that we face daily.
We are based in, and fly, the length and breadth of Asia. In the last few months we've operated into and out of Shiraz(Iran), Karachi,Quetta,Dhaka,Chennai,Saigon,Kunming(see previous post),Bangkok,Bali,Bandung(Indonesian mountain valley at night),Colombo,Hanoi,Danang,Minado, Siem Riep(where Angkor Wat is in Cambodia),Kathmandu,Padang and a swag of other places. Some like BKK,HCM are easy but many are surrounded by high terrain and have performance limitations due to high DAs.
Unlike many airline pilots who follow parrot fashion the Company published SOPs for assy considerations with little understanding or thought my guys have to think hard about what they are about to do and come up with a suitable plan of action. The list of ports we operate into enough times to build up some 'corporate knowledge' of is short indeed.
I'm blessed, as CP, with a VERY good group of pilots who allow me the luxury of a good nights sleep no matter where they are heading. One thing I take great pride in is that we hire VERY inexperienced F/Os and they get to see an airline standard Bizjet op in and out of VERY interesting ports in all sorts of weather, day/night,high terrain,poor ATC(sometimes) and as a result won't develope into automatons but rather really understand what they are doing and have a flexible approach to staying out of the trees/someones living room.
Chuck.