Navigating STARs in Europe – EDDM Munich

[hawk37]

Guys - can someone who regularly flies in Europe help me to understand an aspect of the STARs there? EDDM is one airport that uses a clearance limit that is NOT the final waypoint in the STAR, which is confusing me a bit. Suppose you are proceeding direct RIXED, which is NW of EDDM and is the first point on the RIXE 2A arrival that you are cleared. ROKIL is the second last point on the star, as shown on jeppesen page 10-2C1, with a ball flag 2 at Rokil which says at Rokil to “enter holding pattern….”
My question is do you automatically enter the holding pattern at Rokil if you don’t get a further clearance from ATC before that point?
If that is true, when would you ever proceed to the last waypint on the STAR, the Mike locator “MIQ”? Note that at Rokil it says to expect an RNAV transition, which does not even use the last STAR waypint MIQ.

In a nutshell, why would the clearance limit not be at the last waypoint?

[Dash8driver1312]

Because Europe, that's why...

From my side, if a point is highlighted as "enter the hold unless..." Then I'm entering the hold unless otherwise instructed. More than once we've been inbound to a point and haven't been actively cleared into the transition, so guess what I do about 5 miles prior with the PTT switch...

[hawk37]

There is no "unless" stated.

It seems odd to me that ball flag says to "enter holding pattern..." Then there is a further point along the STAR that one never seems to get to. The instructions are to "expect" an rnav transition that leaves the star at this holding point, before the end of the star. Otherwise, I guess you would stay in the holding pattern.

And then never proceed along the last segment of the STAR to MIQ.

thanks for the response Dash8driver. "Because Europe...." ok, I think I get it

[Denti]

I guess MUC is somewhat weird, they were the first airport in germany to use the transition system currently in place at all bigger german airports. The final point in the STAR is actually the missed approach holding point at exactly the same altitude, therefore it is probably a good idea to put the clearance limit at another point for situations where the holds fill up rapidly.

To be honest we insert the STAR, then the transition and simply plan the transition from its first point which is always the clearance limit on the STAR. Therefore we modify the FMC so that it is a continous plan from the beginning of the STAR (for example RIXED) via the clearance limit, the transition and then the final approach.

But don't get me started on those CDO STARs which actually include the transition, they don't achieve a usefull continous descent on my type and do not even contain a clearance limit. However, they are on trial currently and not available to all operators.

[hawk37]

Very useful info, thanks Denti. I will plan on following your ideas when we next go to Europe.

I appreciate your insight