Unlisted Departure Fixes

[KMSY]

Here at MSY there are no DPs. All there are is fixes that end in DP (WALDP, SNADP, TIKDP, etc...). Just about every route out of New Orleans starts with a ***DP fix. They are unlisted over at airnav.com. I have no idea if these are fixes or hidden departure procedures. The reason I'm asking is I'm creating a simple to read chart with DPs, STARs, fixes, VORs, and frequencies. All for the various airports in the area.

Any explanation?
Is it like this at some other airports?

[davolijj]

Sounds pretty progressive.

[KMSY]

Just yesterday someone updated the SID/STARs for MSY, and it had these. I asked him and here is his explanation...

"In my experience, MSY is unusual in this regard; however, not unique. MCO
(Orlando) also has uncharted DPs often found in the flight plans (go to
flightaware.com). I think the system must work pretty good or they would
have changed it by now... the pilot isn't expected to navigate himself over
the named-DP fix because he is on vectors. I believe these fixes are the
departure gates through which TRACON hands off to Center."

-Dan Downs, not Dan Brown.

You can see the results in green on my "chart" in the new topic. He wanted to know if aircraft are on own nav or not when leaving New Orleans airspace. I'll find out tomorrow as I'm flying UAL (you can listen to atc on one of the radio stations in the armrest) to hawaii.

[canuck101]

There's a similar situation with departure and SID fixes at Newark/EWR.

Especially with COA flights? I'm unsure.

[PHL Approach]

If it's like EWR that your talking about. Then Im game. I wasen't quite following the whole description of the airspace at MSY. But if it's like EWR then I can explain. Basically the whole N90 airspace is setup on a departure gate/exit system. Various fixes are placed on the edge of N90 that allow more like a metering of departures in all directions. Think it as flexibility for all the departure sectors. Interesting enough, these are listed unlike the ones in MSY. Generally since these fixes are not connected to DPs. Then they are known as "vectored" departure procedures. PHL, and BOS are a good example of airports that use vectored departures. Then you have Pilot Nav, which N90 doesn't use. You can check out Pilot Nav DP's at places like SFO and LAX. Then you have another type where the pilot is vectored to a fix to join the outbound leg to the transition. I'll use the term my friend Fred coined "Hybrid". MSP and even PHX has a good example of these.

[KMSY]

I think you're right. It might be just a vectored departure. Our MSY-LAX flight crew had the system turned off, so we couldn't hear anything.

BTW I finally decided to start my flight training today. I'm going on one of those simple intro flights, but I figured it would be worth it in Hawaii. So I'll be returning to New Orleans with 1 hour under my belt!