Information for departing Flights
From Amsterdam Airport Schiphol






Although most information is very realistic, information on this page is meant for use with Flight Simulator only
and should NOT be used in real life. This guide is meant for pilots who want to fly to or from the Netherlands
and are connected with FS98/FS2000 and Sqawkbox to the SATCO network (SATNET).

1. A short introduction:

Amsterdam Schiphol (EHAM) is the main airport of the Netherlands, just a small country in Europe with a population of about 15 million. The airport, located at - (minus) 11 feet below sea level, is not the biggest airport of the continent, although it's often chosen as the best, especially it's huge duty-free shopping centre seem to be appreciated by the travellers. Despite it's constant growth, the airport is still able to maintain a one-terminal concept. The airport is homebase for the Dutch airlines KLM (including KLM Cityhopper), Martinair, Transavia Airlines and Air Holland.

General Remark: ATC stations in this document are mentioned with their original callsign, followed by their SB/PC callsign printed in blue and between brackets. The following ATC stations are available in the Dutch FIR. If a station is not available at the moment, automatically contact the first available station in normal used order.

1. A short introduction:

Amsterdam Schiphol (EHAM) is the main airport of the Netherlands, just a small country in Europe with a population of about 15 million. The airport, located at - (minus) 11 feet below sea level, is not the biggest airport of the continent, although it's often chosen as the best, especially it's huge duty-free shopping centre seem to be appreciated by the travellers. Despite it's constant growth, the airport is still able to maintain a one-terminal concept. The airport is homebase for the Dutch airlines KLM (including KLM Cityhopper), Martinair, Transavia Airlines and Air Holland.

General Remark: ATC stations in this document are mentioned with their original callsign, followed by their SB/PC callsign printed in blue and between brackets. The following ATC stations are available in the Dutch FIR. If a station is not available at the moment, automatically contact the first available station in normal used order.

Position	Callsign	Frequency
Schiphol Delivery	EHAM_V_DEL	121.970
Schiphol Start-up	EHAM_S_DEL	119.900
Schiphol Ground (East)	EHAM_E_GND	121.800
Schiphol Ground (West)	EHAM_W_GND	121.700
Schiphol Tower (Main)	EHAM_M_TWR	119.220
Schiphol Tower (Secondary)	EHAM_S_TWR	118.100
Schiphol Approach (West)	EHAM_W_APP	121.200
Schiphol Approach (East)	EHAM_E_APP	119.050
Schiphol Arrival (Primary)	EHAM_A_APP	118.400
Schiphol Arrival (Secondary)	EHAM_S_APP	131.150
Amsterdam Radar (West)	EHAA_W_CTR	125.750
Amsterdam Radar (East)	EHAA_E_CTR	124.870
Amsterdam Radar (South)	EHAA_S_CTR	123.850

Normally Roger Wilco is used for all voice tranmissions. The IP address is mentioned in the ATIS. If this is not the case or the IP address is wrong, inform ATC by text. Always try to use voice first if you are voice capable!!!!

2. Charts

Charts, charts, charts. We cannot say it too often. This is really important guys, you don't drive to a foreign country by car without approporiate maps either. SAS FSS service provides free charts in Adobe Acrobat Reader-format. Common, download them, without charts you cannot operate on an airport you don't know. If you don't have documentation material onboard, you are not only putting extra weight on the shoulders of ATC, but you are also bothering fellow-pilots. They have to make extra turns to avoid you or they have to wait for you on the runway, because you are the one without the necessary charts onboard. Apart from this, it makes flying more realistic and therefore more fun.

Go to the site of the FSS, choose for "Netherlands" and download the whole package.

Boeing 757-200ER of my favorite airline Air Holland (PH-AHE) rolling out after landing runway 19R
(Schiphol Tower in the background)

3. Flightplanning

Flightplanning is essential for having a good flight. For departing traffic, a number of 12 different SID's (Standard Instrument Departures) are in use to guarantee a safe and noise-friendly connection to your airway. As some of you might know, the subject of noise is highly sensitive in the Netherlands, and therefore a strict adherence to the assigned SID is necessary. Mentioned in the table below are a number of populair destinations and the SID procedure to expect from the 4 main (preferential) departure runways:

Final Destination	Via airway(s)	Runway 01L	Runway 09	Runway 19L	Runway 24
Frankfurt Rhein/Main (EDDF)	UB1, UL603	PAMPUS	ARNEM	ARNEM	ARNEM
London Heathrow (EGLL)	UR1	REFSO	VALKO/REFSO	VALKO	VALKO
Brussels Zaventem (EBBR) & Paris Ch. de Gaulle (LFPG)	UB31	LEKKO	LEKKO	LEKKO	LEKKO
Copenhagen Kastrup (EKCH) & Hamburg Alster (EDDH)	UR12/UR700	SPIJKERBOOR	ANDIK	ANDIK	SPIJKERBOOR/ ANDIK
Geneva Cointrin (LSGG) & Roma Fiumicino (LIRF)	UB31/UA24 or UN852/UR7	LEKKO/LOPIK	LEKKO/LOPIK	LEKKO/LOPIK	LEKKO/LOPIK
Manchester (EGCC)	UL602/UB5/UB1	BERGI	BERGI	BERGI	BERGI
Zurich Kloten (LSZH)	UB1/UA9	PAMPUS	ARNEM	ARNEM	ARNEM
Keflavik, Iceland  (BIKF)	UL7	TEXEL	TEXEL	TEXEL	TEXEL
New York JFK (KJFK) and other American Destinations	UL602/UB5/UB1/ UR4/UL603	BERGI	BERGI	BERGI	BERGI

If you have any questions on your specific, not listed destination, contact ATC.

In case certain runways not available or another take off is in use (f.i. when certain runways not available or when very strong winds are reported), ATC will assign different SIDs according to the departure runway in use.

4. Start of your flight

Usually a flight always starts at the apron, never at the runway. Do not try to connect and wanting to start your flight when approaching holding point. ATC will not give you take off clearance and will refuse you if you don't listen. Of course this rule is not used when you had to re-login because of connection problems. ATC encourages realistic callsigns. If possible, grab yourself a time table of the airline you're flying with and take the real life flightnumber. It all enhanches the feel of realism. It's a bit more work but it's worth it.

To choose an approperiate parking position (usually at one of the many gates), you have to understand something about the apron and terminal concept of Schiphol. As mentioned earlier, there is only one terminal, at the moment featuring 5 "pieren", Pier C to Pier G, or rather (as we say it on Dutch), the C-pier to the G-pier. Cargo planes and small commuter aircraft usually park at the B-apron. Some buffer positions (apron parking positions) are available on the apron north of the D-pier and on the H-apron, west of the G-pier. Here's a review:

Pier	Suitable for a/c types	Airlines usually parked	Gates suitable for Schengen-destinations
B-pier	F70/B737/B757/A320/A319/A321	Lufthansa, Air France, TAP, Sabena, Transavia	all
B-apron	Mainly cargo and commuter traffic (F50/ATR42/ATR72)	KLM Cityhopper, EuroWings, KLM Exel, KLM uk, etc	not applicable
C-pier	F70/B737/A320/B757/A319/A321	KLM Cityhopper, Transavia Airlines, Air Holland, EuroWings	all
D-pier	from F70 up to B767-300	KLM European fleet, British Airways, KLM UK (F100), Transavia, Air Holland, other European carriers	D3-D12/D42-D57
E-pier	from B737 (not common) to B747, usually 767/D10/MD11/B747	KLM (767/MD11/some 747), NorthWest, sometimes KLM European traffic	all
F-pier	DC10/MD11/B747	KLM (MD11/747), NorthWest, JAL, other intercontinental traffic	not applicable
G-pier	B737/A320/B767/MD11/B747 (basicly all types)	Martinair, Singapore Airlines, Cyprus Airways, Braathens, CSA, some other foreign carriers	all

When ready for departure, contact Schiphol Delivery (EHAM_V_DEL) and report ready to copy the clearance, including the following information:

- Your callsigns
- Destination
- Current gate position
- No charts onboard when you are one of those fools who want to fly without charts <g>.
  When you say nothing about charts at all, ATC assumes that you have all charts onboard
  and will give you a normal SID.

You can do this the following way: "Schiphol Delivery, good evening, KLM1931 is ready on D42 for Geneva". ATC will now give you an airway clearance including SID, expected runway for take off, and the sqawk code. The intial climb altitude for Schiphol's runways is always FL60. Delivery will not give any clearance for altitudes like in the USA. Always readback the clearance and ATC will confirm that the readback is correct (or not). Call delivery back when you are ready for engine startup. When Schiphol Startup Control is in use (EHAM_S_DEL), ATC will hand you over. Pushback is usually controlled by Schiphol Ground (EHAM_W_GND or EHAM_E_GND). On intial contact, report the gate again.

5. Finding your way on the airport

As on most major airports, taxiing can be difficult, even if you have the right charts. To help you out a bit, generally speaking there are two major taxi tracks: the A (Alpha) and B (Bravo) track. Normally the Alpha track is used for traffic taxiing clockwise while the Bravo track is used for traffic taxiing anti-clockwise. If you have a good scenery, taxisigns may help you out in some cases. All apron entries are numbered, as well as connection taxiways between the inner and the outer track. These are marked by an A-* number, f.i. A3, A4, A5, etc. Ground will give you additional information and will help you out if you have problems to find your way.

In case two different Ground ATC stations are active, you may be asked to monitor the other ground frequency. Monitor means that you shall switch to the other channel and listen out. They will call you, you shall not call them yourself to say that you're there. When vacating the runway, Ground will assign a gate and will give addional taxi instructions if necessary. Pilots should not change frequency on own descretion when passing the area of responsibility. When approaching the holding point of the runway in use, you will get a handover to Schiphol Tower (EHAM_M_TWR or EHAM_S_TWR). Never line up before Tower gave you clearance. In case runway 24 is in use, you may be asked to use intersection S6 for take off (due to jet blast on runway 01R/19L). In case you are directed to runway 19L, you can expect to depart from intersection E5. This is to prevent crossing runway 27/09 which might be in use for landing.

When you join the Tower frequency, report if you are ready for departure if you expect to be number 1 in sequence. Tower will normally clear you for take off immideately or ask you to line up the assigned runway in sequence.


6. Procedures after take off

After take off, there are a few things you have to keep in mind:

- AFTER PASSING 2000FT, CONTACT SCHIPHOL DEPARTURE (EHAM_W_APP or EHAM_E_APP) AND REPORT ALTITUDE FOR          IDENTIFICATION BY ATC. TOWER WILL NOT GIVE A HANDOVER!!
   (the actual frequency depends on the SID and the runway you are departing from, refer to your SID chart for the correct frequency!)
- Transition altitude for all runways is 3000ft. After passing 3000ft set your altimeter to 1013 HPa.
- Unless instructed otherwise, you can proceed on your assigned SID.

As mentioned earlier, the inital climb altitude is FL60. However, when clear of any arriving traffic at one of the IAF's, a typical Schiphol procedure is to clear you further to FL90. A conversation like this is common:

"Schiphol Departure, good evening, KLM1931 is out of 2000 feet for FL60"
"KLM1931, goodday, climb FL90"

Schiphol Departure will make sure you stay clear or conflicting traffic. If necessary they can give addiotional instructions which might deviate from the assigned SID. Depending on the traffic in the area and the SID, expect a handover to Amsterdam Radar (EHAA_W_CTR, EHAA_E_CTR or EHAA_S_CTR) between FL60 and FL120 at maximum. Amsterdam Radar controls the airspace over the Netherlands until FL245. When you filed an altitude above this flightlevel and there is one available, expect a handover to Eurocontrol (callsign: Maastricht Control) around that alitude.

Attention for flights to London (Heatrhow/Gatwick): normally these flights are operated at FL240 so that there is no handover necessary to Eurocontrol. Cross REFSO at FL240 and expect a handover to London. Coming from the direction of London, FL270 is a common FL. At passing GABAD int. (on the UR12 route), request to descend to FL240 to be level at REDFA (entry point of the Amsterdam FIR). Amsterdam Radar will be able to control you immideately instead of a short and complicated switch via Eurocontrol.

Document written and uploaded: 3 March 2000
Latest update: 20 July 2000
Written by: Mark Jansen