Instrument Approach Procedure Guide

Introduction

These charts represent an early attempt to bring instrument approaches into the Star Citizen world.  CIG recently introduced volumetric clouds and have hinted that other weather effects will make their way into the game at some point.  What those other effects will be, whether or not they will impact our ability to land at spaceports or other landing zones, and what tools CIG will give us to mitigate those effects are all unclear at the moment.  But in the meantime, there are enough tools available to us now to come up with some rudimentary instrument approaches.

These procedures are modeled on real-life instrument approaches, specifically what are known as non-precision approaches.  These kinds of approaches provide lateral guidance to a point near enough to an airport for a pilot to see the runway and proceed visually to land (the other kind of approaches are called precision approaches, and these provide both vertical and lateral guidance to the actual runway.  The tools currently available in-game don’t allow for precision approaches).

There are four reasons for these approach procedures:

  1. In poor weather, provide guidance to a point near enough to a spaceport or outpost to acquire the spaceport/outpost visually and land.

  2. Provide clearance from obstacles on the ground and in the air.

  3. Put spacecraft in a position that allows for a manageable descent profile.  Quantum traveling to Orison, for example, places the spacecraft at a nearly 90-degree descent angle into the city.  These procedures are designed in part to provide for a more manageable descent angle, which is especially beneficial for larger ships and for when/if cargo mass (for example) comes into play.

  4. Provide guidance to a spaceport for pilots who are unfamiliar with a location.

In real life, an instrument approach works off GPS waypoints or navigational aids that send out signals which are used by an aircraft’s on-board equipment.  All Star Citizen gives us is a compass and a quantum drive, so these approaches use the compass in conjunction with things that can be seen on the ship’s HUD when the quantum drive is spooled.  This includes Orbital markers (OMs), other landing zones on the planet, and the city’s (or outpost’s) quantum travel marker.  That quantum travel marker is referred to in the approach procedures as a Quantum Beacon, hence the name of this type of instrument approach, the Quantum Beacon Approach (QBA).  Things like other planets, moons, comm arrays are not utilized since at some point they will presumably be moving relative to the planet’s surface.

Types of Quantum Beacon Approaches

X, Y, Z: These are approaches at major landing zones.  The letters indicate the different procedures.  Most major landing zones have all three, each of which corresponds to an arrival procedure on the location’s Terminal Area Chart (TAC).

A: This is a procedure at a planetary outpost that begins at a designated OM and provides guidance along a specific course to the landing zone.

B: This is a procedure at a planetary outpost that can be used from any point around the planet or moon, but does not provide navigational guidance as precisely as the “A” approach.

How to use these charts

On the following pages are example charts with explanations of the different sections.