Approach plate

Each country maintains its own instrument approach procedures according to International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards.

Because of the importance of maintaining up-to-date information about the often changing environment around airports (e.g., vertical obstructions to air traffic, such as cranes, can be erected at short notice), approach plates are published with expiration dates and are reviewed on a frequent basis.

[citation needed] In the United States, these procedures are published by the Federal Aviation Administration and military services.

The top briefing strip lists the primary navigation type, identifier and frequency/channel, the final approach course, and information about the landing runway.

It includes approach segments, NAVAIDs, restrictive airspeeds, restrictive altitudes, holding patterns and procedure turns, airports, relief, hydrography, international boundary, obstacles, special use airspace, minimum safe altitude, terminal arrival areas, and helicopter procedures.

The Restricted Canada Air Pilot (RCAP), contains additional approaches available to commercial operators who have been granted Op Spec 099.