TEC, can anyone use small words and explain this to me?

[Snowbird]

OK, one thing I've never really understood is the point
of Tower Enroute Control. Maybe it doesn't apply much
here in the Midwest where there's space between TRACONs.

Can anyone explain this to me, using small words and speaking
slowly?

Specifically, when is this used, what is the benefit, how
does one find out whether it's an appropriate thing to request,
and how does one request it? For example, I know there are
listings in the AF/Ds for TEC routes, is TEC only available
on these routes? What is the benefit of TEC vs. other routing?
Is TEC available on any route where one is controlled by TRACONs
all the way? What about a route where one passes directly from
a DP to a STAR with no enroute section in between?

TIA for any assistance.

Very confused on this subject Sydney

[Roy Smith]

(Snowbird) wrote:
> OK, one thing I've never really understood is the point
> of Tower Enroute Control. Maybe it doesn't apply much
> here in the Midwest where there's space between TRACONs.
>
> Can anyone explain this to me, using small words and speaking
> slowly?

At least here in the northeast, TEC is just another bit of sillyness
instrument students waste time studying.

There are two sets of "preferred routes" listed in the AFD, a set of
"normal" routes and a set of TEC routes. There really isn't any
fuctional difference that I can see. Either way, you have to file a
full IFR flight plan with a route defined by VORs and airways, get your
clearance, fly the clearance, etc. It's just an annoyance that you have
to look in two different places to find the route you want (not to
mention that half the time you don't get it anyway).

My understanding is that in the land of Arnold, they have something
called TEC which works entirely differently. They name the routes so
they're easy to say, and let you bypass most of the flight plan stuff.
But I'll let one of the Arnold-ites talk more about how that works.

[Ron Natalie]

"Snowbird" > wrote in message om...
> OK, one thing I've never really understood is the point
> of Tower Enroute Control. Maybe it doesn't apply much
> here in the Midwest where there's space between TRACONs.
>
There are two places TEC is used and it means different things
in each place. In both, it's a procedure put in place during the
staffing shortages after the controller strike to allow IFR's to be
hadned off from tower to tower (well approach to approach) without
involving center. This was a good thing when center controllers
weren't up to the traffic.

In California, it's a shorthand filing as near as I can determine.
You actually ask for a TEC clearance which simplifies things.

In the NorthEast (from Richmond on North) it's just the standard
IFR routes. While they map out all this TEC routing in the AF/D,
it really is the way low level traffic is always handled....you just
file a regular IFR plan and you get routed through the miriad of
overlapping approach controls.

[John Harper]

In the Bay Area you can file TEC and this is essentially an abbreviated
filing. You only give origin and destination, no altitude, route or any of
the SAR stuff. It works between any airports in the Norcal area, and
maybe one or two outside (e.g. KSTS). You can *usually* do this
with ground when you would normally request to open your pre-filed
clearance. However I've had it refused when the destination tower
was busy (or couldn't be bothered?).

You can also do a sort of hybrid, where you prefile through FSS or DUATS
and put TER in the comments, omitting the route and altitude. However I
once got a long lecture from the briefer at Oakland about why this isn't
really TER and TER means something completely different. He filed it
for me anyway and I forgot the substance of what he said...

The logic in both cases is that whatever you file, you'll get what you get,
so why waste your own time and everyone else's with a load of detail that
will get trashed anyway.

John

"Ron Natalie" > wrote in message
. ..
>
> "Snowbird" > wrote in message
om...
> > OK, one thing I've never really understood is the point
> > of Tower Enroute Control. Maybe it doesn't apply much
> > here in the Midwest where there's space between TRACONs.
> >
> There are two places TEC is used and it means different things
> in each place. In both, it's a procedure put in place during the
> staffing shortages after the controller strike to allow IFR's to be
> hadned off from tower to tower (well approach to approach) without
> involving center. This was a good thing when center controllers
> weren't up to the traffic.
>
> In California, it's a shorthand filing as near as I can determine.
> You actually ask for a TEC clearance which simplifies things.
>
> In the NorthEast (from Richmond on North) it's just the standard
> IFR routes. While they map out all this TEC routing in the AF/D,
> it really is the way low level traffic is always handled....you just
> file a regular IFR plan and you get routed through the miriad of
> overlapping approach controls.
>
>

[Snowbird]

"John Harper" > wrote in message news:<1066687571.701137@sj-nntpcache-5>...
> In the Bay Area you can file TEC and this is essentially an abbreviated
> filing. You only give origin and destination, no altitude, route or any of
> the SAR stuff. It works between any airports in the Norcal area, and
> maybe one or two outside (e.g. KSTS). You can *usually* do this
> with ground when you would normally request to open your pre-filed
> clearance. However I've had it refused when the destination tower
> was busy (or couldn't be bothered?).

Okey, dokey. Let's see if I got this straight.

On the Left Coast, TEC means you call up ground and say you want
to go from KABC to KXYZ, tower enroute, and they clear you. No
prefiling w/ FSS or DUATS, no route given, none of the rest of
the flight plan jazz and off you go. You having looked up the
route and altitude in the AF/D and the ground controller presumably
entering you in the system with the correct route number, like
a Chinese menu.

In the rest of the country, TEC means you look for your preferred
route in two places, but otherwise you file IFR as you always file
IFR and you takes what you gets as far as routing goes, as you
always takes what you gets. It has no discernable special effects.

Did I get this straight? If so it would explain why I'm confoosed,
me having never flown under IFR in the state of California. I
couldn't figure out what difference it makes in the Midwest and
East because...it makes no difference?

If I didn't get this straight, could someone please use smaller
words and speak more slowly?

Thanks, guys!
Sydney

[John Harper]

"Snowbird" > wrote in message
om...
> Okey, dokey. Let's see if I got this straight.
>
> On the Left Coast, TEC means you call up ground and say you want
> to go from KABC to KXYZ, tower enroute, and they clear you. No
> prefiling w/ FSS or DUATS, no route given, none of the rest of
> the flight plan jazz and off you go.

Yes (if you get lucky anyway).

You having looked up the
> route and altitude in the AF/D

No. You just write down the clearance, which since it's a short flight will
always be something simple anyway.

John

and the ground controller presumably
> entering you in the system with the correct route number, like
> a Chinese menu.
>
> In the rest of the country, TEC means you look for your preferred
> route in two places, but otherwise you file IFR as you always file
> IFR and you takes what you gets as far as routing goes, as you
> always takes what you gets. It has no discernable special effects.
>
> Did I get this straight? If so it would explain why I'm confoosed,
> me having never flown under IFR in the state of California. I
> couldn't figure out what difference it makes in the Midwest and
> East because...it makes no difference?
>
> If I didn't get this straight, could someone please use smaller
> words and speak more slowly?
>
> Thanks, guys!
> Sydney

[Fred E. Pate]

Almost. If you're taking off from Santa Barbara (a class C airport with its own approach control) then you'd just call clearance delivery and ask for tower enroute to your destination and give him the aircraft type and equipment suffix. Then he'll come back with a full IFR clearance for you to copy. The clearance is from the Chinese menu, but I don't think they use a route number. This skips the pre-filing portion.

Now at VFR towers (class D airports) in the Bay Area (and probably in the LA area, too) they usually like you to prefile (because otherwise the ground controller has to get on the interphone with a grumpy and busy approach controller who then has to enter your flight plan). If you prefile, you can tell the FSS briefer that you want "tower enroute routing" and they usually don't go beyond the destination entry in the flight plan form. But that doesn't matter to the route itself. Although not published in the A/FD for the Bay Area, the routes are fixed and published within ATC.

It is my understanding that TEC is more of a convenience to ATC than to pilots. They don't need to enter you into the ARTCC computer that is rather picky about routes, but rather give you a local squawk code and a canned route and send you on your way. You, as a pilot, need not know anything about it except that you don't need to file a route. As far as I know, on the Left Coast, there is only one TEC route for an airport pair in use at a time. They change routes when the wind blows the other way and all the major airports in the area are landing the other way. So the pilot never makes a choice of routes. The only reason to publish the routes is to make it easier to copy the clearance.

Snowbird wrote:

>Okey, dokey. Let's see if I got this straight.
>
>On the Left Coast, TEC means you call up ground and say you want
>to go from KABC to KXYZ, tower enroute, and they clear you. No
>prefiling w/ FSS or DUATS, no route given, none of the rest of
>the flight plan jazz and off you go. You having looked up the
>route and altitude in the AF/D and the ground controller presumably
>entering you in the system with the correct route number, like
>a Chinese menu.

[Craig Prouse]

"Fred E. Pate" wrote:

> Now at VFR towers (class D airports) in the Bay Area (and probably in the LA
> area, too) they usually like you to prefile (because otherwise the ground
> controller has to get on the interphone with a grumpy and busy approach
> controller who then has to enter your flight plan). If you prefile, you can
> tell the FSS briefer that you want "tower enroute routing" and they usually
> don't go beyond the destination entry in the flight plan form. But that
> doesn't matter to the route itself. Although not published in the A/FD for
> the Bay Area, the routes are fixed and published within ATC.

Within the last year or so, Oakland FSS has put some information on their
web site regarding Bay Area TEC routes.

http://www1.faa.gov/ats/oakaifss/TEC/TECInfo.htm

It's not exhaustive, for instance I'd love to know in advance what is the
preferred IFR route from VCB to PAO.

[John Harper]

Other than intellectual curiosity, why? Even when they give you a
clearance you'll probably spend most of the time on vectors anyway.
I'd guess it involves V<whatever> (I'm away from home) that goes
OAK-SUNOL-SJC.

John

>
> It's not exhaustive, for instance I'd love to know in advance what is the
> preferred IFR route from VCB to PAO.
>

[Craig Prouse]

"John Harper" wrote:

>> I'd love to know in advance what is the
>> preferred IFR route from VCB to PAO.

> Other than intellectual curiosity, why? Even when they give you a
> clearance you'll probably spend most of the time on vectors anyway.
> I'd guess it involves V<whatever> (I'm away from home) that goes
> OAK-SUNOL-SJC.

That's what I had guessed as well, but after conscientiously filing that
route on DUATS I found myself copying one of the more complicated and
devious full-route clearances I've ever had the privilege to accept.

If I'd known the preferred route, I would have filed it, been mentally
prepared for it (becoming familiar with the names of a couple of obscure
intersections), had it preloaded in the GPS, and copied little more than "as
filed."

And yes, after all of this, what I actually flew was: TZZ radar vectors
CCR, direct. But it was late at night.

[John Harper]

I wonder why they bother. Even if you went NORDO
direct DOCAL direct would be fine...

The other day I filed PAO D OLM (Olympia, WA) D Bremerton.
They gave me vecs V334 SAC then as filed. I think I got to fly about
10 miles of V334 between vectors on to it and being cleared direct
afterwards.

John


"Craig Prouse" > wrote in message
...
> "John Harper" wrote:
>
> >> I'd love to know in advance what is the
> >> preferred IFR route from VCB to PAO.
>
> > Other than intellectual curiosity, why? Even when they give you a
> > clearance you'll probably spend most of the time on vectors anyway.
> > I'd guess it involves V<whatever> (I'm away from home) that goes
> > OAK-SUNOL-SJC.
>
> That's what I had guessed as well, but after conscientiously filing that
> route on DUATS I found myself copying one of the more complicated and
> devious full-route clearances I've ever had the privilege to accept.
>
> If I'd known the preferred route, I would have filed it, been mentally
> prepared for it (becoming familiar with the names of a couple of obscure
> intersections), had it preloaded in the GPS, and copied little more than
"as
> filed."
>
> And yes, after all of this, what I actually flew was: TZZ radar vectors
> CCR, direct. But it was late at night.
>
>

[mrwallace]

"Roy Smith" > wrote in message
...
> (Snowbird) wrote:
> > OK, one thing I've never really understood is the point
> > of Tower Enroute Control. Maybe it doesn't apply much
> > here in the Midwest where there's space between TRACONs.
> >
> > Can anyone explain this to me, using small words and speaking
> > slowly?
>
> "Within the national airspace system it is possible for a pilot to fly IFR
from one point to another without leaving approach controlled airspace. This
is referred to as 'tower enroute' which allows flight beneath the enroute
structure.." " All published TEC routes are designed to avoid enroute
airspace and the majority are within radar coverage." "Routes are
effective only during each respective terminal facility's normal operating
hours." . This info is available in the Enroute section of Jeppesen Airway
Manual.
Happy fl;ying R.Wallace