(Snowbird) wrote in
m:

I don't understand the necessity of filing a lat-long in
any circumstance.

Well, down here in the Gulf of Mexico, that's about the only way
to do it. We file to/from a lat/lon, & in the remarks put the
offshore block number. Those numbers are not in any particular
order, because they were created by the guv'mint as new blocks
became necessary when oil companies wanted to drill in new
places. They're a confusing mess, and nobody knows where blocks
are precisely without looking closely at a map. But we do have
to go to and from them IFR. The solution is lat/lon. ATC may
still not know our exact (or even approximate) direction of
flight, but a quick query will get it from us. There may be
more reasons for using coordinates onshore. The IFR world is
not entirely defined by Cessna 172's flying from airport to
airport.

--
Regards,

Stan