"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.