"Mike W." wrote in message
...
OK I am just getting into the VFR GPS navigation thing. Here is my
question:
what is the origin of all of these intersections? I see some as airway
intersections on sectionals, but many seem random.

Depends on what intersections you're talking about.

However, many "intersections" on an airway are not actually places where
another airway crosses. They are, instead, the intersection of that airway
and some reference from a navaid somewhere else. Usually for the purpose of
defining a distance, a transition route to an instrument approach, that sort
of thing.

Without knowing exactly what intersection you're referring to, it's hard to
answer the question more specifically than that.

And why is it when I file an airway flight plan with AOPA flight planner,
it
always throws a couple of these in the route?

I guess you'd have to ask the folks who wrote the routing algorithm for the
AOPA flight planner. However, your guesses could be correct, or it could be
related to some maximum distance from a point to the destination allowed by
the routing algorithm. It's possible (I don't know, not having used the
AOPA flight planner) that there's an option that tells it to only use VORs;
that would be an appropriate restriction on the routing algorithm for VFR
flight, and would eliminate those intersections from your route.

Pete