Actually, PAO does have a DP;
http://www.naco.faa.gov/index.asp?xml=naco/online/d_tpp
PALO ALTO, CA
PALO ALTO AIRPORT OF
SANTA CLARA COUNTY
DEPARTURE PROCEDU Rwy 13, turn left.
Rwy 31, turn right. All aircraft climb direct SJC VOR/
DME before proceeding on course.

FAA/AVN must evaluate all airports with instrument approaches to confirm
there are no obstacles that would prevent a diverse departure. If those
obstacles are found, then they (AVN) have to publish a climb gradient
and ceiling/visibility or publish a DP that will allow avoiding the
obstacles without a climb gradient.
Aside from the obstacle avoidance DPs created by AVN, if ATC had enough
traffic that they thought a textual or graphic DP was needed, then they
would request it through AVN.
Normally an obstacle DP will contain an altitude where the DP ends and
random flight can resume, although a published altitude would not be
needed if the altitude you reach at SJC VOR based on 200' per NM allows
diverse flight from that point.
ATC is allowed to vector you on departure as long as they keep you clear
of any prominent obstacles depicted on their scopes, if I recall correctly.
So, to answer your question, Standard Instrument Departure procedures
are normally created at the request of ATC if they feel they need one.
There are some costs involved, particularly the man hours needed to
build it, evaluate it and flight check it, plus the publication costs,
and periodic review costs.

JPH

Dave Jacobowitz wrote:
I fly out of Palo Alto, CA, and I have never heard an IFR clearance
read over ground whose route section did not start "when able, right
turn to 060 with 1 mi of the airport, radar vectors san jose, v334
sunol ..." My clearance starts out this way whether I file a flight
plan to the east, north, or south. (I haven't flown to Hawaii yet, so
can't say what I'd get going west. ) It also does not matter if I
file /G or /A.

This is pretty much what you get out of PAO if you fly a spamcam.
(It's possible that more capable aircraft get something else.)

In any case it seems that if a certain departure clearance is
frequently used, that would be the circumstances under whch someone
would say "let's publish a DP!"

So, why wouldn't someone publish a DP? Does it cost the gov't extra
money? Does a published DP have to meet higher requirements than a
hand-rolled departure clearance?

Just curious.

If they do create one, I want to name it. "Stinky Garbage one, San
Jose transition" (STINK.SJC)


-- dave j
-- jacobowitz73 --at-- yahoo --dot-- com