I fly with a Garmin 530. Great box, but I cannot for the life of me
understand why they would fail to include Victor Airways. Anyway, I often
get a clearance such as 210BA cleared to Yodoo, Clear City, Victor 245,
Bogur.

Now if I program the Garmin 530 for Yodoo, Clear City, Bogur, 19 times our
of 20 I'm fine. ATC was just throwing in the Victor 245 for--I don't
know--clarification? However, one in 20 times there's a kink in the airway
and I'll screw up if I don't check the low altitude chart.

So instead of simply programming the Garmin 530 with the waypoints, I've got
to unfold the chart, figure out where the heck I am on it and make sure
Victor 245 doesn't have a bend in the road. In real IMC involves a lot of
looking down and head movement when I would rather be focused on my scan.

My point being: It would be a heck of a lot easier for Garmin 530 users if
ATC would dispense with the airway part of the clearance and just route us
base on waypoints.