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Old September 15th 04, 01:50 PM
john smith
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Default Preferred Routing

I flew from Columbus OH to Detroit MI and back last night.
Detroit has Class B Airspace surrounding Wayne International, and I was
going to Oakland Troy (7D2) on the north side.
The aircraft and equipment was a C182/G.
There are no airways direct from the Columbus area, so I filed direct,
planning on going up the east side of the CBAS.
Just northwest of Mansfield (KMFD), Toledo Approach gave me a reroute;
direct KTOL, then heading 360, then radar vectors.
The frequency wasn't busy so I inquired about the reroute and was told
that Detroit Approach usually vectors all their arrivals into a fix on
the west side for all the satelite airports.
I mentioned that I would have preferred to go up the east side.
He came back and said that that was possible if I wanted to.
Given that I was now more west than east, I elected to stay the course.
It added 15-20 minutes to my flight.

When I called FSS for a return briefing I asked if they knew of any
preferred routing that DET APP would use for my flight back to Columbus.
The briefer was not aware of any but suggested direct Windsor VOR (YQG)
direct OSU. So that's what I filed.
I couldn't pick up my clearance using the published RCO frequency, so I
departed and contacted approach.
I was given a series of heading to fly which took me out around and
outside the CBAS. Then I was given a reroute that was interesting, to
say the least. The first leg of the reroute was to an intersection 40
miles south of DET.
The haze was heavy so there was no horizon (one of those VFR, but IFR
conditions). I had had an pitch trim fault with the autopilot on the
trip up, so I hadn't yet turned it on to see if it had reset.
I was hand flying without a clue where to look on the chart for the
intersection, I told the controller that and we settled on a heading.
Once I got leveled off and on heading, I went heads down and searched
the chart for the intersection, following the clue the controller had
given me.
Found it, plugged it into the GPS and was enjoying the smooth air.
Turned the AP on and everything worked properly. Life is good!
The controller queries me about a direct heading to my destination. He
says he will see if he can get me direct once I give him a heading.
I tell him to standby while I plug it into the handheld GPS, tell him
190 and he clears me direct.

I wish there were some general guidelines published for fixes to file
into for CBAS satellite airports when filing an area navigation/direct
flight plan. I know the AF/D has some, but they are usually airway routings.
Does anyone know of any sources?