"Newps" wrote in message
. ..

If you are on a random route
you're supposed to be in radar contact, some centers don't care. Salt
Lake frequently allows aircraft to go direct for hundreds of miles without
being in radar contact.


An ARTCC is an entity incapable of caring. Some controllers are just poorly
trained, they don't know any better. Standards have fallen rather sharply
in the last fifteen years or so.