argh -- flight plan routes

ventmode
I am an inexperienced instrument pilot and I just don't understand why
we file routes on our flight plans at all!

I never get what I filed, anyway, and it's not uncommon that the route
I actually get shares not a single waypoint with what I filed.

It is an interesting game to try to guess what they want you to do,
file that, and see if I get it back, but I so seldom win at it. I even
use the trick of, yes, filing what they gave me last time, but no, even
that is not sure-fire.

It's not that I'm complaining, but, okay, I'm complaining a bit.

- is the route box in the flight plan form just an anachronism from
a more flexible time in history
- why shouldn't I just file DIRECT?
- The equipment I have access to is /A. If I did file direct, will
the routing I get be /A friendly? This is perhaps tricky and illegal,
because I know that I couldn't actually fly the direct route I asked
for. (well, that's a total side discussion, I know, what I can do with
radar vectors and a VFR GPS)

This is all only a minor annoyance, except for when I am sitting in the
runup area with a newly picked up clearance, trying to figure out where
those fixes are while the hobbs meter is running.

/ventmode

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

wrote:
- is the route box in the flight plan form just an anachronism from
a more flexible time in history

To a certain extent, yes. At least in some parts of the world with
busy airspace, where ATC pretty much just assigns you a canned route.

- why shouldn't I just file DIRECT?

Many people do just that. Personally, I think it's just being lazy.
Look up the routes in the back of the AFD. If your exact
destination/origin isn't there, try and figure out what the most
likely route is based on nearby airports. Or access the FAA route
database on-line (http://tinyurl.com/8w2l). It's always nice to hear
"cleared as filed".

This is all only a minor annoyance, except for when I am sitting in the
runup area with a newly picked up clearance, trying to figure out where
those fixes are while the hobbs meter is running.

See above :-)

On 29 Mar 2005 11:38:34 -0800, wrote:


ventmode
I am an inexperienced instrument pilot and I just don't understand why
we file routes on our flight plans at all!

I never get what I filed, anyway, and it's not uncommon that the route
I actually get shares not a single waypoint with what I filed.


It is interesting to see the variations in ATC behavior throughout the
country. Where do you fly? I fly out of the NW Chicago suburbs and
find the ORD controllers to be relatively consistent with their
initial route assignments. I probably get my requested enroute
portion 85+% of the time.

-Nathan

Look up the routes in the back of the AFD. If your exact
destination/origin isn't there, try and figure out what the most
likely route is based on nearby airports. Or access the FAA route
database on-line (http://tinyurl.com/8w2l). It's always nice to hear
"cleared as filed".

I have done both of those, with middling success. The route database
seems rather sparse. For example, it's not got a lot of low altitude
California to California dep/dest pairs other than SFO/LAX.

I do remember there was a website for the old Bay Approach which had a
lot of preferred local and TEC routings. Can=B4t find it.

Avweb has an article about this, too:
http://tinyurl.com/6k25m

dave j

As you gain experience in a given area of the country, you will
eventually learn what they like to do in that particular part of the
country. Then you can get to a point where you can guess what's coming
maybe three times out of four. That's it. Your chances of getting
cleared as filed in busy airspace you're unfamiliar with are
effectively zero. The only time you can get what you want, you can
also get direct. The stuff in the A&FD is worthless.

You shouldn't just file direct because, well, you just shouldn't. It
will make Don Brown mad. It will make your CFII wonder why he spent
all that time teaching you about choosing routes.

Actually, when I don't feel like trying to outguess the controllers,
that's exactly what I do. At best, I'll throw in a couple of fixes
along the route so that every controller can have a couple of fixes he
recognizes.

In real life, controllers assume you have a GPS and can go direct to
any fix. They don't care if the GPS is IFR approved because they can
only approve GPS direct when they can provide RADAR monitoring, and
there's no regulation covering what you can and can't use for enroute
nav anyway.

Michael

wrote in news:1112125114.549042.263410
@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com:


ventmode
I am an inexperienced instrument pilot and I just don't understand why
we file routes on our flight plans at all!

I never get what I filed, anyway, and it's not uncommon that the route
I actually get shares not a single waypoint with what I filed.

This depends almost entirely on where you are flying. I almost always
get 'cleared as filed', and often after departure get cleared direct to
destination. My guess is you're in the northeast, probably relatively
close to NYC. That isn't representative of most of the country.

--
Regards,

Stan

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." B. Franklin

File whatever you want. It is an exercise in familiarity with the
airspace to file a route.If I don't file direct, I usually file VOR to
VOR, I don't like refrering to airways, that way I learn where the
VOR's are. But nothing wrong with filing, and flying, direct. After
all, direct is the shortest route. The CFII gods are all hung up on
"routes". (LIke the air on "Victor 81" is somehow "better" than other
nearby air). And like in "yeah we took Victor 491 ALL the way to
Butler". "OOoooh, I am sooo impressed". I suppose that was like way
hard to do, LOTs harder than going direct or some OTHER less prestigous
route like VICTOR 13 or Victor 69.

I was in Gary Indiana and had to file IFR to get over to Moline and
onto Colorado. This is through Chicago airspace, very busy. After
carefully previewing my route, talking to FSS, I filed a nice looking
route. I was given a clearance for a different route, and when I became
airborne, I was cleared for something else again. Nice thing was they
gave me my own controller, no one else on the freq. He wanted to know
all about my Husky.

It depends upon where you depart and where you arrive.

Departing out of or arriving into high traffic areas, you can usually
expect a canned routing. This is to help the understaffed controllers
keep the flow moving.

It depends upon what lies in between the departure and arrival points.

You will not get a routing along the Lake Michigan shoreline during
AirVenture. You can overfly or underfly the CBAS VFR, but IFR they will
send you around to the west and south.

The "computer" will not accept your routing. This is one of those secret
things that a controller will tell you when you inqire as to why your
"Cleared as filed" flight plan is being amended. He/she doesn't know
why, it is due to something further down the line towards your destination.

Sometimes you can successfully argue to stay on your filed route with
the caveat that you will have to negotiate with each and every
controller at each handoff. Each will try to amend your clearance, just
like the first one. They, too, will not know why the "computer" will not
accept your routing.

Do not accept an amended clearance without first looking at it and
determining if it will adversely affect the safety of flight.
Does it add time and distance affecting your FAA mandated fuel status?
Does it place you over water without floation gear?
Does the amended routing place you in an area of adverse weather?
You do not have to accept their routing, you can propose alternate
routes more to your liking.

john smith wrote:
Do not accept an amended clearance without first looking at it and
determining if it will adversely affect the safety of flight.
Does it add time and distance affecting your FAA mandated fuel status?

You can certainly try playing the "minimum fuel" card, but that may or may
not get you the routing you desire. Landing at an airport short of your
destination to refuel is always a possibility.

Roy Smith wrote:

Look up the routes in the back of the AFD.

In the Northeast US, filing the preferred route does not always guarantee a
cleared as filed, for the "real" preferred routes are not the published
routes.

Flying into Boston from the west at a low altitude is one example of a
cleared route that differs from the A/FD's published routes.

--
Peter













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