argh -- flight plan routes

On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 07:46:38 -0500, Roy Smith wrote:

In article ,
wrote:

In the northeast there are 2 sets of "preferred routes".

thera are TEC routes, and there are preferred routes.

Which one you get will often depend on your altitude.

This is one of the more brain-dead things the FAA does. There may be good
reasons why, from an internal FAA point of view, there are two sets of
routes. From a user perspective, however, it's absurd that they're not
folded into a single table.


Well, it's just a case of separate interests, I believe.

The low altitude TEC routes are hammered out by the respective
approach control facilities sitting around a table and (in the
northeast, at least) listening to how the 800lb gorillas (NY,
Philadelphia, Washington, and Boston TRACONs) want to route traffic.

The JFK sector, for example, accepts no handoffs from Bradley going
south, so Bradley has to hand off to PVD, who then hands off to NY,
and the pilot is scratching his head wondering why, especially since
going the other way, the route is completely different. NY gives
their stuff to whomever they want. Somebody launching at an airport
20 miles away from BDL, who happens to be in the NY sector (OXC for
example) gets a completely different route.

The higher altitudes are center's responsibility, and their interests
are totally different.

At least that's how I understand it.

But I think you make a good point - they could all be in one table by
altitude.