If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
TEC, can anyone use small words and explain this to me?
OK, one thing I've never really understood is the point
of Tower Enroute Control. Maybe it doesn't apply much here in the Midwest where there's space between TRACONs. Can anyone explain this to me, using small words and speaking slowly? Specifically, when is this used, what is the benefit, how does one find out whether it's an appropriate thing to request, and how does one request it? For example, I know there are listings in the AF/Ds for TEC routes, is TEC only available on these routes? What is the benefit of TEC vs. other routing? Is TEC available on any route where one is controlled by TRACONs all the way? What about a route where one passes directly from a DP to a STAR with no enroute section in between? TIA for any assistance. Very confused on this subject Sydney |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
|
#3
|
|||
|
|||
"Snowbird" wrote in message om... OK, one thing I've never really understood is the point of Tower Enroute Control. Maybe it doesn't apply much here in the Midwest where there's space between TRACONs. There are two places TEC is used and it means different things in each place. In both, it's a procedure put in place during the staffing shortages after the controller strike to allow IFR's to be hadned off from tower to tower (well approach to approach) without involving center. This was a good thing when center controllers weren't up to the traffic. In California, it's a shorthand filing as near as I can determine. You actually ask for a TEC clearance which simplifies things. In the NorthEast (from Richmond on North) it's just the standard IFR routes. While they map out all this TEC routing in the AF/D, it really is the way low level traffic is always handled....you just file a regular IFR plan and you get routed through the miriad of overlapping approach controls. |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
In the Bay Area you can file TEC and this is essentially an abbreviated
filing. You only give origin and destination, no altitude, route or any of the SAR stuff. It works between any airports in the Norcal area, and maybe one or two outside (e.g. KSTS). You can *usually* do this with ground when you would normally request to open your pre-filed clearance. However I've had it refused when the destination tower was busy (or couldn't be bothered?). You can also do a sort of hybrid, where you prefile through FSS or DUATS and put TER in the comments, omitting the route and altitude. However I once got a long lecture from the briefer at Oakland about why this isn't really TER and TER means something completely different. He filed it for me anyway and I forgot the substance of what he said... The logic in both cases is that whatever you file, you'll get what you get, so why waste your own time and everyone else's with a load of detail that will get trashed anyway. John "Ron Natalie" wrote in message . .. "Snowbird" wrote in message om... OK, one thing I've never really understood is the point of Tower Enroute Control. Maybe it doesn't apply much here in the Midwest where there's space between TRACONs. There are two places TEC is used and it means different things in each place. In both, it's a procedure put in place during the staffing shortages after the controller strike to allow IFR's to be hadned off from tower to tower (well approach to approach) without involving center. This was a good thing when center controllers weren't up to the traffic. In California, it's a shorthand filing as near as I can determine. You actually ask for a TEC clearance which simplifies things. In the NorthEast (from Richmond on North) it's just the standard IFR routes. While they map out all this TEC routing in the AF/D, it really is the way low level traffic is always handled....you just file a regular IFR plan and you get routed through the miriad of overlapping approach controls. |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
"John Harper" wrote in message news:1066687571.701137@sj-nntpcache-5...
In the Bay Area you can file TEC and this is essentially an abbreviated filing. You only give origin and destination, no altitude, route or any of the SAR stuff. It works between any airports in the Norcal area, and maybe one or two outside (e.g. KSTS). You can *usually* do this with ground when you would normally request to open your pre-filed clearance. However I've had it refused when the destination tower was busy (or couldn't be bothered?). Okey, dokey. Let's see if I got this straight. On the Left Coast, TEC means you call up ground and say you want to go from KABC to KXYZ, tower enroute, and they clear you. No prefiling w/ FSS or DUATS, no route given, none of the rest of the flight plan jazz and off you go. You having looked up the route and altitude in the AF/D and the ground controller presumably entering you in the system with the correct route number, like a Chinese menu. In the rest of the country, TEC means you look for your preferred route in two places, but otherwise you file IFR as you always file IFR and you takes what you gets as far as routing goes, as you always takes what you gets. It has no discernable special effects. Did I get this straight? If so it would explain why I'm confoosed, me having never flown under IFR in the state of California. I couldn't figure out what difference it makes in the Midwest and East because...it makes no difference? If I didn't get this straight, could someone please use smaller words and speak more slowly? Thanks, guys! Sydney |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
"Snowbird" wrote in message om... Okey, dokey. Let's see if I got this straight. On the Left Coast, TEC means you call up ground and say you want to go from KABC to KXYZ, tower enroute, and they clear you. No prefiling w/ FSS or DUATS, no route given, none of the rest of the flight plan jazz and off you go. Yes (if you get lucky anyway). You having looked up the route and altitude in the AF/D No. You just write down the clearance, which since it's a short flight will always be something simple anyway. John and the ground controller presumably entering you in the system with the correct route number, like a Chinese menu. In the rest of the country, TEC means you look for your preferred route in two places, but otherwise you file IFR as you always file IFR and you takes what you gets as far as routing goes, as you always takes what you gets. It has no discernable special effects. Did I get this straight? If so it would explain why I'm confoosed, me having never flown under IFR in the state of California. I couldn't figure out what difference it makes in the Midwest and East because...it makes no difference? If I didn't get this straight, could someone please use smaller words and speak more slowly? Thanks, guys! Sydney |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Almost. If you're taking off from Santa Barbara (a class C airport with its own approach control) then you'd just call clearance delivery and ask for tower enroute to your destination and give him the aircraft type and equipment suffix. Then he'll come back with a full IFR clearance for you to copy. The clearance is from the Chinese menu, but I don't think they use a route number. This skips the pre-filing portion.
Now at VFR towers (class D airports) in the Bay Area (and probably in the LA area, too) they usually like you to prefile (because otherwise the ground controller has to get on the interphone with a grumpy and busy approach controller who then has to enter your flight plan). If you prefile, you can tell the FSS briefer that you want "tower enroute routing" and they usually don't go beyond the destination entry in the flight plan form. But that doesn't matter to the route itself. Although not published in the A/FD for the Bay Area, the routes are fixed and published within ATC. It is my understanding that TEC is more of a convenience to ATC than to pilots. They don't need to enter you into the ARTCC computer that is rather picky about routes, but rather give you a local squawk code and a canned route and send you on your way. You, as a pilot, need not know anything about it except that you don't need to file a route. As far as I know, on the Left Coast, there is only one TEC route for an airport pair in use at a time. They change routes when the wind blows the other way and all the major airports in the area are landing the other way. So the pilot never makes a choice of routes. The only reason to publish the routes is to make it easier to copy the clearance. Snowbird wrote: Okey, dokey. Let's see if I got this straight. On the Left Coast, TEC means you call up ground and say you want to go from KABC to KXYZ, tower enroute, and they clear you. No prefiling w/ FSS or DUATS, no route given, none of the rest of the flight plan jazz and off you go. You having looked up the route and altitude in the AF/D and the ground controller presumably entering you in the system with the correct route number, like a Chinese menu. |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
"Fred E. Pate" wrote:
Now at VFR towers (class D airports) in the Bay Area (and probably in the LA area, too) they usually like you to prefile (because otherwise the ground controller has to get on the interphone with a grumpy and busy approach controller who then has to enter your flight plan). If you prefile, you can tell the FSS briefer that you want "tower enroute routing" and they usually don't go beyond the destination entry in the flight plan form. But that doesn't matter to the route itself. Although not published in the A/FD for the Bay Area, the routes are fixed and published within ATC. Within the last year or so, Oakland FSS has put some information on their web site regarding Bay Area TEC routes. http://www1.faa.gov/ats/oakaifss/TEC/TECInfo.htm It's not exhaustive, for instance I'd love to know in advance what is the preferred IFR route from VCB to PAO. |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
Other than intellectual curiosity, why? Even when they give you a
clearance you'll probably spend most of the time on vectors anyway. I'd guess it involves Vwhatever (I'm away from home) that goes OAK-SUNOL-SJC. John It's not exhaustive, for instance I'd love to know in advance what is the preferred IFR route from VCB to PAO. |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
"John Harper" wrote:
I'd love to know in advance what is the preferred IFR route from VCB to PAO. Other than intellectual curiosity, why? Even when they give you a clearance you'll probably spend most of the time on vectors anyway. I'd guess it involves Vwhatever (I'm away from home) that goes OAK-SUNOL-SJC. That's what I had guessed as well, but after conscientiously filing that route on DUATS I found myself copying one of the more complicated and devious full-route clearances I've ever had the privilege to accept. If I'd known the preferred route, I would have filed it, been mentally prepared for it (becoming familiar with the names of a couple of obscure intersections), had it preloaded in the GPS, and copied little more than "as filed." And yes, after all of this, what I actually flew was: TZZ radar vectors CCR, direct. But it was late at night. |
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
AOPA Stall/Spin Study -- Stowell's Review (8,000 words) | Rich Stowell | Aerobatics | 28 | January 2nd 09 02:26 PM |