ATC reroute, reroute, reroute…

[jaylw314]

2 hours ago, kortopates said:

it’s so easy and very worthwhile to activate your VFR flight plan via your favorite EFB or Text msg to Leidos. Activating it gets SAR looking for you typically about 12 hrs faster than without activating it. Getting flight following doesn’t really help as people think it would unless you’re able to call out when you’re going down which isn’t typical. It’s to common for controllers to loose radio contact with VFR pilots for them to expect you may have crashed. I had a Mooney friend on flight following go down mid day. The search didn’t initiate till late that evening at the request of friends. They found near where his primary radar track ended and right where pings to his cellphone pointed - the following day. If he had activated a VFR flight plan the search would have started at least 10 hrs earlier.


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That's a good point

[jaylw314]

2 hours ago, EricJ said:

I don't think you need to file to have a record of getting a briefing if you use the 1800wxbrief site.    My understanding is that logging on and getting the briefing records it.    

The thing is, to get a briefing for your route, you have to enter, well, your route.  I mean, I suppose I could get a weather briefing for the area around Pensacola, FL before my flight to Seattle, WA, but I'm guessing that would be frowned upon  

Edited September 6, 2022 by jaylw314

[EricJ]

28 minutes ago, jaylw314 said:

The thing is, to get a briefing for your route, you have to enter, well, your route.  I mean, I suppose I could get a weather briefing for the area around Pensacola, FL before my flight to Seattle, WA, but I'm guessing that would be frowned upon  

There's nothing to frown upon.    I'm often fairly spontaneous about flying, and I may not decide exactly where I'm going until I'm climbing out.   I might have two or three places or routes in mind, so I just get briefings for all of them ahead of time.   It's pretty easy to do with the online tool.    I always put in alternates, even for VFR briefings, so that I have NOTAMs for those fields, too.

 

[McMooney]

I've come to the conclusion, i'll never get my filed route or if i do get the magic "as filed", i'll never actually fly it.  I can say, when re-routed it tends to be in my favor, so can i really complain?

usually, when things start changing at a rate faster than i can accept, i ask for vectors or tell them to hold.  fly first.

I do wish they would stop giving me instructions like fly 35 miles NorthEast of random waypoint.

 

Edited September 7, 2022 by McMooney

[Sue Bon]

May I ask why this is a thing in the US? I've been rerouted, but only in CH and only on routes that I know well. I think the controllers know that I know the two airways that they might interchange for me. I've never gotten multiple new waypoints on a filed flight plan, especially while already airborne. 

I've been dreaming about flying in the US, but now you guys are making me nervous.

[Fly Boomer]

29 minutes ago, Sue Bon said:

I've been dreaming about flying in the US, but now you guys are making me nervous.

If you are near one of the large metropolitan areas, there are a lot of airplanes in the sky, and controllers will sometimes send you to places that don't seem logical just to declutter their map.  Once you are en route and up high, there isn't much traffic, and not much interaction with ATC.

[PT20J]

I have the most luck getting cleared as filed by just filing direct unless I need airways for lower MEAs in the west. 

[Pinecone]

On 9/6/2022 at 12:01 AM, Will.iam said:

I did a pop ifr once. The laundry list of things they want was massive. Was much easier to send in a ifr flight plan for an airport near me to my destination on foreflight then call back and request center to pickup my ifr clearance that was just filed. Much easier less time tying up the radio frequency to get the clearance.  Or if i know wx might be an issue ill put out an ifr plan in the system but not pick it up unless i need to and it will drop out afer an hour anyway if i didn’t need it.  

I have had the long version, but most times it was very short.  N number, destination, altitude.

Thinking about it, it seems if talking to approach, it is the short one, center wants all the info.

[Pinecone]

On 9/5/2022 at 9:36 PM, Andy95W said:

It’s actually even easier than that.  Leidos will send you a text message with the ATC approved routing if you configure the website settings.

And unlike ForeFlight, it will do that for FREE.

How do you set that up?

[jaylw314]

1 hour ago, Pinecone said:

How do you set that up?

Click on the "ATC Notices" on your Leidos website dashboard:

[kortopates]

You can also get the cleared route by subscribing to Flightaware - also free and they were the first to provide this. You can actually get these for any plane. 

[Pinecone]

14 hours ago, jaylw314 said:

Click on the "ATC Notices" on your Leidos website dashboard:

Thanks

[Pinecone]

12 hours ago, kortopates said:

You can also get the cleared route by subscribing to Flightaware - also free and they were the first to provide this. You can actually get these for any plane. 

I subscribe to them, but never thought to look for my clearance there.

[Shadrach]

On 9/2/2022 at 6:17 PM, Danb said:

Recently had same situation, I asked for a heading while getting everything sorted out, I feel they understand workload issues. If you don’t mention anything they figure your on top of everything. Not a problem making them slowdown a little while you get organized. Today I flew into Manassas in the SFRA, on departure at 500 feet they gave me the departure procedure not on the ground while gaining my clearance, it’d make more sense to provide it in the clearance, even though I’m in busy airspace with restricted airspace all around departure just gave me headings while navigating through the SFRA. Great controller’s today at Potomac. Basically saying take it easy and request assistance while your getting situated 

Most of my flying is up and down the eastern seaboard and have experience with all of control centers in the region. I won’t say that Potomac is bad so much as it seems that they go out of their way to make the rest look good.

 

[EricJ]

Do you still have to call clearance delivery if you get the text clearance from Leidos?    I've not tried this yet.

 

[BravoWhiskey]

23 minutes ago, EricJ said:

Do you still have to call clearance delivery if you get the text clearance from Leidos?    I've not tried this yet.

 

I would imagine you would need to in order to confirm with CD that you understand your route.  Think “read back correct”.  

[kortopates]

1 hour ago, EricJ said:

Do you still have to call clearance delivery if you get the text clearance from Leidos?    I've not tried this yet.

 

YES! Your IFR flight plan won't be activated till you do, nor released to depart IFR. The exception would be if your departing from an uncontrolled airport, then you could depart VMC and then inform Center or the TRACON you are pre-filed and pick up your clearance in the air or you could call Center or the TRACON on the phone and get your clearance on the ground with a release time; really the only way if you need to depart in IMC conditions.

Maybe someday the PDC text service will open up to us, but for now we have to get our clearance verbally over radio or phone. 

Leidos, FlightAware etc are just ways of confirming what your clearance will be to avoid surprises. But the routing you see online or via Leidos has gone through the FAA Centers computers and hasn't yet been blessed by a TRACON or Tower modification which are  applied afterwards when you call; hence it common to pick up a departure procedure added by the TRACON or Tower that wasn't shown by Leidos etc. 

 

Edited September 10, 2022 by kortopates

[T. Peterson]

On 9/5/2022 at 9:31 PM, A64Pilot said:

I think if the work load is high they just want you to go away, they need to shed some of the work so you get the squawk VFR and frequency change and or the long reroute that has me thanking them but telling them I’d like to drop to vfr and flight following. My guess if at that time they say unable flight following, they were trying to get rid of me, if the keep me on flight following, maybe not. Of course if your IMC it’s the long reroute.

Like going thru ATL, I’ve been IFR and routed around the Bravo, and been VFR and flown directly over the center of the airport, and been VFR and told to stay clear of the Bravo. Who knows?

We don’t often interface well with Jet traffic due of course to our speed, or lack of it, and Central Fl especially if you get near Orlando has its share.

If your pop up IFR I think the assumption is you can no longer maintain VMC, at that point they have to take you, especially if you tell them you can no longer maintain cloud clearance or visibility.

I’ve only done pop up IFR rarely, but know people who do it frequently due to inability to file and pick up a clearance where they are.

A whole lot of the FAA and I suspect ATC had just as rather we don’t exist, I don’t know when but I suspect the day we pay for ATC services is coming, think like a toll road

Oh well, no big deal. Small potatoes after paying a 1500.00 STC fee to burn 15.00 a gallon super dooper no lead fuel, 150.00 oil filters if we buy in bulk, 5000.00 insurance policies, 6000.00 hangar fees etc. Now I don’t know if all that is going to happen but I just couldn’t pass up my chance to pile on the doom and gloom of the future of GA!