As an inexperienced not-yet instrument pilot (hopefully that comes this
weekend), I have been pretty lucky using the preferred routes in the A&FD.
On cross countries during training or even filing to distant locations for
practice, I have heard "cleared as filed" more often than not. Where there
are no preferred routes, I choose airways that are clear of major traffic.
Its worked so far, knock on wood. True, it can be a taxing mental exercise,
but I find the gamble sort of fun.

As a aside, why pick up your clearance with the hobbs running? Given that
you may not get your filed route and thus may need to study the charts
and/or program the new fight plan into the GPS, pick up your clearance while
still on the ramp and with the engine off. That gives you time to clear
your mind, do last minute tasks and be prepared for flight before starting
to siphon your wallet. I preflight the plane and then pick up the clearance
on my hand-held. Once the route is confirmed, I pick up the highlighter and
start marking the charts. When I start the plane, I am ready to fly.

Bob

wrote in message
oups.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.

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