I'll be flying from Ottawa to Philadelphia next weekend for a week-long
conference, and would be grateful for hints and information from people
familiar with the U.S. portion of the route.

I couldn't find any preferred low-level routing in Canadian or U.S. sources
-- I also tried Syracuse to Philadelphia -- so I've decided on a fairly
simple (to file) routing:

CYOW DEP YSH V145 ART V29 PTW ARR KPHL

Here's the full route:

CYOW Ottawa Intl Airport
YSH Smith Falls NDB
ART Watertown VOR
SYR Syracuse VOR
CFB Binghamton VOR
LVZ Wilkes-Barre VOR
ETX East Texas VOR
PTW Pottstown VOR
KPHL Philadelphia Intl Airport

Here are my questions:

1. Am I likely to get this routing if I file it? Perhaps someone familiar
with the U.S. portion (say, Syracuse to Philadelphia) can comment.

2. I'd prefer to land KPHL 26 for Atlantic Aviation, winds permitting. Is
it easy to get the ILS 26 approach? Once I'm in the Philly Approach area,
how will they be likely to route or vector me onto the approach? How do
they normally handle low-level, slow (Cherokee) IFR arrivals from the north?

3. Atlantic Aviation gets glowing reviews on AirNav.com. Any extra hints or
advice? Can I get tie-downs, or am I stuck with chocks?

4. How flexible is customs and immigration in Philly? Are they easy to work
with? I can always land and clear U.S. customs at Watertown or Syracuse if
Philadelphia is going to be a pain.

5. Any special issues with ATS enroute?

6. Anything I haven't thought of asking?

Thank you all in advance for any help. Despite the occasional flamewar, I
find that this newsground has the most useful content of any of the
rec.aviation groups.


All the best,


David

p.s. If you want to reply directly, use "david" at "megginson" dot "com".