Hello fellow pilots,

I need help finding a preferred route from KPBI - KGNV. I have to do a
flight plan for my ground course and can't find the route. Also, do i
have to calculate for winds as I do for VFR flights? How would I do
that?

Hello fellow pilot,

The advice you were given in the NG about finding preferred routes in
the
A/FD will work and is what you should do for your ground class.

In the real world when I am flying IFR somewhere I've never been
before I
have a system to get my route ahead of time.

On the east coast and at my uncontrolled airport where we get our
clearances
by calling the local approach facility, I rarely get ANY flight plan I
file
no matter where I look it up from. I end up getting a new and unique
one
ATC wants me to fly while I'm sitting in the plane with the propeller
spinning at 90 bucks a Hobbs hour (and this is in my own plane!).
Then I
have to throw out my original flight plan with all my calculated times
and
fuel burns. Next I have about 5 minutes release time and a 5 minute
void
time to mark my charts with an erasable highlighter, enter all the
waypoints
into the GPS, finish my checklist items, taxi, do the run-up, taxi
into line
for departure, do my before take-off checklist and pray there aren't
too
many planes ahead of me for takeoff such that I can get into the air
before
my void time expires.

Needless to say it's like a cockpit karate tournament during those
tense 10
minutes. To save myself this trouble I file my flight plan early
while at
home with a departure time 30 minutes from whatever time it is. I
then call
from home to get my clearance and learn the route I'm going to get. I
then
tell them that I am going to cancel my flight plan and I will have to
call
back later to re-file. They never ask why and just say that my flight
plan
is cancelled.

Now I have all the info I need to mark my charts, enter the waypoints
in the
GPS ahead of time and calculate my times and fuel. Now when I really
pick
up my clearance there isn't this mad rabid rush.

GW