"Roy Smith" wrote in message
...

Had a strange thing happen to me today. I filed IFR HPN - HFD (White
Plains NY to Hartford CT). The route part of my clearance came back
"radar vectors Carmel[VOR], V1, Hartford[VOR], Direct".


Unless they made some major changes to the airway structure in the northeast
recently, V1 does not go to HFD from CMK, V3 does.



Usually out of HPN I would expect to get the Westchester-1 departure,
but it wasn't in my clearance, and I when I read back the clearance
without it, I got "readback correct". Seemed a little strange, but I
went with the flow (I should have asked for clarification, I'm not
sure why I didn't). The turn in the SID took us away from our first
fix, so I guess I figured they were just doing us a favor or something
with a shorter routing.

We took off and I started climbing straight out. The HPN-1 has an
almost 180-degree turn almost immediately. The guy I was with asked
me why I wasn't making the turn and I said we weren't on the SID. I
asked tower and they said I should be on the SID.


Sounds like you were departing RWY 16, what vector did they issue prior to
takeoff?



So, what went wrong? Did I goof? Am I supposed to fly the SID (not a
DP) even though it's not in the clearance? Is it more likely that it
was in the clearance but I just didn't hear it and the controller
didn't notice that it wasn't in the readback?


Well, somebody goofed. Can't say for sure who it was without knowledge of
standard procedures or hearing the tapes. You say it's unusual to not be
issued the Westchester One departure, but you read the clearance back as
issued and clearance delivery said it was correct. But since the clearance
was "radar vectors Carmel" a heading should have been issued with the
takeoff clearance. Was it? If one was not, and you weren't issued the
departure procedure, you shoul have known something was amiss before taking
the runway.