"Brien K. Meehan" wrote:
Actually, I've filed similar plans with Lansing, and they wouldn't let
me. They insisted that I file at least 2 plans, one departing Midland
and the other departing Lansing.

Technically, they should let you do that, but I'm sure there's some
operational reason why it's easier on ATC to have two distinct flight
plans, so I'm willing to go with the flow on this. The pilot and ATC
need to act as a team for things to work efficiently. If one team
member says, "please just do it my way" and it's no big deal to comply,
there's no reason to get bent out of shape over it.

I've also tried to file flight plans with the alternate the same as the
departure, and they wouldn't take it. I didn't argue, and just gave
another nearby alternate (e.g. DET instead of PTK).

This one I just don't understand. What alternate you file has
absolutely no impact for ATC. It's a regulatory obligation that the
pilot has to comply with to be legal. There's no reason at all that FSS
or ATC should give a rats ass what your alternate is, and for an FSS guy
to refuse to accept your stated alternate is absurd. I'd have told the
guy to just enter the flight plan the way I read it to him.

That's just one more reason I prefer DUAT to FSS. The DUAT software may
not be the most user friendly in the world, but at least each time I log
in, it doesn't invent some new stupid rule that doesn't really exist.
As long as the flight plan I give it is syntactically and semantically
correct, it accepts whatever bizarre route I felt like inventing without
giving me any 'tude.