Are sectional paths correct across "long" distances?

"Peter Duniho" writes:

There is absolutely no basis for Center ever asking you to justify your
choice in flight planning.

My use of "explain" was apparently ambiguous. I've not been asked to
justify my route (that I recall), but I have been asked to elaborate on how
I'm going to deal with airspace barriers. I got the feeling that they
wanted more than "I'm going to avoid them."

But frankly, that's just a red herring anyway. There's no way in hell that
any controller would want to know why you flew a sectional straight line
instead of a great-circle route or vice a versa. The difference is just
noise to them.

Again, that's off the subject. I don't know that I'm capable of providing
further clarification on my preference to have all of my maps (and paths)
be aligned.

That's my own laziness though. I'm perfectly happy justifying the use of
Great Circle paths for the tools I build solely because it's The Right
Thing to do.

--kyler

"Kyler Laird" wrote in message
...
"Peter Duniho" writes:

There is absolutely no basis for Center ever asking you to justify your
choice in flight planning.

My use of "explain" was apparently ambiguous. I've not been asked to
justify my route (that I recall), but I have been asked to elaborate on
how
I'm going to deal with airspace barriers. I got the feeling that they
wanted more than "I'm going to avoid them."

But frankly, that's just a red herring anyway. There's no way in hell
that
any controller would want to know why you flew a sectional straight line
instead of a great-circle route or vice a versa. The difference is just
noise to them.

Again, that's off the subject. I don't know that I'm capable of providing
further clarification on my preference to have all of my maps (and paths)
be aligned.

That's my own laziness though. I'm perfectly happy justifying the use of
Great Circle paths for the tools I build solely because it's The Right
Thing to do.

--kyler

When flying VFR, I've been asking about my planned route of flight before.
The controller is just doing his/her job and wants to get the heads up.

"F1" wrote in message
...
When flying VFR, I've been asking about my planned route of flight before.
The controller is just doing his/her job and wants to get the heads up.

Did the controller ask you to explain why you chose one route versus
another? I doubt they did. That is the issue here, not a controller's
general interest in which way you're going.

In article ,
"Peter Duniho" wrote:

"F1" wrote in message
...
When flying VFR, I've been asking about my planned route of flight before.
The controller is just doing his/her job and wants to get the heads up.

Did the controller ask you to explain why you chose one route versus
another? I doubt they did. That is the issue here, not a controller's
general interest in which way you're going.



I've had controllers ask me "how I'm navigating" while VFR. But I
believe the intent of the question has generally been, "Can you give me
a heads-up where you're heading so I can anticipate your flight path
better?" Sometimes I think it's been, "Based on where you said you were
going, I'm wondering if you're lost; do you need some help?"

In all cases, if I've come back with something like, "We're going to be
maneuvering in the area of X for a while", or "We're going to be
following X, Y, and Z", (no matter how absurd or circuitous that path
might have been), that's seem to satisfy the controller.

"Roy Smith" wrote in message
...
[...]
In all cases, if I've come back with something like, "We're going to be
maneuvering in the area of X for a while", or "We're going to be
following X, Y, and Z", (no matter how absurd or circuitous that path
might have been), that's seem to satisfy the controller.

Exactly. That was my point. The controller doesn't care, and has no reason
to care, why you pick a particular route. They just want to know what the
route is (and much of time, they aren't too terribly concerned about that
either, if you're VFR).

Pete

The controller doesn't care, and has no reason
to care, why you pick a particular route. They just want to know what the
route is (and much of time, they aren't too terribly concerned about that
either, if you're VFR).

An amusing incident: 20 or 30 years ago, I left central PA for
Rochester, NY, and asked for flight following. (Pretty wild country
much of the way.)

Since thre ae no VORs along that route, Center asked me for my route.
I said "Direct Rochester." A pause. Then he asked, "Do you have
RNAV?"

I said, "No, I have a line on a chart."

There was a long period of silence. I guess it was a young controller
who had never heard that before.

vince norris