argh -- flight plan routes

ventmode
I am an inexperienced instrument pilot and I just don't understand why
we file routes on our flight plans at all!

I never get what I filed, anyway, and it's not uncommon that the route
I actually get shares not a single waypoint with what I filed.

It is an interesting game to try to guess what they want you to do,
file that, and see if I get it back, but I so seldom win at it. I even
use the trick of, yes, filing what they gave me last time, but no, even
that is not sure-fire.

It's not that I'm complaining, but, okay, I'm complaining a bit.

- is the route box in the flight plan form just an anachronism from
a more flexible time in history
- why shouldn't I just file DIRECT?
- The equipment I have access to is /A. If I did file direct, will
the routing I get be /A friendly? This is perhaps tricky and illegal,
because I know that I couldn't actually fly the direct route I asked
for. (well, that's a total side discussion, I know, what I can do with
radar vectors and a VFR GPS)

This is all only a minor annoyance, except for when I am sitting in the
runup area with a newly picked up clearance, trying to figure out where
those fixes are while the hobbs meter is running.

/ventmode

-- dave j
-- jacobowitz73 --at-- yahoo --dot-- com