Newps wrote:
: That's what I was saying. Although it is pretty sad that the nationwide
: system cannot keep everything together in a unified way. It's not that it's that much
: data... just that the system is so old that it cannot handle it. If a couple
: megabytes of memory in a GPS can handle every APT, VOR, ADF, INT for all of north
: america, regular computers shouldn't have trouble.

: You don't know what you're asking for. A few MB of computer memory is
: not the issue. If you take off VFR and fly from Miami to Seattle you
: want you're IFR clearance to be ready at each controllers position along
: the way. Do you have any idea how many IFR flightplans never get used
: in the course of an average day?

I wasn't actually referring to flight plans... those are dynamic data and not
everyone needs to know about it. Also, they're well-defined so shuttling them to the
appropriate facility is relatively straight-forward. I'm talking about navaids such.
I think one should be able to file a cross-country flight plan, starting at an airport
or perhaps a nearby point, and file with the endpoint being the IAF designator at the
destination airport. There may be something subtle about why one wouldn't
necessarily want to have a clearance to an IAF designator, but it's better than the
airport. At least the IAF has a procedure for arriving at an airport... flying over
the top at MEA doesn't.

If I were to try that, chances are they computers won't have any idea the
designator for the destination airport. THAT's what seems silly to me.

-Cory

--

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* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
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