Flight Plan Filed -- Told to Expect Different Route

[Ventucky Red]

To the OP:
Since you're using Foreflight, if you desire to read/hear the words "cleared as filled" then learn to use the Suggested Routes feature.
Pick one that matches the type of aircraft you fly (eg turboprop, piston etc) and file.

Goes straight through, like corn through a cow.

Ding Ding - it usually works in our little dog-patch.. but lately we have had a thick marine layer and I am thinking ATC is pretty busy along the coast.

The other day, even though it was clear at KCMA, ATC was not accepting any "practice approaches."

 

[SoCal 182 Driver]

To the OP:
Since you're using Foreflight, if you desire to read/hear the words "cleared as filled" then learn to use the Suggested Routes feature.
Pick one that matches the type of aircraft you fly (eg turboprop, piston etc) and file.

Goes straight through, like corn through a cow.

That's what I did for the flight home, and still got a different updated route.

 

[flyingron]

File what you want.
Fly what you get.
Log what you need.

My first instrument XC work, I file, everything regurgitates fine. Call for clearance. They give me a completely different route. Fine, put that into the GPS. Take off, call approach. "We have a new route for you." Oh fun. Ready to copy. I write it down. Hey, this is what I filed initially.

Later, I'm up at OWD (south of Boston). File a rather straightforward (to me) route down V3 to MRB and then south to CJR. Again the computer accepts it, the regurgitated route comes back the same. Call up ground to OWD. He's about to read me the clearance and then says, no this isn't going to work. Hold on. A few minutes later he asked if I got my pencil ready and I get what I know to be the standard route... zig zagging through a few fixes, down the middle of Long Island Sound, pick up a Radial of JFK. Go straight over JFK, pick up V16 down to Delaware and then head direct to IAD (mind you they give me the airport NOT the AML VOR that sis on it) and then home.

Of course, there's always ROA who tells me in the middle of the flight they have a new routing, advise when ready to copy. I tell them I'm ready and they clear me direct CJR. I needed to copy that?

 

[MackMooney]

1. As far as i Know, you will almost NEVER get the route you request, get used to it.

2. You will almost NEVER fly the given route. seriously, sometimes i feel like i'm wasting ink copying down the complete clearance

from my experience, outside the busiest airspace and even then outside the busiest of times, atc does every thing in their power to get you on your way and out of their hair.

example, flying from kfws to kdwh, i'll get a clearance containing some common routing and a SID, most of the time i don't make it off the runway before they give direct kdwh

 

[chemgeek]

You will learn after the first dozen IFR trips not to put your full route into the GPS, only the initial fix and maybe one beyond that, because it is likely going to change anyway. There is plenty of time once your make the initial climb to cruise altitude to enter your updated clearance into the magic box. If you are lucky at some point you just get cleared to destination direct.

 

[Steamflyer]

You will learn after the first dozen IFR trips not to put your full route into the GPS, only the initial fix and maybe one beyond that, because it is likely going to change anyway. There is plenty of time once your make the initial climb to cruise altitude to enter your updated clearance into the magic box. If you are lucky at some point you just get cleared to destination direct.

Reasonable advice because in about 80% of the country (geographically), the initial fix and the one beyond that is the destination airport. GPS is a game-changer compared to VOR airways of the past - direct it is.

DNA along the coasts of course.

 

[flyingpreacher]

So for your situation, what I would file (personal preference 100%) would be
KCMA - VNY - POM - HAPPÉ - BALDI - JISOP - KPSP

I chose BALDI and JISOP because they are fixes on the RNAV for 31L (runway with the best winds currently). I always try to file at least an initial fix in case I end up NORDO somehow. Everyone will have a decent idea of my plan. Beyond that, the routing made the attempt to avoid the LAX Bravo, then HAPPE eases the transition into the approach.

As everybody else has said, file what you want, trying to take as many things into account as you can, and then see what they give you. You can always request something different, but if you’re IFR, they tell you what you’ll be doing unless you’re an emergency aircraft. If that doesn’t suit you, you still have two options: fly VFR or don’t fly.

At the end of the day, especially if you have aspirations of commercial flying, just get use to filing IFR, flying what you’re told, and deal with the minor inconvenience. Besides, if you plan to fly for money, that extra time helps you get to your 1500 TT mark (or 1200 or 1000 as the case may be).

 

[Feh]

You will learn after the first dozen IFR trips not to put your full route into the GPS, only the initial fix and maybe one beyond that, because it is likely going to change anyway. There is plenty of time once your make the initial climb to cruise altitude to enter your updated clearance into the magic box. If you are lucky at some point you just get cleared to destination direct.

So true. Especially when you have radar vectors on departure, you might get the initial fix to close to it, then I've been routed direct destination.

A couple weeks ago, my initial was cleared as filed, then I request an altitude climb from 8 to 10k due to clouds/icing and ATC did a full re-route shortly after.

Out of my last 15 IFR flights, haven't had a single one that followed the initial route lol

 

[Pinecone]

I am to the point that most times I just file Direct. Let them figure it out.

I had one where I got the expected route from FF. Had it in the iPad. Called Clearance, got a totally different clearance. Loaded it in, call Ground and was told to call Clearance. They told me that had a new clearance for me, that the one I had been given was for turbo jets (I am SE piston). Then told to wait. Then finally told to just go ahead and use the clearance I had been given.

 

[Ventucky Red]

Just the other day we did a flight KCMA - KLGB... filed a plan in Foreflight using the VTUP6 tech route...

On calling ground we advised of the IFR Plan on file, and to see if it would work we had added "requesting clearance as filed...

We got it, or should I say got it in a different way... they gave me "vector to the Van Nuys VOR > V186 > ADAMM > V394 > Seal Beach VOR > KLGB..." With the exception of the initial vectors to the VNY VOR this is the tech route. Not looking the gift horse in the mouth as they say, but wouldn't it have been easier to say "vector to the Van Nuys VOR then cleared as filed?" Or do they have to articulate the route to make sure the pilot understands it?

Anyway a good day of flying an really liking my avionics toys...

 

[Jim_R]

...wouldn't it have been easier to say "vector to the Van Nuys VOR then cleared as filed?" Or do they have to articulate the route to make sure the pilot understands it?

I almost always get the route I filed. About half the time, I receive my clearance: "Cleared to [destination] as filed." Otherwise I receive it as read out in detail, but with no changes from what I filed. I don't know why it's sometimes one and sometimes the other. Maybe some controllers like to be explicit rather than taking a shortcut? Maybe some want the details captured on a recording in case there's an incident? I dunno.

 

[AlphaMike]

I almost always get the route I filed. About half the time, I receive my clearance: "Cleared to [destination] as filed." Otherwise I receive it as read out in detail, but with no changes from what I filed. I don't know why it's sometimes one and sometimes the other. Maybe some controllers like to be explicit rather than taking a shortcut? Maybe some want the details captured on a recording in case there's an incident? I dunno.

My experience is about the same, except in Florida. I believe they send controllers to Florida to practice giving reroutes! Sometimes it’s just simply skipping a few fixes along a V or T airway. Other times its 3 completely different routes in 30 min just to put you right back on the route you were originally on. Good practice I guess, but us Midwest pilots aren’t use to that much copying and reading back.

 

[tsts4]

I am to the point that most times I just file Direct. Let them figure it out.

This is what I do unless I flown a given route often enough to know what they are going to give me.

 

[Jim_R]

This is what I do unless I flown a given route often enough to know what they are going to give me.

Foreflight, Fltplan.com, and probably plenty of others will tell you what route ATC normally assigns for a given airport pair, so it doesn't have to be a surprise, even if you personally haven't flown it before.

 

[tsts4]

Foreflight, Fltplan.com, and probably plenty of others will tell you what route ATC normally assigns for a given airport pair, so it doesn't have to be a surprise, even if you personally haven't flown it before.

I know, but in my experience that's not a panacea for me. I prefer not to bother anymore. I just file what I want and fly what I get--easy peezy.

 

[flyingron]

The suggested routes feature isn't foolproof nor in the regurgitated routing from the ATC computers. I did a perfectly reasonable routing from OWD to CJR and the computer took it, and echoed it back, it even printed it on the strip at OWD tower. The controller was about to read it to me when he says "No, that won't work. Standby" and got me the preferred route (zigzags through several fixes, down the middle of LI sound, intercepts a radial of the JFK VOR, straight over JFK and pick up V16 ...

 

[Jim_R]

I know, but in my experience that's not a panacea for me. I prefer not to bother anymore. I just file what I want and fly what I get--easy peezy.

The suggested routes feature isn't foolproof nor in the regurgitated routing from the ATC computers.

Sure, nothing's 100% foolproof. But if you can see that 15 PA28s and C172s got the exact same routing in the last 90 days and no other routes were assigned, you can probably safely wager $5 that's what you're gonna get in your PA28 or C172, too.

As always, YMMV.