IFR routings and Foreflight.

stratobee

stratobee

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stratobee
As you know, I'm a pretty new IR pilot. In fact, yesterday was my first day of filing on my own. A roundtrip from LA to Monterey.

But it seems I'm missing a few tricks when it comes to preferred routings when I'm filing. Basically, I do all my flight planning on Foreflight. I also file from there. But is there a way to plan a flight and get ATC's preferred routings on Foreflight? I haven't seemed to find a way. What I end up doing is filing direct and then have ATC figure it out for me and give me a clearance. But coming back from Monterey yesterday that kind of backfired as I got cleared direct and then enroute had to contend with two re-clearings/amended routes that needed programming in quick succession. Would have been better if I knew their preferred route and could have filed that.

Where do you figure out routings? How do you know if a Victor way is preferred for northbound traffic, or southbound? Which VOR's should I use going a certain direction?
 
Look in the AFD. In the back they have IFR Preferred Routes and TEC (Tower Enroute Clearance) Routes. Match the city pairs. If the it doesn't list the exact city pairs you can look at airports close to your destination and departure airport and you'll likely get a route close to those city pairs.
 
stratobee said:
As you know, I'm a pretty new IR pilot. In fact, yesterday was my first day of filing on my own. A roundtrip from LA to Monterey.

But it seems I'm missing a few tricks when it comes to preferred routings when I'm filing. Basically, I do all my flight planning on Foreflight. I also file from there. But is there a way to plan a flight and get ATC's preferred routings on Foreflight? I haven't seemed to find a way. What I end up doing is filing direct and then have ATC figure it out for me and give me a clearance. But coming back from Monterey yesterday that kind of backfired as I got cleared direct and then enroute had to contend with two re-clearings/amended routes that needed programming in quick succession. Would have been better if I knew their preferred route and could have filed that.

Where do you figure out routings? How do you know if a Victor way is preferred for northbound traffic, or southbound? Which VOR's should I use going a certain direction?
Click to expand...

Thank you for desiring to upgrade your knowledge and learning. Filing direct is Beginner 101 stuff.

As stated, look at the AFD for preferred routes, and barring that, look at departure procedures (DP) for the airport you are taking of from, and arrival procedures for the destination. Many times you only need to file a DP and STAR and nothing else. One example of this is a flight from KSAT to KHOU.

www.skyvector.com and www.myairplane.com offer free charting and plates
 
Fltplan.com has recently issued ATC clearances between two airports.
 
stratobee said:
As you know, I'm a pretty new IR pilot. In fact, yesterday was my first day of filing on my own. A roundtrip from LA to Monterey.

But it seems I'm missing a few tricks when it comes to preferred routings when I'm filing. Basically, I do all my flight planning on Foreflight. I also file from there. But is there a way to plan a flight and get ATC's preferred routings on Foreflight? I haven't seemed to find a way. What I end up doing is filing direct and then have ATC figure it out for me and give me a clearance. But coming back from Monterey yesterday that kind of backfired as I got cleared direct and then enroute had to contend with two re-clearings/amended routes that needed programming in quick succession. Would have been better if I knew their preferred route and could have filed that.

Where do you figure out routings? How do you know if a Victor way is preferred for northbound traffic, or southbound? Which VOR's should I use going a certain direction?
Click to expand...

Look at AFD for preferred routes; Foreflight gives you ATC cleared routes. My CFII has had me do all of our flight planning for the training XC. It was great after he sat me down for a couple of hours and trained me.
 
asgcpa said:
Look at AFD for preferred routes; Foreflight gives you ATC cleared routes. My CFII has had me do all of our flight planning for the training XC. It was great after he sat me down for a couple of hours and trained me.
Click to expand...

Hey CPA, that Routes button in Foreflight is great. I'd not seen that before. That's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks.
 
stratobee said:
Hey CPA, that Routes button in Foreflight is great. I'd not seen that before. That's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks.
Click to expand...

It is still a good idea to learn how to find the routes in the AFD or how to construct a route that will be ATC friendly. In today's age of instant-everything, Ipads, etc, it is good to learn old-school methods
 
At the risk of causing a riot ...

Why do I need to learn old school ways that I would never use?
 
jordane93 said:
I'm surprised your CFI didn't teach about about IFR preferred routes or TEC routes.
Click to expand...

My CFI mentioned that as an afterthought during final check ride prep (and made sure I knew how to use them), and I don't remember if it came up during my oral. Not all checkrides are the same, but that area wasn't stressed by my DPE, and I totally use ATC cleared routes on Foreflight now.
 
Hey guys, where is that routes button located on Foreflight? Thanks
 
Luigi said:
Hey guys, where is that routes button located on Foreflight? Thanks
Click to expand...

routes.png
 
ChrisK said:
My CFI mentioned that as an afterthought during final check ride prep (and made sure I knew how to use them), and I don't remember if it came up during my oral. Not all checkrides are the same, but that area wasn't stressed by my DPE, and I totally use ATC cleared routes on Foreflight now.
Click to expand...
Do you get cleared direct most of the time where you are? Here in NY we get a TEC route almost all the time if it is available. My DPE had me plan FRG to BWI and my CFI told me he was going see if I used the TEC route or not. I guess it's different in other parts of the country but we use TEC routes a whole lot here.
 
jordane93 said:
Do you get cleared direct most of the time where you are? Here in NY we get a TEC route almost all the time if it is available. My DPE had me plan FRG to BWI and my CFI told me he was going see if I used the TEC route or not. I guess it's different in other parts of the country but we use TEC routes a whole lot here.
Click to expand...

Admittedly, yeah, we do. I agree that if TEC routes were common in Ohio it probably would have had a bit more focus.
 
ChrisK said:
Admittedly, yeah, we do. I agree that if TEC routes were common in Ohio it probably would have had a bit more focus.
Click to expand...
Lucky. I'll never get direct here! Since TEC routes are used so much my CFI went over it with me during training.
 
Thanks Chris K, FF really is amazing.
 
Here in LA or SoCal it's all Tower Enroute. But I don't think we ever filed non-TEC routes except for the cross countries. But then I let Duats chose the route for me, never did it 'manually'.
 
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B350ATP said:
It is still a good idea to learn how to find the routes in the AFD or how to construct a route that will be ATC friendly. In today's age of instant-everything, Ipads, etc, it is good to learn old-school methods
Click to expand...

How do I learn this? I am close to finishing up my IFR training and would like to know. I have been planning my own routes and using ForeFlight routes and have not been told anything by my instructor about doing it this way. I just checked this out in the AFD and don't see how to do this easily unless I am going from the main airport listed to one listed below it. Unfortunately there are not options that I see for smaller airports to other small airports.
 
mike d said:
Why do I need to learn old school ways that I would never use?
Click to expand...
Because in some parts of the country, you can file anything you want, but you'll get the preferred/TEC routes, and it's always better to be prepared for what you'll actually get whether you want it or not.

In any event, the Routes button on ForeFlight is the best choice of all, since it shows you both routes and altitudes that ATC actually gives people. This is especially true in the Northeast Corridor from Bangor all the way to Norfolk, but still largely true in the entire Boston-DC-Chicago-Boston triangle.
 
Is there a way to look at the back pages ((IFR Preferred Routes and TEC (Tower Enroute Clearance) Routes) in the AFD using ForeFlight?
 
Scott@KTYR said:
Is there a way to look at the back pages ((IFR Preferred Routes and TEC (Tower Enroute Clearance) Routes) in the AFD using ForeFlight?
Click to expand...

Yes.

Go to DOCUMENTS. In the upper right corner you will see a button labeled CATALOG. You'll then be shown a list of documents you can download, including the A/FD supplemental. This has the info you were asking about and more.
 
Thanks guys. Learning new stuff about ForeFlight. WOW i like this software.
 
Scott@KTYR said:
Thanks guys. Learning new stuff about ForeFlight. WOW i like this software.
Click to expand...

Next time you're flying VFR, open the EDIT FLIGHT box on the MAPS page and tap the PROCEDURE button. With another tap on TRAFFIC PATTERN, you'll be shown the suggested best runway for the wind conditions, and the option for plotting the entry into the traffic pattern.

When I'm 15-20 minutes from landing, I'm using that feature to develop my situational awareness and arrival action plan. Then confirm the info and plan with information on the Wx frequency and listening to other pilots in the pattern.
 
ForeFlight just gets better and better!!!
 
AggieMike88 said:
Next time you're flying VFR, open the EDIT FLIGHT box on the MAPS page and tap the PROCEDURE button. With another tap on TRAFFIC PATTERN, you'll be shown the suggested best runway for the wind conditions, and the option for plotting the entry into the traffic pattern.

When I'm 15-20 minutes from landing, I'm using that feature to develop my situational awareness and arrival action plan. Then confirm the info and plan with information on the Wx frequency and listening to other pilots in the pattern.
Click to expand...


Nice tip!! I'm going to try this one tonight.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Next time you're flying VFR, open the EDIT FLIGHT box on the MAPS page and tap the PROCEDURE button. With another tap on TRAFFIC PATTERN, you'll be shown the suggested best runway for the wind conditions, and the option for plotting the entry into the traffic pattern.

When I'm 15-20 minutes from landing, I'm using that feature to develop my situational awareness and arrival action plan. Then confirm the info and plan with information on the Wx frequency and listening to other pilots in the pattern.
Click to expand...

That's cool!

Didn't know it did that. 9/10 times at work I'm IFR, but that's a cool feature!
 

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directo! and then atc either gives it to you or clears you with their own route. In either case you should be familiar with the departures and the local area fixes.
 
cirrusmx said:
directo! and then atc either gives it to you or clears you with their own route. In either case you should be familiar with the departures and the local area fixes.
Click to expand...
You can do that if you want, but if you do, you are probably going to be doing a lot of in-cockpit replanning after ATC reads you your clearance, and maybe find you are hosed for fuel requirements when you do. I prefer not to have to have that happen, so I check for viable routes during flight planning using whatever tools are available (ForeFlight Routes, A/FD Preferred/TEC, etc).
 
I haven't filed IFR many times, but the few I have I get an "expected route" sent back to me from ForeFlight. Maybe it's because I'm using the ForeFlight routes in my initial planning/filing, but I've never gotten a different route than I've filed. Does anyone else have any experience with filing a route through ForeFlight and getting a different expected route returned to you? (And, if so, does it match what you're ultimately given in your clearance?)
 
James331 said:
That's cool!

Didn't know it did that. 9/10 times at work I'm IFR, but that's a cool feature!
Click to expand...

Select an airport with multiple runways, especially that cross one another (like KBGD for example), and you'll see how that tip really helps you get your mind organized.
 
Ron Levy said:
.... so I check for viable routes during flight planning using whatever tools are available (ForeFlight Routes, A/FD Preferred/TEC, etc).
Click to expand...

I definitely think this is a good way of thinking about it. Do this ahead of the flight (aka real actually planning time) and give yourself a chance to make notes for the knee board, pull charts, preload the iPad, etc. etc.
 
mjburian said:
I haven't filed IFR many times, but the few I have I get an "expected route" sent back to me from ForeFlight. Maybe it's because I'm using the ForeFlight routes in my initial planning/filing, but I've never gotten a different route than I've filed. Does anyone else have any experience with filing a route through ForeFlight and getting a different expected route returned to you? (And, if so, does it match what you're ultimately given in your clearance?)
Click to expand...


I have been given a different expected route twice so far, and it has matched my clearance each time. Once was coming home from Detroit to Cleveland, and another was a local flight in Cleveland (where I was /U and filed direct and was emailed to expect vectors - I kinda knew that one already ;) )
 
mjburian said:
I haven't filed IFR many times, but the few I have I get an "expected route" sent back to me from ForeFlight. Maybe it's because I'm using the ForeFlight routes in my initial planning/filing, but I've never gotten a different route than I've filed. Does anyone else have any experience with filing a route through ForeFlight and getting a different expected route returned to you? (And, if so, does it match what you're ultimately given in your clearance?)
Click to expand...

A couple of times I have filed using Foreflight out of South Florida (Miami area) and have received confirmation through Foreflight of my flight plan, however, clearance delivery has returned something different than what I filed. This has only happened to me in South Florida and probably is due to the busy Miami airspace.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
FF is amazing. I use the routes thing somewhat but I have found a lot of very old routes, often ones that use outdated DPs that no longer exists (PLAINS 4 is now PLAINS 5 and has been for a long time, for example). Just be aware.

Operating around cities, I look for DPs and STARs and file them if appropriate. There is usually a north, south, east and west gate departure for GA type planes in most cities but you gotta hunt for them. Big cities like Dallas and Denver have boatloads of DPs and STARs and many of them are turbojet-only procedures or RNP, etc. that I can't use but you have to look at each one to know.

It would be a great feature if FF could help us filter DPs and STARs and if it included TEC or preferred city-pair routes as part of the routing feature.
 
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