Don’t you hate it when this happens? “November 12345, I have an amendment to your clearance…advise when ready to copy.” Then ATC gives you the barely pronounceable name of a waypoint you never heard of. You’re given a re-route around restricted airspace or a military operations area (MOA) that just went hot. Or you’re making a short positioning flight in IMC, and have to make rapid-fire GPS flight plan updates and heading changes when you’re cleared for a approach just as you’re leveling off from climb.
The tremendous utility, accuracy and repeatability of GPS allows us to file and fly direct routings much of the time. But if you’re a fan of airport-to-airport, point-to-point flight plans and routings, chances are good you’ll have to deal with attention-grabbing updates from ATC. To reduce your workload and limit the number of revised routings—to “plan your flight and fly your plan” with greater predictability—sometimes it helps to plan and file more smartly than simply hitting the Direct button.
