Gettin Tec-Route savvy

The vast majority of my flying has been east of the Mississippi. However, the end of last year found me traversing the other coast from Mexico to the Canadian border during a two-day evaluation of a VLJ pilot based outside San Francisco. Our second leg of the trip had us in Santa Monica, ready to depart for San Diego, when ATC pitched us a nasty curve.My clients call to Clearance Delivery was answered with the query, Do you have the Santa Monica November routes onboard? My client looked at me with a puzzled glance. After my own initial confusion (The what?), followed by a smart-aleck impulse (Well if we do, whats it worth to you if we let them go?) I just shook my head to indicate I didnt know what the controller was talking about either.You could hear the exasperation in the controllers voice as she realized we were going to have to do this the hard way, and proceeded to read us one of the most complex clearances Ive received in quite some time. Once my client had read back the clearance, I asked the controller what that was about November routes. Theyre canned routes, sometimes you have them in the beginning of your book, she enigmatically responded.

Key Takeaways:

• The article highlights an encounter with "November routes," which are local Tower En Route Control (TEC) routes common in Southern California, emphasizing the importance of knowing where to find published preferred/TEC routes (e.g., Jeppesen text pages, A/FD) to simplify complex ATC clearances.
• It details essential GPS programming skills for intricate clearances, including creating user waypoints (UWPTs) for points defined by intersecting radials (e.g., an airway intercept) and using the "activate leg" function to correctly track specific flight plan segments after radar vectors.
• The experience affirms the practical necessity of mastering advanced IFR navigation techniques and GPS capabilities for pilots, preparing them for complex air traffic situations even if such challenging clearances are not an everyday occurrence.

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