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In the December 2014 issue, I answered a question from Tim, a reader, regarding filing an IFR flight plan. DUATS flight planner computer accepted the flight plan but the FSS planner rejected it. That was disconcerting, so we dug into it. This article will explain whats happening and Ill illustrate how different flight planning tools can behave differently with some less common routing elements.

ATC offered Tim a clearance that read KAGC AGC073 HOMEE JST300 JST SEG. ATCs intent was to have Tim depart Allegheny County, PA, join the AGC VORs 073 radial and fly it to HOMEE. Then he would fly southeast on the JST VOR 300 radial to JST. Neither route is an airway and this was not a preferred route. Tim has only VOR and DME (with a VFR GPS) aboard and filed accordingly.

Good intentions notwithstanding, ATC gave Tim a flyable clearance but not one that FSS or Center would accept if you were to file it. A clearance you cant file isnt worth much, and this one fails in two respects.

On August 2, 1985, Delta Air Lines Flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011, crashed while approaching the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Texas. While passing through the rain shaft beneath a thunderstorm, Flight 191 entered a microburst, which the crew was unable to traverse successfully. Of the 163 aboard, 134 passengers and crew died; 26 passengers and three cabin attendants survived.

The Los Angeles basin stretches a hundred miles from the sparkling Pacific to the scrub-brush slopes of San Jacinto Peak. This sprawling plain of concrete and stucco is further bounded by the San Gabriel Mountains to the north and the Santa Anas to the south; these ramparts encompass 18 million souls and all the associated […]

We now have approved technical and operational standards for ADS-B equipment-but dont get too excited. This really means (among other things) that manufacturers can now move forward to develop conforming ADS-B hardware. The FAAs final rule on what will be required for GA equipage to fly in controlled airspace isnt due until April of this year. Compliance isnt required for another decade-provided the system is up and running by then.

The FAA handed over another $356 million to Lockheed Martin along with a three-year contract extension for running our automated flight service system. Lockheed Martin took over the AFSS function in 2005 and says the net result of the changes over the past five years is better, more efficient service, despite slashing the number of flight service stations and staff. Said Jim Derr, Lockheed Martin Flight Service Program Director, We are excited to have the opportunity to continue providing the most accurate and reliable flight service briefings available. We noted he didnt say, useful.

In October, Gulfstream announced it will add two new wide-cabin business jets to its line: the Gulfstream G500 and G600. The first G500 is already built, and taxied to the unveiling event in Savannah, Georgia. The company also revealed a 70-foot-long mockup of the G600, which it displayed a week later at the NBAA convention. Both jets carry up to 19 passengers in extra-wide cabins, and both can fly up to Mach 0.925, the same top speed as Gulfstreams G650 and G650ER. The cockpits feature active control sidesticks and touchscreen avionics. The G500 will start deliveries in 2018, with the G600 to follow a year later, the company said.

Generally I steer way clear of temporary flight restrictions, which means that I’m grounded any time the president is in town. And generally when the president is in town, I am aware of it days in advance. But recently, when President Obama was visiting the Los Angeles area, I had no idea until I was […]

Check out the 25 coolest aircraft according to Flying magazine’s editors.

It was late afternoon and time to fly home after a productive business meeting. Before heading to the airport, the pilot called Flight Service. Most of the significant weather was along a cold front just to the north of his east-west proposed route. The briefer mentioned some light snow showers were showing up on radar near the front. There were a few pilot reports of light to moderate icing, but all of them were associated with the weather to the north. The briefer alerted the pilot to an AIRMET for IFR conditions and mountain obscuration along a portion of his proposed route, but as of yet no en route advisories for structural icing had been issued.

We bought ice and Styrofoam chests at a Family Dollar store after leaving the Bourgeois Meat Market in Thibodaux, Louisiana, and packed them with crawfish boudin (sausage), headcheese and beef jerky. The boudin and headcheese (sounds gross but this stuff is a scrumptious pâté kind of thing) would be OK for a long time but […]