Well I finally got to make this flight on Tuesday afternoon.
First my thanks to the guys at TC who were, as always, brilliantly accommodating and obliging. If any of my comments come across as critical, these are criticisms of the ATM system, not of the individuals who, time and again, bend over backward to make every flight safe and operationally achievable.
So I filed:
EGSC DCT CLN M189 DVR L9 KONAN L607 KOK DCT NIK
at FL90 which was accepted without amendment.
Unlike, I suspect, most flight crew, I also took a copy of the Flight Route page from the CFMU Internet Application, which gave my routing as DVR6R DET DVR.
As I departed Cambridge, the issue was complicated by a large CB apparently sitting right over Stansted. The initial heading from Director took me straight towards it, and a discussion ensued as to whether deviation east or west around Stansted would be better, and it became explicit for the first time that the intended routing was via DET. Because of the stacks to the west, deviating east around the weather was clearly preferable and I ended up tracking about 070.
After handover to 121.22, I needed to continue the heading before eventually turning south for CLN, but the controller was still expecting to take me back towards DET. I asked for a routing via CLN JACKO as flight planned, and was handed to 135.42 (is that AC or TC?). I then asked for coordination with Brussels for a routing direct to COA, and got it after an apparently short negotiation.
This raises some questions:
1) Why does the routing in the CFMU Flight log differ from my flight planned routing?
2) What does ATC see on the strip? (Also, do you see the RMK?)
3) Does routing BKY CLN JACKO DVR require more coordination for some reason than BKY DET DVR? The latter takes me much closer to the stacks, seems like a Bad Thing?
Thanks again to those who made it work on the day.