Checking in with London

[lebroix]

Whenever I check in with London, when heading north towards Portsmouth, bound for the north of England, ATC usually ask us to fly a route, sometimes listing up to seven waypoints in one transmission.

It caught me out first time, and I had an embarrassing exchange with ATC of about 3 goes to get the readback correct, to the intense amusement of my colleague on the flight deck. Ever since, I have pen and paper flight plan in hand before cheking in rather than the using the more usual method of going straight to the FMC so as to ensure a correct readback. What is apparent is that many crews, (typically foreign crews not used to this system) also seem to get caught out on a regular basis.

With the high standard of ATC in the UK, I guess there must be a good reason for transmitting up to seven waypoints in one call. Just a confused pilot making a polite enquiry.

[MancBoy]

You should be getting nothing more than three waypoints, whoever is giving seven is just asking for it to be got wrong, especially if its a yank then its one at a time

[anotherthing]

especially if its a yank then its one at a time


One what at a time? One waypoint or one letter spelling the waypoint?!!

[av8boy]

Oh my. Aren't we in a mood today? :=

Dave (the yank)

[Inca_Gold01]

Does a route not have to be given to the end of the next sector, plus any appropriate STAR?

For S19,
(BB I/B) AVANT-MID-OCK-HEMEL-GROVE1C

Don't see how this one can be reduced really?

[Check Mags On]

It does have its advantages sometimes getting numerous waypoints, they could always reply with "Roger" and we would just have to fly the flight planned route.

Heard one exchange the other day with a non English speaker making a hash of the AVANT-MID-OCK etc etc

He tried 3 times and could not get it quite right.

A very patient voice at London said "never mind direct RIBEL"
Thought about trying that one myself!!

[5milesbaby]

Lebroix - was it you I had the "sort of exchange" with on the RTF Saturday morning where I said I wish they'd sort it out? Flight planned route would be great, but as I said then, you should see some of the routes we get filed!! PM me if it was :ok:

[fireflybob]

Well at least London give you the (procedural) routing - there are some parts of the world where you are left guessing!

Suppose its primarily in case of loss of comms although I suppose its nice to know what STAR you can expect.

[MancBoy]

Also to stop the nasty surprise when the aircraft you are expecting to go straight on through LAM does a stonking great turn at GILDA