Waypoint naming

[Zonkor]

Waypoint names (such as for Victor airways) often seem random, obscure, or weird and are sometimes not readily pronounceable (at least for non-native speakers of English).

I certainly don't want to make a possible trivial topic complicated, but I'm genuinely curious about the following:

1. Who's in charge of naming them (US, UK)?

2. What's the basis or guidelines for naming them? In other words, is there a naming scheme or any other rules or logic to it?

3. Are there rules / expected way to pronounce them, or "just as close as a native English / American speaker would say it"?

[stevelup]

I presume the intention is simply that they all sound like fairly unique words when read out. Most of the ones round here bear some vague relationship to their physical locale as well.

You always have the fallback of reading them phonetically?

[Red Four]

Try this site: 5LNC (http://www2.icao.int/en/ICARD/Pages/5LNC.aspx)

In practice, it is now very difficult to obtain locally relevant named points, as most of the good English language ones have already been bagged, and there are regional constraints as well as worldwide.

4

[flyingpony]

There's certainly a logic to these waypoints :O
http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/1307/00678R16.PDF

http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/1307/00736R1.PDF

[A and C]

I am told that EASA have a random waypoint naming computer program......I guess they are determined to take all the fun out of aviation.

[Dave Gittins]

I am not sure about taking the fun out ... I am sure I once found a couple called ARFUR and DALEY.

Found the reference. They are (were ?) near Manchester

Keep up lads ... it was only on Proon 12 years ago

Strange waypoint names [Archive] - PPRuNe Forums (http://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-36355.html)

[foxmoth]

There's certainly a logic to these waypoints
http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/1307/00678R16.PDF

http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/1307/00736R1.PDF


First one should be a SYLVESTER arrival! Going into Orlando you have many of the waypoints named after Disney characters - MINEE, MICKY! GOOFY etc. (before anyone picks me up - no I did not check on the spelling of them).
Also, not sure how they got away with NAKID ( 49° 42' 54N 4° 37' 23W)!:}

[wrecker]

Not sure if its still there now but there used to be one in a Saudi airway called RAGED

[enicalyth]

It is still there, amusingly near OERR with a further chuckle as the airfield is ARAR..... RAGED, OERR, ARAR.....

Hat, coat etc

[ABZ777]

A few of my favourites include GINIS near Dublin, TARTN and LOMON in Scotland :-)

[FlyingKiwi_73]

In NZ we have a waypoint on the Wellington 34 SID called RUGBI i think..

Pretty sure one of the approach way points to welly is DUREX... there you go !

[Talkdownman]

In UK there have been ego-ATCO-planners' names ( :rolleyes: ), at least one is/was an ATCO memorial, some were beers (ADNAM etc), and there's been a few admirals on the South Coast (BENBO, DRAKE etc).

[Wycombe]

Not forgetting THRED and NEDUL on the approach to SOU from the south.

The Concorde Acceleration point (now sadly no longer needed) in the Bristol Channel was UPGAS, which I guess describes what used to happen there.

[A le Ron]

Not forgetting Reeves and Mortimer's Uvavu. But is that the chicken or the egg?

[Another_CFI]

One of the Liverpool STARs routes via KEGUN.

[Burnie5204]

EGNX has a reporting point for the commencement of ILS vestors called ROKUP

or there's UPDUK