BritishPPL
26th Oct 2018, 19:25
In Ops last week I was fixing an IFPS rejected Flight Plan, from a south-east UK airfield to France, via route TACAN Blue 6 (TB6). At the position (south of Shoreham over the channel) where this route crosses the UK/France FIR boundary is found waypoint "SPT" . I was asked its full name but didn't know e.g. CPT = Compton, MAY = Mayfield etc.
Does anyone know what is the full name of SPT? I couldn't find its decode - I presume it must have been a long name at some point but is this now lost in the mists of time? Clearly 5-letter waypoints are made-up but pronounceable "words" in their own right, but (I thought) all the 3-letter ones have long names, related to their location...or I could be wrong.
Take a look at the UK TACAN route system chart (ENR 6-3-5-1 UK AIP (http://www.mantma.co.uk/pdf/eg_enr_6_3_5_1_en.pdf)) and it can be seen that there are other France/UK UIR TACAN intersection waypoints identified as CNO, EPT and NPT. Are these designations also really only random groups of three letters? I doubt it.
Does anyone know what is the full name of SPT? I couldn't find its decode - I presume it must have been a long name at some point but is this now lost in the mists of time? Clearly 5-letter waypoints are made-up but pronounceable "words" in their own right, but (I thought) all the 3-letter ones have long names, related to their location...or I could be wrong.
Take a look at the UK TACAN route system chart (ENR 6-3-5-1 UK AIP (http://www.mantma.co.uk/pdf/eg_enr_6_3_5_1_en.pdf)) and it can be seen that there are other France/UK UIR TACAN intersection waypoints identified as CNO, EPT and NPT. Are these designations also really only random groups of three letters? I doubt it.