PPRuNe Forums - TACAN route waypoint identifiers

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TACAN route waypoint identifiers - origin/decode

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) 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.

Always called it South Point.

SPT / EPT / NPT long names as spoken on R/T are South Point, East Point, North Point respectively. However these points and the TACAN routes are not recognised by IFPS as they are only used by operational air traffic (OAT); they exist in the Mil AIP but not Civil. What’s more the TACAN routes only exist above FL245 in the UK FIRs so if you are planning a low hop to France they won’t be any use (although you can still be sent to SPT etc for ‘off route’ OAT handovers at lower levels).

Personally I find GAT a much easier and more predictable way to get around the continent, not least because it requires much less scrutiny of the Mil AIPs, which can be hard to get hold of. There is a cost-free method of finding an IFPS compliant route: register with this site and use its ‘route finder’ service: enter departure & destination ICAOs and desired cruise level, et voila!

Orca and Easy Street, many thanks - South, East and North Point make perfect sense ! That leaves CNO - perhaps "ChaNnel something". It was OAT and yes, removing SPT from the FPL was part of the fix. Cheers.