Who Decides the names for Waypoints
 

With the recent changes to the Oceanic Entry points at 10W and 15W, I am reminded of a question I've had for many moons.
Which revered person or "body" decides on the name to be assigned to a waypoint, particularly those at 10W and 15W? Also like to know if there is any convention / logic that is applied in so naming them?

I could hazard a guess that ATSIX stems from 60N and BALIX was the reaction of the guy/gal when told there was a need for new names!! :confused:

Thanx in advance for any input.

4P

According to my Air Law notes "States requirements for designators shall be notified to the regional offices of ICAO for co-ordination". There you go that'll make you sleep better in your bed tonight...not!

One aside an RAF pilot who I play golf with is also an author in his spare time and for inspiration the majority of his characters are taken from the reporting points in the Scandanavian FIR! Check out his website, which I designed for him.

BW

No-one seems to have noticed the waypoint WAFFU which is in amongst all the naval inspired names in the channel. It is a term of abuse used by the rest of the RN for the Fleet Air Arm. It stands for wet and fu8888 useless!! There is also an outer marker for one of the runways at ORD called SEXXY!

The real answer is........ Whoever is constructing the particular piece of airspace.
For example, in the UK, the waypoints are usually associated with an actual location underneath or nearby, i.e Wellin - Wellyn Garden City, Upton - the village of Upton, etc.
However, there are also ones which are invented on a whim:
The helicopter routes out of Humberside have Milde, Lager and Bitta - also used to have Beere as well.
Off the subject slightly, but there also a number of North Sea oil and gas rigs which are named after the Thomas the Tank engine characters, (Gordon, Edward, Thomas etc). :p

GPS Approach, Runway 16, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA.

IAF = ITAUT
Waypoint = ITAWA
Marker = PUDYE
MAP = TTATT

Take up the hold at...IDEED. (Go round it twice??)............

ITAUT, ITAWA, PUDYE, TTATT, IDEED, IDEED.

Now for the real answer. For routes on international airways, waypoint names come from an ICAO computer that tries to ensure the name is pronounceable and is not repeated anywhere else. This was not always the case and some countries may still want to allocate their own waypoint names, but they still need to clear them with ICAO first. But probably only if the country in question is an ICAO contracting State! :eek:

Names for waypoints on domestic routes are allocated by the responsible authority of that country. The rationale for naming is then pretty much the way Spoonbill has described it.

Within my part of the world, the "honour" :eek: falls to me. I try to make the name relevant to some prominent feature in the general area, or at least a name that's relevant to the general vicinity. Sometimes I have to get inventive, not just with the name, but with it's official abbreviation, if the full name is longer than 5 letters.

I'm happy to let ICAO come up with names for all the waypoints on international routes that cross our FIR. Saves a lot of hassles with coordination and its their problem if their computer comes up with a naughty name! :D

Well put OzEx mate. Did you know I (INFIN) have one.
10 Dubya mentioned it. Up in the Scotswolds somewhere. He will tell me if'n it's wrong.

But down in your part of the world who else COULD name them? No-one else dares fly in such a dangeroose area.

You told me that even you didn't know where you were sometimes - so no point in naming if you forget - is there??!! :eek: :D :D

There's an idea!

Instead of local or ICAO computer generated names we could start having PPRuNer's names used instead.

INFIN (in use already it seems)
DUBYA
OZEXX
PAXDE
DANNY
REDDO
MACDE
TINNY (where did that come from? :eek: )

etc etc

This website (Reporting Points) was mentioned somewhere. Interesting if you like that sort of thing ;)

IFR ... yeah, easy to get lost, frightened and confused around here. And not necessarily in the air either... :D

Tinny ... what a splendid idea. Think I can implement it too ... can anyone tell me if INFIN is on a domestic or international route please?

My personal favourite: A waypoint just south of Brisbane (33nm BN on the JCW 181R) is MOOVI. It has its own Standard Arrival Route.

You guessed it: The MOOVI STAR.