TEC routes outside ZLA?

[Anthony Atkielski 985811]

Is Los Angeles the only ARTCC that publishes TEC routes? I looked at some of the other ARTCCs and didn't find anything. Googling for TEC routes didn't turn much up, either. And yet I [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ume (?) that other congested traffic areas must have TEC routes as well, right? They are handy for short trips in busy areas like SoCal, especially when there are routes for small performance GA aircraft like my Baron.

[Ross Carlson]

Boston also publishes them:

 

http://www.bostonartcc.net/pilots/route_search.php

[Brian Nuss 887798]

Excellent question Anthony.

It seems that SOCAL and (I think) the NE US have a Tower-in-route system in place. Perhaps less known, is that a similiar system exists elsewhere in many metropolitan areas (perhaps all) although its not published. My wife works as an ATC tower controller and she says that for flights in her area, they are all canned--by that, I mean that they are based on a pre-existing route that is the same every time.

 

So why aren't these published like the one for SOCAL? Your guess is as good as mine. It sure is handy, isn't it?

[Craig Moulton]

If you go the FAA's charting website and click on the "digital A/FD" section (http://avn.faa.gov/index.asp?xml=naco/online/d_afd) you can find if there are TEC's for any region you like. There is quite a comprehensive list for the NE section of the U.S., though they are not nearly in the same format as the TEC routes available in SOCAL. It doesn't appear that they have their own names, but you can find your departure airport, and see if there is a route for the destination airport. They should work in the same manner.

 

If you go to the above link, then click New York (for State) then click the search button, it will give you link to each airport in pdf format. It will also give you a link at the top of the results (Lefgend/Supplimental). If you click on the Supplimental link, it will open (eventually, as it appears to be 16+ MB of info), then scroll down to page 498-515 or so (page numbers on the A/FD pages, not the PDF page number), you'll see that there are a bunch in the NE.

 

You can probably do the same for the other regions of the U.S. to find other TEC's. I looked, but didn't find anything in the SE A/FD (South East). I don't know how many A/FD's there, but I've been able to locate the SW, NW, NE, SE, EC (East Central), NC (North Central), SC (South Central), and Alaska and Hawaii (Pacific) has a volume as well.

[Lee Waldeck 866831]

[EDIT - Craig beat me to it!]

 

Googling for TEC routes didn't turn much up, either.

 

http://www.naco.faa.gov/index.asp?xml=naco/online/d_afd

 

Once you select a state, open the supplemental docomeent for the area. The TECs are contained within if applicable.

 

Example (For the NY area - TEC starts page 142 of 286): http://www.naco.faa.gov/pdfs/ne_rear_15MAR2007.pdf

[Dan Everette]

Or if you want the whole list at once:

http://www.fly.faa.gov/Operations/Coded_Departure_Routes/prefroutes_db.csv

 

Just open it in Excel, and it's sorted by departure airport. All 4400+ TEC routes are in there.

Edited April 30, 2007 at 08:18 PM by Guest

[Ian Elchitz 810151]

My jepessen's contained a section at the back with all of the SoCal TEC routes and a whole wackload of canned low altitude routes from DC all the way up to MA.

 

I used to fly these little routes all the time during the NE spotlight nights (I'll always remember them as Mondays). Very useful. No special names - but still a great challenge and fun to fly using the radios only.

[Anthony Atkielski 985811]

Thanks for all the references! I think the Excel CSV file will probably work best for me; I have a text editor (UltraEdit) which will search with regular expressions, so I can look up routes easily in the file. Now I have all kinds of routes I can fly! (Not that I mind cooking up my own, although it's very time-consuming, but I like to fly "official" routes, too.)

[Dan Everette]

My jepessen's contained a section at the back with all of the SoCal TEC routes and a whole wackload of canned low altitude routes from DC all the way up to MA.

 

That's the one thing all this virtual err, stuff lacks.. The smell of the Jepp leather binders...

 

Sometimes, late at night, when I'm all alone and lonely, and it's not too busy on VATSIM, I'll plan my flight with my Jepp charts, and throw in a "standby" with APP, just to close my eyes, take a deep breath, then cry when I realize I'm still in my office, flying the approach on my PC.

[Anthony Atkielski 985811]

Still better than not doing it at all.

[Ian Elchitz 810151]

That's the one thing all this virtual err, stuff lacks.. The smell of the Jepp leather binders...

 

I ordered California Jepps (used to be one volume) from their website with the expensive leather binder. The charts expired 12 Jul 2001 0901 UTC.

 

I still use the charts all the time when I fly (tonight in fact I flew KSBA KPSP in a Piper malibu and used the jepps along with the low enroute chart which is all creased and ruined at the fold - thus my accidental public outburst about the fold on 125.80 rather than the private message it was intended to be), and love flipping through the binder and jamming my reference chartabs(yellow = destination, green=departure, red=alternate) into the binder.

 

My wife complained about the expense, but I daresay it was an excellent investment. I'm fairly certain I have flown every approach procedure, arrival, and departure in the book. I haven't done every obstacle departure however - that might take a few more years

[Dan Everette]

My wife complained about the expense, but I daresay it was an excellent investment.

 

And I'm sure you did what every new aspiring pilot does when they spend $90 on a Jepp binder. You brought it outside, laid it on the driveway and backed the car over it a couple times. Need to give it that "worn, been around the world a few times, been flying with this binder since the days of Connie's" look.