Do I need to follow airways when IFR?
Posted: Wed May 15, 2019 2:51 am
Hey all,
First of all, thanks for this service. I absolutely love it. I've tried other online services and I'm sure they're great networks but for me nothing comes close to PilotEdge. The professionalism of the controllers and the structured training is incredible - the world feels so alive with all the drones too. I live in the UK where flying is incredibly expensive (£180 p/h here in London) and PilotEdge lets me feel like I'm involved in aviation even if I'm actually not.
I have to admit, whilst I'm running the CAT and I Ratings, I use GPS over VOR, mainly so I can focus on the communication / altitude / position rather than navigation (though intend to navigate with VOR for fun when I'm more confident). With that in mind, I've realised that sometimes I can file a route and most of it follows victor airways, but sometimes I'll miss a waypoint that's on the airway and actually fly direct between waypoints that aren't on a victor airway. When this happens I am flying IFR and ATC are watching what I'm doing so I presume (but might be wrong) that diverging from the airway is safe, but is it legal /expected /recommended? I know sometimes ATC will say 'direct to x' which allows a departure from the standard route of a SID/STAR/Airway, but can I do it with just a normally filed flight plan - or should I always be on an airway?
I hope I've worded this question well enough for it to make sense..I've watched the SID/Enroute/Star workshops and most likely missed something as it's a lot of good content.
Thanks
First of all, thanks for this service. I absolutely love it. I've tried other online services and I'm sure they're great networks but for me nothing comes close to PilotEdge. The professionalism of the controllers and the structured training is incredible - the world feels so alive with all the drones too. I live in the UK where flying is incredibly expensive (£180 p/h here in London) and PilotEdge lets me feel like I'm involved in aviation even if I'm actually not.
I have to admit, whilst I'm running the CAT and I Ratings, I use GPS over VOR, mainly so I can focus on the communication / altitude / position rather than navigation (though intend to navigate with VOR for fun when I'm more confident). With that in mind, I've realised that sometimes I can file a route and most of it follows victor airways, but sometimes I'll miss a waypoint that's on the airway and actually fly direct between waypoints that aren't on a victor airway. When this happens I am flying IFR and ATC are watching what I'm doing so I presume (but might be wrong) that diverging from the airway is safe, but is it legal /expected /recommended? I know sometimes ATC will say 'direct to x' which allows a departure from the standard route of a SID/STAR/Airway, but can I do it with just a normally filed flight plan - or should I always be on an airway?
I hope I've worded this question well enough for it to make sense..I've watched the SID/Enroute/Star workshops and most likely missed something as it's a lot of good content.
Thanks