Tuesday, August 09, 2016

One To Beam Up

I'm on my way into into a major Canadian airport and overhear another pilot on frequency asking to fly direct to a particular fix. A "fix" is a point of latitude and longitude that has been designated with a five-letter code so that air traffic controllers and pilots can refer to it. It might be the point at which pilots are supposed to change frequency, or allowed to start descent, or just another way for a pilot to request to deviate from course, usually to get around convective cloud.

In any event, this pilot asks to fly direct the fix, but the controller doesn't recognize it. That's not surprising, there are hundreds of these things in any patch of airspace, and people only pay attention to the ones that are on the route they are flying right now. The pilot repeats the waypoint name. The controller still doesn't recognize it.

"You're going to have to spell that," advises the controller, sounding a little crusty.

The pilot spells it. It has a couple of Ks in it, I think. VIKOK or KADOK or something.

"Great," says the controller with heavy resignation. "Another place out of Star Trek." I didn't notice if the pilot got his clearance or not.

3 comments:

sean said...

Good to see you back :)
I hope it's not VIKOK. You'd be a long way from home

iain said...

Ha, so true. Too bad Canada doesn't have the more creative and regional waypoints that the US uses.


Another interesting posting by the way. I look forward to your distinctly Canadian aviation insights.

Unknown said...

What Iain said - agreed. It's not much but at least we have Montreal STARS: CARTER TWO; HABBS THREE; LAFLEUR ONE;