 High Altitude Waypoints
John R. Copeland wrote:
> "Sam Spade" <sam@coldmail.com> wrote in message news:0KjSj.69258$y05.19910@newsfe22.lga...
>
>>Dennis Johnson wrote:
>>
>>>Greetings,
>>>
>>>If I file an IFR flight plan with the equipment suffix of /G, indicating
>>>GPS, can I use a high altitude waypoint on the flight plan even if I'm
>>>flying in the low altitude structure?
>>>
>>>For example, flying northwest from Las Vegas, filing from BTY VOR (Beatty)
>>>to DOBNE to BIH VOR (Bishop) takes me around the Saline MOA that is in the
>>>way of a direct flight from Beatty to Bishop.
>>>
>>
>>What gets tough with a routing like that is determining a legal
>>off-route altitude.
>>
>>Where do you plan to go after BIH VOR?
>
>
> I must have missed something, Sam.
> What's tough about reading the grid MORAs from the charts?
>
You mean ORACAs as per the AIM?
OROCA is an off-route altitude which provides obstruction clearance with
a 1,000 foot buffer in nonmountainous terrain areas and a 2,000 foot
buffer in designated mountainous areas within the U.S. This altitude may
not provide signal coverage from ground-based navigational aids, air
traffic control radar, or communications coverage.
They are not all that easy to apply on a route of any length and they
are sometimes needlessly high because they cover a relatively large area. |