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IFR plates: city name rather than Airport name

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Bernoulli

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 4, 2003
Posts
227
Is it just me or does the fact that IFR plates are named after city names rather than the airport name get under anyone elses skin. All I want to know is what is the point... where's the advantage? For example... If I want to go to "French Valley" Airport I would have to know it is really organized under the name "Murieta" because Murieta is the City or town... Yet I never talk on the radio using the name Murieta... It would be "French Valley" The only place Murieta comes into place is when I need to find the plate. Sometimes it makes it really hard to find. Is it just me? If anyone can explain what the advantage is to list IFR plates under city or town names rather than simply listing them under the airport's name plese chime in. Also... If anyone knows the best way to figure out how to quickly pull out a plate for an airport if you don't know the darn city or town's name ...I'd love to know. Thanks in advance for any constructive comments.
 
I live in Canada. I fly 300-400 hours a year in other country's. I must know the town/city name of the airport that I have been tasked to go to. Knowing the local name of the airport is a bonus but very few passengers request to go to a specific airport. They make the request by the town\city closest to their actual destination. If more than one airport serves a given city then specific names are required. Finding an approach plate in the world wide data base by local airport name would be a long, difficult and possibly impossible task. If you were asked to go to the "Piedmont Triad International" airport would you know you were going to Greensboro NC? How about "Pierre Elliot Trudeau"? Only a few months ago it was "Dorval". Same airport, it is still in Montreal, which has not moved nor changed it's name in several hundred years.

Only food for thought. As long as you know where you are going and where you have actually landed then it's all good.
 
Bernoulli said:
Is it just me or does the fact that IFR plates are named after city names rather than the airport name get under anyone elses skin. All I want to know is what is the point... where's the advantage? For example... If I want to go to "French Valley" Airport I would have to know it is really organized under the name "Murieta" because Murieta is the City or town... Yet I never talk on the radio using the name Murieta... It would be "French Valley" The only place Murieta comes into place is when I need to find the plate. Sometimes it makes it really hard to find. Is it just me? If anyone can explain what the advantage is to list IFR plates under city or town names rather than simply listing them under the airport's name plese chime in. Also... If anyone knows the best way to figure out how to quickly pull out a plate for an airport if you don't know the darn city or town's name ...I'd love to know. Thanks in advance for any constructive comments.

If you use Jeppesen charts the info is on the enroute chart. If you are using the Guv'mint stuff, I dunno. A friend of mine once was going into Cincinnati and using Gov'mint stuff. Lots a thunderstorms around and he did not know that CVG is in Kentucky and that is where the charts were. He had a bad night! In Jepp it is in Ohio, BTW.

~DC
 
....Would you rather want to fly to Houston? Or George Bush?... would you rather fly to Washington National, or Ronald Reagan? San Jose or Norman Minetta?... I'm just sayin.
 
Let's say KNEW only has non precision approaches due to equipment problems. You go missed, wouldn't it be nice to stay within a few pages and find the approaches for Moissant? or Louis Armstrong, whatever we call it now.

Now, worst case scenario, someone fairly inexperienced goes missed of their home field, or one where they are slightly familiar with the geography. They may know that the airport in town XYZ has an approach, but not remember that the airport is called Jimmy Joe muni.
 
As long as your not in the airplane when your looking for the chart, simply pull up www.airnav.com, and enter in "French Valley" and it'll give you the city name in the snap of a finger.
 
OK guys... Let's suppose I file IFR from Santa Barbara to Montgomery field in San Diego (and yes I have to figure out that Montgomery field is listed under San Diego but that's OK because as PIC I do a proper pre flight planning and have the time to figure out where it's listed while on the ground.) Now let's say during the flight I have to Immediately deviate and fly to the nearest airport ... ATC tells me to expect radar vectors to ILS 19R for John Wayne Airport ... So now I'm flying the plane in IMC single pilot and where the @#!*# is John Wayne airport... It sure aint near the J's... It's listed under Santa Ana. My point is, that ATC will refer to airport names such as "John Wayne" and you need to know to look under Santa Ana. Seems dangerous when you are singel pilot in IMC and have to make an unexpected deviation. Just seems like an airport should be listed under the name of the airport. I guess it's just me but two names for one place just seems dangerous when you're in a pinch and need to find the plate NOW. On the ground is one thing but in an airplane in the soup single pilot just adds one more ingredient to murphys playlist.
 
Bernoulli said:
OK guys... Let's suppose I file IFR from Santa Barbara to Montgomery field in San Diego (and yes I have to figure out that Montgomery field is listed under San Diego but that's OK because as PIC I do a proper pre flight planning and have the time to figure out where it's listed while on the ground.) Now let's say during the flight I have to Immediately deviate and fly to the nearest airport ... ATC tells me to expect radar vectors to ILS 19R for John Wayne Airport ... So now I'm flying the plane in IMC single pilot and where the @#!*# is John Wayne airport... It sure aint near the J's... It's listed under Santa Ana. My point is, that ATC will refer to airport names such as "John Wayne" and you need to know to look under Santa Ana. Seems dangerous when you are singel pilot in IMC and have to make an unexpected deviation. Just seems like an airport should be listed under the name of the airport. I guess it's just me but two names for one place just seems dangerous when you're in a pinch and need to find the plate NOW. On the ground is one thing but in an airplane in the soup single pilot just adds one more ingredient to murphys playlist.

I agree with you 1000%, I hate digging for alternate plates when solo IMC after going missed, it does suck that they don't put the city and airport name together or have them indexed both ways in the front of the book or binder.

If it wasn't for my GF one day in Athens Georgia, I would have been in a load of sh!t trying to find the nearest alternate that was at minimums.

All the airports for 400 miles were below minimums so it was either press on and land below IFR reserves or shoot my first actual approach 12 hrs after I got my rating or fly back 400 miles to chicago area for better wx. I learned a good lesson that day, never fly without your GF.:D
 

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