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TEC
Tower Enroute Control
by Ed Verville
Last week while flying a short leg from Van Nuys (near L.A.) to San Diego, California we received a strange clearance. It was “KVNY BURP30B KSAN.” I must have
had a perplexed look on my face as I was looking at the map on my Foreflight iPad. My First Officer directed me to click on the BURP30B on the Foreflight App, and after receiving a dropdown menu, click again on the Expand BURP30B option. This option displayed the expanded Bur- bank 30B route as follows: “KVNY Rwy 16R DCT TWINE V518 KIMMO V459 SLI DCT LAX/118/25 DCT CARDI DCT MZB DCT KSAN Rwy 27.” Wow! This short 141 NM trip had almost as many airways and waypoints as my next leg did which was to New York. In addition to the number of air- ways and waypoints I was surprised by the “LAX/118/25” in the routing. It had been a long time since I had to enter a Place, Bearing, and Distance into a route. I am sure the last time I did this had to be in a flight simulator at Flight- Safety International. With the help of a sharp FO/SIC we eventually were able to get the clearance entered in the FMS and briefed our plan. The most difficult part for me
16 • TWIN & TURBINE / August 2024
was remembering the Place, Bearing, Distance format. Foreflight displayed it as “LAX/118/25”. But there is no slash between the Place and Bearing. It should be entered into the FMS as “LAX118/25.”
This clearance turned out to be one of those “Tower Enroute Control” or “TEC” Route clearances you may have heard mentioned a long time ago in ground school. More