Waypoints

Looking for a Waypoint

We're slogging away at 16'000 ft enroute to Cowtown. Strong winds aloft are beating us up with over 45 knots on the nose, our ground speed is down to 180ish knots, making the trip from Regina over two hours long. Which is alright now, it gives me time to think and write a little.

Coming out of Regina we were given an intersection waypoint to fly over on our route. Intersection Waypoints are decision to be used with RNAV or GPS equipment, which usually provide waypoints that are more on our route or they can be easy designed because it's just a matter of deciding where you want a waypoint and then just giving the co-ordinates a name. Now the name is what sometimes causes a problem. Generally these waypoints are given a five letter name. I think they pick the five letters out of a hat and then randomly arrange those letters to come up with a name. And yes, that does make for some weird names. Example: MOOSE, DELBR, ONOET, ODGOV, XOXOM, XUKMI... and so on, try and pronounce those?

So usually the first thing a pilot does after hearing the waypoint from ATC (Air Traffic Controller) is try to take a stab at just spelling it out in the GPS. When that doesn't work he/she quickly grabs for the map and starts trying to find a waypoint that sounds about the same, since you sure don't no how to spell it. And then once that doesn't pan out and your hoping you are some how on course still, you finally ask ATC what the waypoint was again and maybe even how to spell it. The smart pilot will ask this question right after he gets the original request. As you got to wonder what ATC is thinking when after five minutes of receiving the request we (us pilots who are trying hard to be smart) have to ask the name of it again. ATC must be thinking, where have they been going for the last five minutes?

Well today we went through that process twice! And on the same waypoint! By the time we got the correct spelling of the correct waypoint we were five miles beyond it and already onto our next waypoint. Luckily our intial vectors from ATC had us heading right for it and we stayed on route the whole time. But still, it made me feel like a pretty poor preformer. But don't worry folks who trust pilots, this won't happen to this old cowboy again. I don't like trying to guess, I like have the facts. And we could have if we would have just asked ATC from the beggenning, and that's what I'll be doing. Sometimes us pilots are a little worried about what ATC will think of us or if we'll annoy them when we have to ask questions, but I know they don't, it's just in our heads.

Anyways, the ground speed has picked up to a 194 knots, that's a little better. We're now estimating the big city in 43 minutes.

The sky is smooth at our present altitude. A high layer of cloud is sheilding us from the bright rays of sun, no need for sunglasses right now.