Question for Boston Center

[SteveC]

Heading for KWST (Westerly, Rhode Island) today and we got a call from Center (Cleveland maybe?) asking if we can accept HNK TEDDY3 to WST. After a "stand by" from us, and a quick review in the FMS and the paper charts, our answer back is "we've got the TEDDY3 charts, but they don't apply to KWST". Center comes back with "umm, for now you are cleared direct HNK, direct KWST".

(Side information: KWST is located within Providence's airspace, and the TEDDY3 feeds a number of airports, including PVD and some others neighboring. The problem is that KWST isn't listed as an "airport served" on the TEDDY3 chart, nor does our FMS show any STAR's associated with KWST. The only two ways to get the FMS to accept the clearance is to either change our destination to KPVD, or to hand enter all of the way points on the arrival. Neither solution is kosher because there is no final way to transition from the arrival to our airport without us making some "assumptions" that are not inherent in the clearance.)

A few minutes later the same controller comes back with "Nxxxx, Boston Center's request, you are now cleared to KWST via direct HNK, TEDDY3 arrival". Huh??? Rather than start something on-freq, I told the FO to go ahead and read back the clearance and we'd sort it out down the line.

Shortly after checking in with Boston Center they come back with a revised clearance consisting of the first three fixes on the TEDDY3, then the destination ("Nxxxx, cleared direct HNK, PONEE, BDL, direct destination").

My question, why all the rigmarole with someone apparently insisting that Cleveland issue an Arrival that doesn't even go to our destination? There was something going on behind the scenes that I couldn't decipher. Any insights?

 

[flyhigh]

My buddy at ZBW has this to say...

I work in the western area in ZBW, so we're the first "line of defense" for the rest of the center in terms of receiving traffic from both ZNY and ZOB. As center controllers, we have a hard time coming up with good routes into smaller airports sometimes. Generally, we'll figure out if your destination is located inside an approach control, and then we can issue you a route that works into the main airport in that TRACON. This USUALLY works, unless you run into STARs that don't include all satellite airports. WST and GON are included in this, as is IJD. HTO isn't on the PONEE star, for that matter. While we've learned from conversations with other controllers in other area's in our own center, the other centers can't keep track of what works with us internally.

The center (ZNY I assume) that issued HNK.TEDDY3 just saw that WST was within PVD approach airspace and figured it the star for PVD would work. Its hard to keep track of all the airports on each star, so we start with that, and if you see a problem, we work around it. With all the different airports, we try to simplify the routing and altitudes required for each. Also, during certain times of day, based on the nature of traffic, sometimes we can approve something that won't work the next time, but the other center controllers don't know the difference.

and btw- WST was where I first solo'd