Weird jet route...???

[mtsu_av8er]

Hey, folks.....
as I sit here, studying the Jepp High Altitude charts (no life, I know...), I stumbled upon a jet route that's labeled only with a capital D in bold. It runs from Sioux Fall to Nodine, and up to Green Bay.

Anybody know what that means???

 

[FL270]

It's a charted direct route. Basically these things exist from back in the day when most airliners were /A! (Yes, there was such a time.) It would allow an airplane to go direct from one VOR to another when they were outside the service volume of the VOR.

For example, the IFR preferred route from ATL to IAH is WEONE J239 MEI AEX DAS6. Well, the first part is on a jet route, and after AEX you're on the Daisetta Six arrival to IAH, but there's about 200 miles between MEI and AEX. Over MEI, you can't receive AEX. So, they publish one of these "D" things so you know what radial to fly outbound to go directly from one fix to another.

Learned that when I used to ride the jumpseat on the ATL-IAH route in Continental's antique 737-100s (now retired of course). /A all the way ...

 

[mtsu_av8er]

Ah-ha!!!
Thanks alot Russ. Kinda caught my eye (don't see those when you fly down in the thick air, ya know...

).

Now, if only I could arrange the questions I'm asked in my first interview....