Tower Enroute Control

[jtsastre]

Can someone go into more detail about Tower Enroute Control (TEC). Are they predestined routes between specific airports abbreviated using the corresponding TEC ID (LAXM37)?

[Van_Hoolio]

Look in the back of the AFD for the northeast. It's in there.

Mike

[DE727UPS]

Yeah. They are routings in high density areas designed to keep you in approach control airspace. They are "canned" routes from airport to airport. They used to have east flow and west flow routes, depending on the flow at LAX. Not sure that's how they do it now.

[FOD]

TEC is setup in busy areas like los angeles. Under normal IFR flights you usually go from tower control-departure-center-arrival-and then to tower at your destination. With TEC you just stay with departure/approach since its usually a quick hop, never go to a center controller. As far as the routes, they are usually below 10,000 and can be found in the front section of the jepps (never used NOS). Keep in mind that not every region has TEC so you might not find TEC routes in your jepps. I have never filed while using TEC so I cant give you much detail on filing. However, that is the great thing about TEC. You don't have to file, you can just request TEC to your destination with cleareance or ground (makes life great, I love TEC). But watch yourself if you don't file a flight plan and pick up TEC, dont forget to have an alternate if your destination is below mins (i have heard of people getting in trouble that way).

[jtsastre]

Thanks for the replies. I didn't think that one could use TEC in GA, that's awesome.

[MidlifeFlyer]

Originally Posted by FOD

With TEC you just stay with departure/approach since its usually a quick hop, never go to a center controller.

***

You don't have to file, you can just request TEC to your destination with cleareance or ground (makes life great, I love TEC).

Two footnotes on this:

1. They are not always short. The TEC routes that cover the northeast can go pretty far.

In the AFD you'll find a whole bunch of "IFR Preferred Routes" for the big guys in long trips. All a TEC is is an IFR preferred route that remains within Approach Control the whole way.

The FAA even treats the two the same. You'll find TEC along with IFR Preferred routes in the FAA database here:

http://www.fly.faa.gov/Products/Code..._database.html

2. The practice of just calling ground without filing is, I think, localized and not universal. When I learned to fly in New England, we just treated TEC as the route we filed with the expectation that we might actually get "cleared as filed" when we call for the clearance.