Who said federal bureaucrats don’t
have a sense of humor?
A WSJ story available from the PG:
"To arrive in Nashville, it takes PICKN and GRNIN and often a pass
through HEHAW. It’s the same for guitar players – and pilots.
"PICKN, GRNIN and HEHAW are fixed points in the sky that pilots use
when they are flying into Nashville International Airport in
Tennessee. Throughout the world, aviation authorities establish set
routes to guide planes. They label key navigational points with
unique identifiers, usually five-letter codes, called fixes. In the
U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration has chosen to mark the
skies with a sense of humor.
“Airplanes approaching Newark International Airport in New Jersey
toward the northeast will cross either HOWYA or DOOIN. Louisiana has
RYTHM, Kentucky has BRBON and Massachusetts has BOSOX. Kansas City,
Mo., has SPICY, BARBQ and RIBBS.”
HOWYA DOOIN is a greeting universally recognized by all legitimate businessmen in NJ. along with YOUU GOTTA PROBLUM WIT DAT?.. FUGGETTABOUDIT or
GEDOUTTAHEAH…so it is reasonable that the FAA would use such ebonical phrases
upon entering Soprano airspace.
A fix in northern Michgan used to be BGMAC not related to the hamburger chain, rather the Mackinaw (SP?) Bridge.
Key point that may not have been understood by the WSJ reporter, these fixes have to be five letters because of computer formating (space alloted) and the FAA tries to come up with something other than five letters which turn into gobble***ok. They try to have them sound human and obviously give them a geographic tie when possible.
The five letter codes are for fixes or intersections to differentiate them from navigational beacons which are three letters. The reason for making them sound like words is to help with inflight communications and brevity. Its easier to say cleared to GINNI (jenny) and hold than cleared to Golf India November November India and hold. Sometimes they tie in geographically, sometimes not.
This reporter was able to find some of the fixes that make for a good story. Check the links below, you will see some that have no humor associated with them. Some are darn right hard to say, and yes ATC has to phonetically spell them to some pilots who are not familiar with the specific one the controller is talking about. The ones in the story are all on major eroute or arrival/departure routes. They usually have meaning in the local area, like a town, river, etc. ATC uses them to sort out all that traffic at known points. ATC might say, American 1698, descend at pilots descresstion to cross CROAK at 11 thousand. Then he knows when and where this aircraft will be at 11thousand. The fixes have to be 5 letters, that is what will fit on the data tag displayed on the controllers screen.
The history of some block stations would make an interesting study. Along the CSX Montreal secondary in my area, there are block stations that make sense (BRAD at Bradley Street, RIVER at Indian River, RICE at Rices Road, to name a few), but some that seemingly have no correlation to anything current along the line (ROCK and KANE, at the ends of a yard). I’m sure everyone has similar examples.