In
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
aviation
Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot ...
, tower en route control (TEC) is a collection of published low-altitude, short-distance
IFR routes through large metropolitan areas that require no level of
air traffic control
Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airsp ...
higher than approach-control facilities.
Overview
TEC routing is intended to better distribute the load of traffic coordination over different ATC facilities and levels by allowing low-altitude IFR traffic engaged in short flights within congested areas to conduct the entire flight under the control of approach-control or lower levels of ATC. Aircraft flying TEC routes can complete an entire flight without the need to contact major air traffic control centers. Prepared TEC routes have been published for turbojet and lighter aircraft between major airports within large and congested airspaces.
See also
*
Air Traffic Control
Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airsp ...
*
Instrument Flight Rules
In aviation, instrument flight rules (IFR) is one of two sets of regulations governing all aspects of civil aviation aircraft operations; the other is visual flight rules (VFR).
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) ''Instrument F ...
External links
NFDC Preferred Routes Database- database of TEC routes and other routes (U.S.)
Air traffic control
{{aviation-stub