I have a question concerning real world practice enroute:

In several "aviation films" like PilotsEye etc. we can observe that pilots use a route offset of between five and ten miles to the right of the track when enroute over certain areas like Africa and Russia. Obviously they don't trust the vertical spacing enough. Or that everyone complies to it.

My question is, are there further regions other than Africa and Russia where a route offset is common practice? South Asia perhaps, or Latin America? Difficult to tell for me, since Russia, where I know it is done, would have never been on my list either (they know how to handle radar after all).

Thank you very much for your input.

There is a procedure called SLOP (strategic lateral offset), where pilots are asked to fly 0, 1 or 2 miles right of track randomly (pilots choice). This is mostly in areas where there is no radar coverage (like for example oceanic regions or certain parts of Africa).

Then in China, ATC (whilst under radar coverage) frequently ask planes to fly offset (up to 10 miles). But then this is asked by ATC.

The third reason I can think of, are weather deviations (thunderstorm on the planned flight track), where pilots ask an offset (up to 50 miles if needed). But then again this is with ATC agreement.
Flying offset in radar environment like Russia without notifying ATC is dangerous...

Edited August 21, 20187 yr by airbusguy320

23 hours ago, airbusguy320 said:

There is a procedure called SLOP (strategic lateral offset), where pilots are asked to fly 0, 1 or 2 miles right of track randomly (pilots choice). This is mostly in areas where there is no radar coverage (like for example oceanic regions or certain parts of Africa).

Then in China, ATC (whilst under radar coverage) frequently ask planes to fly offset (up to 10 miles). But then this is asked by ATC.

OK, thank you. And why would Chinese / Russian ATC ask them to do that?

Using a route offset comes with its downside: resuming a saved fight while an offset is drawn on the ND results in black screens and an increasing nose down attitude.

On 8/25/2018 at 7:45 AM, CaptainLars said:

Using a route offset comes with its downside: resuming a saved fight while an offset is drawn on the ND results in black screens and an increasing nose down attitude.

Hmm.  Interesting.  Have you submitted a ticket for them to fix it with the next update?

4 minutes ago, VHOJT said:

Hmm.  Interesting.  Have you submitted a ticket for them to fix it with the next update?

This is known and the dev team aware of it

On 8/28/2018 at 1:10 PM, VHOJT said:

Hmm.  Interesting.  Have you submitted a ticket for them to fix it with the next update?

Yes. According to Paul Gollnick, it was the first time that this was mentioned. Apparently no one had tried a route offset and then to save and resume.