Can anyone explain the "route" information?

I know some of the route information is “waypoints” but I dont understand all of it. Here is a sample :

BRUWN3 BRUWN ACK J97 LACKS KAYYT BOVIC L461 GECAL L458 THANK A523 SAALR RTE7 SJU

J97, L461, L4578, and A523 are not waypoints. What do these mean ?

Also, what i like to do is listen to North Atlantic air traffic control on shortwave and track the flight on flightaware but when the pilot is giving his route information it rarely matches the data shown. Sometimes 1 of the waypoints it the same but most are not. Is it because what I am seeing on flightaware is encoded ? There is the decode link next to the route info but anytime I try it I get unable to decode. Whats the deal with that?

If someone can point me to where this is all explained I would appreciate it. I only discovered flightaware recently. Its kinda fun to hear a pilot on shortwave and then see where he actually is on flightaware :slight_smile:

Thanks in advance
John

Jet routes and other defined airways.

Thanks for the reply but that page doesnt answer my question. I know for sure the above are not waypoints. Not locations on a route. How do I know? Because sometimes I will see the same indicator like “L461” and then a waypoint and then “L461”. So if they were locations or waypoints that would send the plane in a circle I think :slight_smile:

To make my question more clear, what precisely does “L461” mean. Or A523.

I can look up waypoints on a different site but I cannot get any info on these alpha-numeric codes.

No, just means they’re going to that point along the airway, then continuing on the airway.

No, just means they’re going to that point along the airway, then continuing on the airway.

I guess I am not making myself clear. :frowning:

My question is what precisely does L461 mean and where can I look it up?

For instance with waypoints I can look them up. waypoint RUMMY is:
Country US
Location Grantham, NH
Latitude 43° 28’ 41.75" N
Longitude 72° 10’ 38.05" W

I look this up on another website. I would like to look up L461 and those other alphanumbers. If I enter them on this site for waypoints they are invalid. They are not waypoints. I hope I am clear now :slight_smile:

BTW, I never hear pilots or ATC operators refer to these alphanumeric codes. They refer to waypoints and time and speed and altitude but never codes like L461 or L4578 or any of them.

Go look at a Hi IFR chart, such as skyvector.com/ and zoom in around one of those waypoints and you should see a converging jetway or airway with those letters on it. Jetways will have a label with those letters in white text against a black background.

skyvector.com/?ll=45.36218115380 … 304&zoom=4

Ok, I can see the airways on that chart but can’t find a way to look up a specific one like the ones I mentioned. It’s basically a preset path almost like a roadway in the air hence airway. I saw this airway info in the “route” section on flightaware and was curious since pilots and ATC operators never refer to it. Thanks for all the replies. I will drop it now. :smiley:

Copy that list of waypoints and go to skyvector.com.
Select world-hi chart. Click on ‘flight plan’ on the upper left of the chart and paste the waypoints.
If you bracket those waypoints with the airport codes, you should have a complete flight plan in magenta.
Take a look at the path and find the jetway numbers.
Hope that helps understanding.

Thank you very much!! That is what I was looking for! Awesome! :astonished: