Is it common for GPS equipped aircraft to file from the last fix on a SID to the first fix on a STAR? Looking at flightaware, I don’t see this much. I’m currently working on my commercial but I’m in a rather rural area so I haven’t much experience with SIDs and STARs, only what I read. I know there are often preferred routes, but in cases where there are not, do pilots usually file direct between those fixes if they have proper equipment?
I would not say that is common, but you can file any way the “system” will accept. What you file and what ATC gives you as your actual clearance are often two different things. After you get more experience with the system, you can file something closer to the clearance that ATC actually uses,
In my freight days when I would get a “pop-up” trip (say 20 minutes notice), I would file direct from departure to destination. Then I’d let the controls figure out the routing. There were several reasons for this. Often I was to busy getting WX, loading cargo, pre-flighting, and I didn’t know the area that well. Must likely i would have filed it wrong anyway and they would have changed my routing anyway. It’s not the professional thing to do, but at times I wasn’t a true professional anyway 
I took off one time from KCMH for Alpena, MI. (KAPN) I filed direct and was given routing. I was :45 minutes into the flight before I found Alpena on a map. Before you all attack me, I had the plates and the WX, just no idea where the airport was. I picked up a heading out of KCMH toward KDTW (made that flight a lot of times) and hopped for the best. Worked out well, since CLE center cleared me direct destination.
Sure you can.
I don’t have a specific example at hand, but something similar might be from BWI to HPN, the PALEO3, OOD transition, then Direct SIE and the BOUNO3 arrival into HPN.
It would look like (PALEO3.OOD SIE.BOUNO3)
Found one.
JAX to PBI.
The SAWGY1 depature, Ormand Beach transition to the TUXXI1 arrival into PBI.
SAWGY1.OMN.TUXXI1
I checked the recent routes on fltplan.com (the FA route planner didnt show anything) and most of the airplanes just did Direct OMN and the TUXXI1.
Yep…Did it last week from PHX to IAD. Filed SJN3.ABQ HVQ.JASEN4 and my clearance was given as filed…and that’s what we flew…worked like a charm. Paraphrasing CAFlier, the Center will clear you as they see fit. But, you can file any way you’d like.
I kinda misread the OP’s question, but I answered it right anyway. My second example is a SID with a transition to a VOR that happens to be an arrival transition on a STAR.
azav8r’s example is more like my first example, and what the OP asked. Direct from the end of a DP to the first fix on a STAR.
I’m based in the Houston Area.
Most of my trips are to the San Antonio/Austin Area, with occassional jaunts to DFW area.
Probably 100% of the last 10 trips have had a clearance like:
JPOOL3 CLL BLUBL2
LOA5 LOA DODJE3
IDU2 IDU BITER4
IDU2 IDU MARCS8
The SID feeds into the STAR. I know you’ll have to look these up for them to make sense; sorry. I’ve tried it filing what I figured I’d get (LOA5 LOA DODJE3), and got it, I’ve filed direct and got JPOOL3. CLL BLUBL2. One neat feature of F/A is no matter how you file, if you get alerts from F/A, it will give you what the FAA computer worked out for the routing, so you have a pretty good idea of what you’ll get.
Now the thing I don’t get is why F/A only gets position information when on a routing, not vectors. In other words, why there doesn’t show to be track information for the whole flight.
F/A does show the actual flight track…including vectors if they were issued. And when you click on the Track Log it show time point with Lat/Long and altitude.
Sorry, my question wasn’t very clear. If I look back after I’ve landed at any individual flight (this occurs on every flight), the track plot does not begin at the departure airport and ends before the destination. I was in radar coverage, but the plot line seems to show my assigned clearance without parts of the flight that I was being vectored. My last flight for example, doesn’t show a track after the last point of the STAR, but I flew another ~60 mi to the destination airport in the terminal area.
Okay… they say that happens (discussions elsewhere in this forum) due to equipment limitations with tracons. Tracons may or may not be sending track info in the NAS for F/A to pick up. I’ve seen it happen many times on my flights too.