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I was looking at the predicted flight path for UA106 from IAD to MUC and noticed this odd pattern. Why would it do this? I understand that most flight paths are not straight and there are airways that most all flights follow, but this path makes two less than 90 degree turns. Wouldn't it be simpler to go straight to the Belgium point rather than go to Poland, then back to Belgium, then back again to Munich?

flight path

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    $\begingroup$ FlightAware is notorious for bad flight tracks. $\endgroup$
    – Ron Beyer
    May 26, 2016 at 2:02
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    $\begingroup$ @RonBeyer Good to know. What is a better site to compare against? $\endgroup$
    – David K
    May 26, 2016 at 2:02
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    $\begingroup$ This is an erroneous flight plan transcription. The actual flight path is correct. Probably the longitude of the Shanwick OCA exit point. $\endgroup$
    – mins
    May 26, 2016 at 4:51
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    $\begingroup$ Thanks @mins. The actual path definitely makes more sense to me. I edited the question to make clear that this is a predicted flight path. Would it be better for me to delete this question, or leave it up and have someone answer that predicted paths (particularly from Flight Aware) are often incorrect? $\endgroup$
    – David K
    May 26, 2016 at 12:31
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    $\begingroup$ @DavidK it isn't even a "predicted" flight path, it just an incorrect rendering of the filed flight plan. $\endgroup$
    – casey
    May 26, 2016 at 22:04

1 Answer 1

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As @mins suggested, it seems to be a wrong longitude of a waypoint in the Shannon Control area. I assume it is a hemisphere error (they used East instead of West). If the longitude of the waypoint is mirrored with respect to the Greenwich meridian, the resulting path gives a more likely route to be flown:

Corrected path

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    $\begingroup$ So, now we're doing flight planning in pixels? Man, I see a whole wave of questions coming about screen resolution, printed vs digital flight plans, VGA vs 4k... :D $\endgroup$
    – FreeMan
    May 26, 2016 at 13:04
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    $\begingroup$ Very nice explanation! And accurate (UAL106 yesterday). @FreeMan: "Expect bumps due to aliasing!" $\endgroup$
    – mins
    May 26, 2016 at 13:04
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    $\begingroup$ @FreeMan You may be suprised but I have discussed screen resolution, pixel size etc often with air traffic controllers and pilots. Size does matter :-D $\endgroup$
    – DeltaLima ♦
    May 26, 2016 at 13:06
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    $\begingroup$ Would that be considered turbulance, @mins ? $\endgroup$
    – FreeMan
    May 26, 2016 at 13:09
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    $\begingroup$ Oops. We forgot the "-" in the fmc and our flight to Boston ended up in Kyrgyzstan! $\endgroup$
    – TomMcW
    May 26, 2016 at 17:55

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