Narrative:

Shortly after taking the position; I saw a proposed departure of aircraft 1; the clearance had not yet been issued. The route of flight had the aircraft departing sdl on the scottsdale 6 dept bxk transition drk. The scottsdale 6 departure has aircraft depart westbound then turn north on the PXR321 radial. The bxk transition is radar vectors southbound over the top of phx to the south departure sector then west to bxk. His route then continued to drk; which is located about 50 miles north-northwest of phoenix. The turn from over bxk to drk is about a 90-degree turn. Seeing as this was taking the aircraft far out of its way; I requested a full route readout in fdio. The route indicated that one fix on the route was bce. Sdl does have a bce transition on the Johnn1 departure. Sdl being a VFR tower we have to request reroutes through phoenix TRACON flight data. So; I called for the reroute and specifically requested the aircraft be routed on the bce transition. A few minutes later I got revision 1. It was worse that the first. It had the aircraft taking Johnn1 rsk then back to drk. That takes the aircraft to northern new mexico then back to drk. I expected further revision so I waited. The pilot called for his clearance; I let him know I was waiting for new routing. After about 5 minutes of waiting and never getting any better route. I called P50 flight data again; and explained the problem. They said they would get back to me. After another 10 minutes I called back and was told they were too busy to get a reroute and to issue the routing on the flight strip and let ZAB fix it in the air. The purpose of flight data is to process flight plans and ensure accuracy and to take care of problems on the ground before the aircraft departs. But in this case P50 was too busy and just passed the buck to the next controller. We let an aircraft into the NAS with a bad routing. Had the aircraft gone NORDO who knows what they would have done. Recommendation; I was trained by the FAA to work fdio; to know the departure procedures; the low and high IFR structure and to be able to interpret the IFR charts which I have available to me at the FD/clearance delivery position. Plus; I am able to make good decisions and be accountable for them. If I; at my tower; were allowed to reroute aircraft departing on bad routing's; I could have fixed this in just a couple minutes and had the route actually be correct and what the pilot needed. Otherwise; P50 flight data might need more staffing or more training to be able to correctly fix flight plans. A colleague who used to work at ZLA; said that at ZLA the sectors are required to fix bad routes on proposed departures; I guess ZAB doesn't do that; maybe they should.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: SDL Tower Controller voiced concern regarding the lack of positive response by P50 flight data concerning a more favorable re-route for a SDL IFR departure.

Narrative: Shortly after taking the position; I saw a proposed departure of Aircraft 1; the clearance had not yet been issued. The route of flight had the aircraft departing SDL on the Scottsdale 6 dept BXK transition DRK. The Scottsdale 6 departure has aircraft depart Westbound then turn North on the PXR321 radial. The BXK transition is radar vectors southbound over the top of PHX to the south departure sector then west to BXK. His route then continued to DRK; which is located about 50 miles North-Northwest of Phoenix. The turn from over BXK to DRK is about a 90-degree turn. Seeing as this was taking the aircraft far out of its way; I requested a full route readout in FDIO. The route indicated that one fix on the route was BCE. SDL does have a BCE transition on the Johnn1 departure. SDL being a VFR tower we have to request reroutes through Phoenix TRACON Flight Data. So; I called for the reroute and specifically requested the aircraft be routed on the BCE transition. A few minutes later I got revision 1. It was worse that the first. It had the aircraft taking Johnn1 RSK then back to DRK. That takes the aircraft to northern New Mexico then back to DRK. I expected further revision so I waited. The pilot called for his clearance; I let him know I was waiting for new routing. After about 5 minutes of waiting and never getting any better route. I called P50 Flight Data again; and explained the problem. They said they would get back to me. After another 10 minutes I called back and was told they were too busy to get a reroute and to issue the routing on the flight strip and let ZAB fix it in the air. The purpose of Flight Data is to process flight plans and ensure accuracy and to take care of problems on the ground before the aircraft departs. But in this case P50 was too busy and just passed the buck to the next controller. We let an aircraft into the NAS with a bad routing. Had the aircraft gone NORDO who knows what they would have done. Recommendation; I was trained by the FAA to work FDIO; to know the departure procedures; the low and high IFR structure and to be able to interpret the IFR charts which I have available to me at the FD/CD position. Plus; I am able to make good decisions and be accountable for them. If I; at my tower; were allowed to reroute aircraft departing on bad routing's; I could have fixed this in just a couple minutes and had the route actually be correct and what the pilot needed. Otherwise; P50 flight data might need more staffing or more training to be able to correctly fix flight plans. A colleague who used to work at ZLA; said that at ZLA the sectors are required to fix bad routes on proposed departures; I guess ZAB doesn't do that; maybe they should.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.