RickWoodall
Well Known Member
So I always use flight following in busy US airspace. Had an odd situation the other day, and need to know the rules or who was at fault as I dont want it to reoccur.
Coming back from west coast of michigan and heading into busy airspace on an international vfr flight plan that i have ensured is open. Call lansing radio and ask for flight following through to the border. Great, no issue. They hand me off to sagninaw, they hand me off to flint. Told not to change heading, not to change altitude. Goes on for 40 minutes, with occassional traffic called out and as I am handed off, the new controller lets me just carry on after I check in. Done this many time before all is great.
After I fly right over flint airport at 2800...i am approaching pontiac airport same as flint and saginaw, i am on flight following with a discrete squawk code etc. Out of the blue flint calls me and says STT, radar service terminated, squawk 1200 good bye. I am now already in pontiacs airspace, almost over the airport. I call back and say no, I want flight following the rest of the way. She says, you are outside my area, goodbye. I call back and say ok, I have to climb to 3500 immediately i am violating pontiacs airspace, she says do what you want. I call back again, now I am really fired up and say I would like detroit approach freq. She gives me that, i call them, they pick me up and do what they have always done walking me through the rest of the way and hand me off as I cross the border back home.
Who is right and who is wrong. She walked me into Pontiacs air and dropped me. No frequency handoff, no "pontiac knows you are coming" nothing. There was a commerical jet that was on downwind that we flew over and there was no collision risk but I have never had an issue like this before. Always been handed one to another controller. On occassion when I first did flight following, i have called to ensure I am cleared through airspace and they act somewhat annoyed and say yes, maintain present heading and notify prior to any altitude changes. I have sometimes been told to ensure I stay clear of detroit metro class B, but flight following has always I thought ensured my route was good and towers knew my route and altitute and that was adequate. Should I have done a fast climb above pontiac? There was no time to call them I was in it and would be out of it in a couple minutes. They surely saw me on radar and had some info based on my squawk code no?
So...did i mess up, of did the controller. I did a nasa form as I felt this was unsafe and not cool. Flown this same path many many times with no issue..just need to know if on flight following, with squawk code and atc sees and talks to me and i have a filed flight plan.....who is responsible for the airspace...do i assume they clear me, or do i talk to each tower also on top of flight following?? Was this just a lazy controller or my error?
Interested in the comments as I have never encountered this before and I use flight following a lot and never once had an issue.
Coming back from west coast of michigan and heading into busy airspace on an international vfr flight plan that i have ensured is open. Call lansing radio and ask for flight following through to the border. Great, no issue. They hand me off to sagninaw, they hand me off to flint. Told not to change heading, not to change altitude. Goes on for 40 minutes, with occassional traffic called out and as I am handed off, the new controller lets me just carry on after I check in. Done this many time before all is great.
After I fly right over flint airport at 2800...i am approaching pontiac airport same as flint and saginaw, i am on flight following with a discrete squawk code etc. Out of the blue flint calls me and says STT, radar service terminated, squawk 1200 good bye. I am now already in pontiacs airspace, almost over the airport. I call back and say no, I want flight following the rest of the way. She says, you are outside my area, goodbye. I call back and say ok, I have to climb to 3500 immediately i am violating pontiacs airspace, she says do what you want. I call back again, now I am really fired up and say I would like detroit approach freq. She gives me that, i call them, they pick me up and do what they have always done walking me through the rest of the way and hand me off as I cross the border back home.
Who is right and who is wrong. She walked me into Pontiacs air and dropped me. No frequency handoff, no "pontiac knows you are coming" nothing. There was a commerical jet that was on downwind that we flew over and there was no collision risk but I have never had an issue like this before. Always been handed one to another controller. On occassion when I first did flight following, i have called to ensure I am cleared through airspace and they act somewhat annoyed and say yes, maintain present heading and notify prior to any altitude changes. I have sometimes been told to ensure I stay clear of detroit metro class B, but flight following has always I thought ensured my route was good and towers knew my route and altitute and that was adequate. Should I have done a fast climb above pontiac? There was no time to call them I was in it and would be out of it in a couple minutes. They surely saw me on radar and had some info based on my squawk code no?
So...did i mess up, of did the controller. I did a nasa form as I felt this was unsafe and not cool. Flown this same path many many times with no issue..just need to know if on flight following, with squawk code and atc sees and talks to me and i have a filed flight plan.....who is responsible for the airspace...do i assume they clear me, or do i talk to each tower also on top of flight following?? Was this just a lazy controller or my error?
Interested in the comments as I have never encountered this before and I use flight following a lot and never once had an issue.
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