I fly out of an uncontrolled airport on the cut out of Class C airspace.
Once airborne beneath 1200 feet I contact Approach.
"XXX Approach, Skyhawk 123, departed xyz at 500 feet, enroute to ZZZ request
flight following"
This is one transmission. Hangar talk tells me that is not necessary to give
the whole spiel at once.
Some of the FAA seminars that I attended with some approach people in
attendance,at busy airports request one transmissions.
Many times in the air I hear "XXX approach, Skyhawk 123, request"
Approach comes back with say request,
Any comments from controllers?

"Hankal" > wrote in message

>
> I fly out of an uncontrolled airport on the cut out of Class C
> airspace. Once airborne beneath 1200 feet I contact Approach.
> "XXX Approach, Skyhawk 123, departed xyz at 500 feet, enroute to ZZZ
> request flight following"
> This is one transmission. Hangar talk tells me that is not necessary
> to give the whole spiel at once.

I'm not a controller (and this question comes up from time to time so check
the archives you haven't already), but...

My experience is that this varies from facility to facility. If you're
going to give the whole spiel at once, I'd recommend putting "VFR" right
after your tail number. If you don't do this, the controller will be
spending time looking on the scope for your number and not grabbing his
pencil for your request which will probably result in your hearing "Calling
XXX Approach, say again."

Before the DC ADIZ went into effect (basically forcing everybody to be
talking to the controller with a discrete beacon code), I typically used the
"get their attention, then give them your request" method without drawing
the obvious ire of the controllers.

See http://www.avweb.com/news/columns/182635-1.html (about halfway down the
page) for one controller's preference - which happens to coincide with the
AIM.

--
John T
http://tknowlogy.com/TknoFlyer
http://www.pocketgear.com/products_search.asp?developerid=4415
____________________

Keep it to one transmission.



Hankal wrote:
> I fly out of an uncontrolled airport on the cut out of Class C airspace.
> Once airborne beneath 1200 feet I contact Approach.
> "XXX Approach, Skyhawk 123, departed xyz at 500 feet, enroute to ZZZ request
> flight following"
> This is one transmission. Hangar talk tells me that is not necessary to give
> the whole spiel at once.
> Some of the FAA seminars that I attended with some approach people in
> attendance,at busy airports request one transmissions.
> Many times in the air I hear "XXX approach, Skyhawk 123, request"
> Approach comes back with say request,
> Any comments from controllers?

Newps ) wrote:

> Keep it to one transmission.

This just goes to show you that different ATC facilities and perhaps even
different controllers within the facility have their preferences.

In the Northeast US, I often hear the VFR one transmission style answered
with the "Calling aircraft, say again." In my experience, this ties up
the frequency much longer than the two transmission style of contacting ATC
with tail ID, VFR, then waiting for the acknowledgement to continue the
rest of the request.

--
Peter R.















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I concur. NY approach seems to prefer the "get their attention, then say
your request" approach. I usually call up with "NY approach, Skyhawk XXX,
request". If they're really jacked in, they'll often just say, "Skyhawk XXX
squawk YYYY and say request" meaning they know you're VFR, they know you
want flight following, now they want the details. During the afternoon
rush, forget it, they'll often just broadcast "no more VFRs please".

It was morbidly entertaining during the NY ADIZ days when all VFR was
essentially forced to get flight following, and many students were talking
to NY approach for the first time. Talk about some painful callups.

mark

"Peter R." > wrote in message
...
> Newps ) wrote:
>
> > Keep it to one transmission.
>
> This just goes to show you that different ATC facilities and perhaps even
> different controllers within the facility have their preferences.
>
> In the Northeast US, I often hear the VFR one transmission style answered
> with the "Calling aircraft, say again." In my experience, this ties up
> the frequency much longer than the two transmission style of contacting
ATC
> with tail ID, VFR, then waiting for the acknowledgement to continue the
> rest of the request.
>
> --
> Peter R.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ----== Posted via Newsfeed.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet
News==----
> http://www.newsfeed.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! >100,000
Newsgroups
> ---= 19 East/West-Coast Specialized Servers - Total Privacy via Encryption
=---

I like the idea of including "VFR" in the initial call.
I will have to use that in the future.

"Peter R." > wrote in message
...
> Newps ) wrote:
>
> > Keep it to one transmission.
>
> This just goes to show you that different ATC facilities and perhaps even
> different controllers within the facility have their preferences.
>
> In the Northeast US, I often hear the VFR one transmission style answered
> with the "Calling aircraft, say again." In my experience, this ties up
> the frequency much longer than the two transmission style of contacting
ATC
> with tail ID, VFR, then waiting for the acknowledgement to continue the
> rest of the request.
>

I agree with Peter also. At any busy ATC facility, you'll often hear the
VFR one-transmission-give-the-whole-spiel-at-once school answered with the
"Calling aircraft, Say again". The odds of a busy controller getting
everything you spit out spot-on in a cold call on initial contact are slim
to none and decrease exponentially with length of message. When a
controller is juggling airplanes, landlines and frequencies at a rapid pace,
cold-call airplane transmissions do not naturally fit into his traffic
"flick". The "flick" is that magical Zen-like state of four dimensional
transmeditation where the controller's mind dwells during a busy air traffic
push.

Pilots can't go wrong with the two-transmission style. "N12345, VFR,
Request" tells the controller everything he/she needs at that moment in time
to instantly determine who you are, what you are, and what you want. He/she
can then determine how to handle you with minimum impact to his/her
operation at hand. Finding out where you are, where you are going and what
you plan on doing on the way there should come later, like when the
controller asks for it.

Chip, ZTL

Thanks, Chip. This is the best recommendation so far.

Chip Jones wrote:
> Pilots can't go wrong with the two-transmission style. "N12345, VFR,
> Request" tells the controller everything he/she needs at that moment in time
> to instantly determine who you are, what you are, and what you want. He/she
> can then determine how to handle you with minimum impact to his/her
> operation at hand. Finding out where you are, where you are going and what
> you plan on doing on the way there should come later, like when the
> controller asks for it.