"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote...

November 12345, a Cessna 172, 20 miles northeast of Sugarloaf

I would combine the two, "Skyhawk 12345".

That will work, now that the A-4 has been retired from the Navy... ;-)

For those who don't have the list in front of them, a couple old rule of thumbs:

Initial contact:
Callsign
Altitude

"XYZ Center, Skyhawk 12345, 7,500'."

Then, after the controller responds,

Who you are
Where you are
What you want

"XYZ Center, Skyhawk 12345, 20 miles NE of Sugarloaf, 7,500', enroute
Winston-Salem, request VFR flight following."