"Dave S" wrote in message
ink.net...

It has not been proven that the controller made a unilateral decision
here. If they have an operating practice that says "contact approach
first" they can fall back on that practice and choose not to make an
"exception".


I thoroughly examined the Reading SOP, they have no operating practice that
says "contact approach first".



Newps is right. Any local controller COULD accept a pop up.
But are they required to?


Pop up?



Again.. if the arrival procedures are described
on the ATIS, your friend has nobody to be miffed at but himself, for not
being able to "make himself aware of all pertinent information regarding
his flight".


The SOP calls for the ATIS to state that Basic Radar Services are available,
nothing beyond that.



I've known of two separate instances in my short stint in flying where
someone didn't want to talk to approach, and was directed to contact
approach for sequencing. One was into Savannah, the other Beaumont.
Neither was the exact type of airport described by the original poster,
but that was how they operated.

I remember explicitly Savannah approach telling someone who was VFR
inbound, who didn't want to take sequencing vectors VFR and was going to
go "around" to tower "Sir, if you are landing at Savannah, you will be
going through me" Given the exchange, that actually was pretty direct and
effective.


Savannah has Class C airspace, sequencing of VFR arrivals is a Class C
service. Reading provides Basic Radar Service which does not include
sequencing of VFR arrivals.