I know flight following is optional but if you are taking a route over class C airspaces and contacting the towers, how do you handle the radio communications if also doing flight following?
In reality, flight follow is provided by the controller or sector that owns the airspace. If center is providing the service and you enter an approach control airspace they will either terminate service or hand you over depending on where you are and the congestion. The service is provided only when workload permits.
You wouldn’t be talking to tower controllers when overflying (flying above) a Class C airspace, unless I misunderstand what you’re saying. You usually don’t have to worry about this when using flight following either. The controller you’re talking to will tell you when and who to contact next. You’re usually talking to a Center or Approach controller while in cruise along your route. The approach controller for that Class C will hand you off to the tower controller of the main airport in that Class C if you’re landing there. But if you’re just flying over the Class C, you’ll simply remain with the Approach controller.
Thanks, question was more about flying though than over. If you were at say 2500-3500 feet.
I have a class C I normally sim near and getting over it from the home airport would take a bit and flying around it puts you outside the controlled space but in approach paths. I’ve gone around only to find myself way too close to approach traffic.
It’s just simming but I’m curious what you would do in the real world. I’ve taken a few flights, and the CFIs get cautions about getting anywhere near it.
I’ve seen traffic on FR24 passing over the center at 2000+ ft as well as over.
Which airports? What happens in real life is going to depend on that, what your specific flight path looks like, local procedures, and especially how busy they are. At a busy Class C, they’re probably going to give you specific instructions and restrictions, or will simply route you to avoid the Class C entirely. Like Midway in Chicago, I’d probably get told to effectively scram by a frazzled Approach controller if I were asking for Flight Following and expecting to transition over Midway at 2000 feet. “Remain outside the Class C airspace” is probably what I hear most often when I’m on Flight Following near a busy area like Milwaukee or Indianapolis. If there is traffic on approach they’re probably going to give me a temporary heading or altitude restriction.
I’m based out of a pretty sleepy Class C: KSPI. The opposite might happen here, where it’s possible, after your initial contact, they might not say anything at all to you if you’re the only plane in the area. Since you’re on Flight Following you’re already going to be talking to the Approach controller, and if they don’t say anything, you’d just fly right through the Class C. You’ve already met the legal requirements: two way communication with the controlling agency (and ADS-B Out of course). They’ll probably give you some transition instructions though.
You’d likely not talk to the tower if you’re not landing at the main airport, and Approach would likely keep you out of the traffic pattern anyway. If you had to fly near the main airport for some reason, then they’d probably hand you off to Tower, like helicopter traffic that’s operating within a few miles of the main airport and down low. If you’re a transient above or outside the pattern you’d probably stay with Approach.
I’d hope this is just because they know it’s busy or have a relationship and expected norms with the local controllers. Because otherwise you start creating students that get scared to talk to ATC when they’re actually there to help and at your service even. Around here, they want you talking on the radio and on Flight Following
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It’s KLNA and KPBI. KLNA is under the class C, so most local traffic sticks to 800-1000 feet.
My case is for flying VFR to the north. Most of the commercial traffic is coming in from far out west. The other option is out over the ocean.
If I go west and start a climb once out of the Class C airspace, then head north is where I get tangled up with the heavies on approach.
If I leave the copilot on radio, it will often auto contact the PBI tower just after takeoff. Even if I’m just flying a local pattern.
Yeah that’s no good.
If PBI is busy, I’d probably depart west and stay under the shelf until I was due north. Hopefully you’d be out of the approach path of anything by then as there’s no north south runway
If they’re busy, you might be half way around PBI before Approach can handle your flight following and transition request, so might as well just duck under the shelf and around anyway.
Another option would be to depart south, get up over Boca Raton (or circle and climb) and then turn around once you can get above the Palm Beach shelf.
But if they’re not busy you could immediately call Palm Beach approach after take off and try to do it in one call: “Palm Beach Approach, N12345 just departed Palm Beach County, request transition through the Charlie for northbound VFR” or something like that. As soon as they respond with your full callsign you can start flying into the Class C as long as they don’t explicitly tell you to stay out.
That’s kind of what I was guessing! I posed a similar question once about how approaches to busy Class C are often in Class E airspaces. Simming makes me ask the what ifs. It seems safer to go perpendicular overhead.
I had some concerns of being at low altitude going out over the everglades (or the ocean) but that’s kind of what it looks like I see many smaller airplanes doing. Also, the little bit of real flight training I’ve done has been to the west (over the everglades) at 1,000-2,500 feet.