Contacting clearance

[noachr]

When I did my real world ppl training at Santa Barbara, every flight began with a call to clearance delivery, even if we were just going pattern work. However, the transcript for the v1 rating starts with a call to ground. Is this different between airports, or was this a quirk of my instructor? V2 and V3 ratings do call clearance -- is that just because flight following is being requested?

Also, class D airports have clearance frequencies listed -- would you ever call one for a vfr flight?

[julio.elizalde]

At Class C airports like SBA, SNA, and ONT, it is common to contact Clearance delivery before flying - you'll usually hear it in the real world ATIS: "All VFR aircraft, contact clearance delivery on xxx.xx." At airports like SNA, often all you'll get back from clearance for pattern work is, "Squawk VFR in the pattern, contact ground for taxi." The same would go for Class B airports, since you need authorization to depart. This is typically done to facilitate your entrance into an active radar environment.

At Class D airports, you would normally contact ground for any flight following request.