Question about Apch/Dep service

[Kerbo]

OK, thanks. I was over-thinking it.

[Geoff]

Keith, I had a (tangentially) related question. I filed a VFR flight plan to depart San Luis and fly VFR south to Oceano County field (which I kept mistakenly calling Oceano City, lol). The San Luis tower gave me clearance to take off and depart south flying VFR. Once I was clear of the delta airspace, I didn't need to ask the San Luis tower to change to CTAF? I asked the controller for permission to change, and he said I could've done it on my own without asking the controller. At least, I think that's what he said; I was a bundle of nerves.

I was probably thinking of your workshop on class Charlie airspace, when you got flight following from KSNA to KONT, and in that case the KSNA tower controller did "drop you like a hot potato," as you put it. My case was different presumably because I hadn't requested flight following, and therefore was automatically dropped?

[Keith Smith]

Once you're clear of the Delta, you can make a freq change at your discretion. If you'd like to leave the frequency prior to that (ie, you want to get to the CTAF sooner than the edge of the SBP Delta), you can request a frequency change from the tower controller whenever you feel it's prudent. I think the workshop on VFR XC planning goes into some detail on this...I recall a case of a flight from MYF involving an eastbound flight with lots of discussion about what to do regarding the oncoming KSEE Delta airspace.

Btw, your filed VFR flight plan from SBP to L52 had no bearing on the situation. Controllers don't see VFR flight plans in real life. That also used to be the case on PE, but we had to change it for technical reasons related to flight tracking on peaware. Please know that you should assume the controller hasn't seen your flight plan, and that anything you plan to communicate to them about your intentions on a VFR flight plan needs to be done 100% verbally, not through the flight plan.

[Geoff]

Thanks for your reply. Yep, I'd read here on these forums that I should not assume anyone had seen my filed VFR flight plan. I filed it just because I wanted to see my flight on peaware, and if it's okay, I'd like to keep doing that. It's interesting to see my actual route as opposed to the route I imagined I flew. Also, I like the stats.

[Keith Smith]

Yes, it's no problem to file a VFR flight plan for the purpose of having your flight tracked by peaware.