PilotEdge Forums

Recently I requested clearance from a class c. It was relatively standard.
I called up clearance delivery and it went a little something like this.

So and so clearance, Cessna 2150z with the weather, request direct Ontario int VFR at or below 3500.
And got the almost normal response of this
Cessna 2150z so and so clearance, fly heading 330 VFR at or below 2400, departure is with the tower, squawk #$#@.
then conducted the normal read back.
Now onto my question, should clearance not be giving the first departure radar controller as the departure freq? Or is it just done this way due to alot of the controllers running multiple positions?
I know this is a small detail, but you all know how it is in the seat with no one else with you, on takeoff, the tower hands you to departure pretty quickly while your workload is high, and personally i always have that next freq ready to go in the radio. So hearing which controller your going over too AFTER your airborne, isn't my proffered method.

SNA is relatively rare in that the tower initially provides radar service, all the way out to the edge of the surfaced based Charlie. That's why the controller is telling you that you'll be with the tower, rather than a Socal Departure controller. Tower is going to radar ID you and keep you for a little while. They are, essentially, your first departure controller, hence, that's the dep freq you're issued. I believe in the real world there might be a specific freq for that, but we haven't modeled it in our SOPs (just like we don't use the exact departure freqs from every airport in an effort to reduce the number of distinct sectors, and to increase the chance of your hearing another pilot from time to time).

At every other airport other than SNA, you're going to get a dep freq that is the overlying TRACON position, as you are expecting.

Copy, Thanks for the quick response!