PilotEdge Forums

Hello All,
I have now found out what not to do when you are flying along getting near some new airspace and you are starting to suspect that your controller has forgotten to hand you off. So is the correct procedure to call the controller who was supposed to be handing you off and ask or just wait?
Cheers

Definitely ask if you feel like you've been forgotten or are getting anxious to get higher (i.e. near terrain on t/o or on a landing vector) - the controller may get annoyed if they haven't forgotten, but it's better than slamming into a simulated mountain (depending on who's controlling of course.. )!

This just happened to me on a real-world flight. My route was Trenton (KTTN) to Monmouth (KBLM), then down the coast to Atlantic City (KACY). On the climb-out from Monmouth, I called McQuire approach and requested flight following. He gave me a squawk code, but never replied with "Radar Contact". I proceeded down the coast to avoid R-5002 and turned in towards AC. As I approached the AC Charlie, I was getting nervous. I called up approach and he said "Say position and intentions", I told him where I was and where I was going again (I gave him that info when I checked in at Monmouth). He gave me a new squawk, radar identified me, and immediately handed me off to AC Approach. I think he must've forgotten to finish initiating FF, because it seemed like on that second call up he had no idea who I was.

So ask!

To answer the direct question. If you think you've been forgotten about call ATC. Don't worry abotu "bugging us" in any way.

Funny side story:

When I was in training for my PPL I did my long solo XC on the day after Thanksgiving (the busiest travel day for airplanes). I had obtained flight following from the Center and when approaching my destination I tried to call to cancel it and was given an "aircraft calling standby and call me back in 10 minutes."

Obviously that took a minute to work through that I wanted to reduce his workload not add to it.

I had controllers appear to forget about me all the time. I usually call them up "NorCal, Skyhawk xxx, are we still with you?". To that, I usually either get freq. change, or in rare cases affirmative. This leads me to think that, yeah, controllers do tend to forget about VFR traffic from time to time, and given that the flight following is provided on workload-permitting basis, I'm generally fine that.

On long RW IFR XCs (PA28A) I try to listen in on 121.5 on Com 2. I'm told if you fly out of range of a controller before getting a freq change they may call on guard with a freq change for you. True?

On long RW IFR XCs (PA28A) I try to listen in on 121.5 on Com 2. I'm told if you fly out of range of a controller before getting a freq change they may call on guard with a freq change for you. True?

True. Note that monitoring 121.5 is also required per FAA FDC NOTAM to monitor 121.5 if able.

Peter Grey wrote:

On long RW IFR XCs (PA28A) I try to listen in on 121.5 on Com 2. I'm told if you fly out of range of a controller before getting a freq change they may call on guard with a freq change for you. True?

True. Note that monitoring 121.5 is also required per FAA FDC NOTAM to monitor 121.5 if able.

Did not know that, but looked it up. Sure enough, but the NOTAM seems to be related to intercept procedures. So does that mean that every IFR flight must monitor guard since by definition an IFR airplane has two radios? Departing and arriving I use both radios and standby to be prepared for freq changes. Military UHF have a dedicated guard.

bbuckley wrote:On long RW IFR XCs (PA28A) I try to listen in on 121.5 on Com 2. I'm told if you fly out of range of a controller before getting a freq change they may call on guard with a freq change for you. True?

Yes, it's true. If you take a look at this YouTube video you'll hear Oakland Center calling an aircraft that went outside the radio coverage (around 19:30 mark), and then there was a follow-up call on 121.5 at around 20:15 mark.