PilotEdge Forums

Hi All,

Recently I was on a VFR flight to an airport in Class D airspace. I was under Approach control since I had just transited Class C airspace. My flight path was a straight line to the airport from the Class D boundary.

Approach did not hand me over to the Tower at the Class D boundary. Instead, it handed me over to the Tower when I was 2nm away from the airport. When I contacted the Tower they informed me I had made a late call.

What could I have done to avoid the late call? Maybe, on not getting handed over at the boundary, anticipated a long delay to handover, and navigated away from my straight line to the airport into a wide circular holding pattern around the airport, then waited for handover? Or should I have not waited for handover and contacted Tower at the Class D boundary?

Any advice on how to handle this situation will be much appreciated!

Best,

Lucky

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Easiest thing you can do is let the approach controller know when you have the airport in sight.

Without being asked?

Yeah that works

It's more of a PE thing because I'm real life the approach will send you to tower maybe 10 out etc

On PE 1 controller works everyone - give them a friendly reminder you're still there by saying Airport in sight

I think, you could also "request a frequency change" to the tower-frequency.
In my experience the controller reacts promptly, if it is possible.

luckyb52 wrote:Without being asked?

Sure. You're VFR. It's not like you are on an IFR visual approach where ATC will prompt you. You could also cancel advisories at any point too. Then it's up to you to make the call.

and remember you're not responsible for Delta/Charlie airspace boundaries while you are under radar contact. You didn't do anything wrong.

Thank you all for your much-considered advice, I appreciate it. I think the best strategy (when inside Class D space) is to give the airport a wide berth, then, as Jan Lueders suggested, ask Approach for a frequency change to the tower. Does that violate any rules?

luckyb52 wrote:Thank you all for your much-considered advice, I appreciate it. I think the best strategy (when inside Class D space) is to give the airport a wide berth, then, as Jan Lueders suggested, ask Approach for a frequency change to the tower. Does that violate any rules?

Have some confidence in your knowledge of airspace. Based on what you've described, you'd be in Class E throughout the entire exchange before calling tower. There's zero ambiguity or cause for concern there.

What is less well know is that ATC is responsible for coordinating your transition through any Class D airspace while you're receiving radar services, so you could even enter the Class D prior to the handoff to tower, although if you haven't been sent to the tower by the time you're entering the Delta, it's likely that something is amiss, and I would prompt them all the same. It's one thing to assume a transition through airspace has been coordinated for an overflight, in which case you don't expect to be handed to the tower at all, but in cases where you're approaching the arrival airport and haven't received a handoff to the tower prior to entering the Delta, it's highly unlikely that the controller is intentionally delaying it and is more likely busy with other tasks and has fallen behind on the need to have you change frequencies. This is one of the few limitations of PilotEdge and one of the cases where we don't consistently match up with real world procedures simply as a result of the staffing configuration and vast amount of airspace being covered.

Thankfully, the solution DOES match what you would do in the real world which is politely nudge the approach controller.

In fact, as I think of it, this does happen on a daily basis in the real world. Listen to a busy final approach controller and you'll routinely hear airline pilots saying, "over to tower for United 123?"

Keith Smith wrote:

luckyb52 wrote:Thank you all for your much-considered advice, I appreciate it. I think the best strategy (when inside Class D space) is to give the airport a wide berth, then, as Jan Lueders suggested, ask Approach for a frequency change to the tower. Does that violate any rules?

Have some confidence in your knowledge of airspace. Based on what you've described, you'd be in Class E throughout the entire exchange before calling tower. There's zero ambiguity or cause for concern there.

What is less well know is that ATC is responsible for coordinating your transition through any Class D airspace while you're receiving radar services, so you could even enter the Class D prior to the handoff to tower, although if you haven't been sent to the tower by the time you're entering the Delta, it's likely that something is amiss, and I would prompt them all the same. It's one thing to assume a transition through airspace has been coordinated for an overflight, in which case you don't expect to be handed to the tower at all, but in cases where you're approaching the arrival airport and haven't received a handoff to the tower prior to entering the Delta, it's highly unlikely that the controller is intentionally delaying it and is more likely busy with other tasks and has fallen behind on the need to have you change frequencies. This is one of the few limitations of PilotEdge and one of the cases where we don't consistently match up with real world procedures simply as a result of the staffing configuration and vast amount of airspace being covered.

Thankfully, the solution DOES match what you would do in the real world which is politely nudge the approach controller.

In fact, as I think of it, this does happen on a daily basis in the real world. Listen to a busy final approach controller and you'll routinely hear airline pilots saying, "over to tower for United 123?"

Thank you, Keith, for that definitive answer... very valuable as it's not found in the AIM or other reference documentation

Best,

Lucky

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