PilotEdge Forums

hello i came across a situation the other day on the network that kinda confused me a little. Sorry for the long question and poor grammar as i am typing this fast...lol. So the other day i was on pilot edge i was at Burbank i called for my clearance and i asked for a vfr departure to the west i did not want advisories and it says in the atis if you want flight following to request it. I did not request it simply stated that i just wanted a vfr departure to the west. i received my clearance and because i was taking off on 15 i was given a South eastern heading which is fine because of van nuys to the immediate west im assuming. I was also given a alt of at or below vfr 2,400. I then took off on my south eastern heading after i was well clear of the initial burbank airspace i was told maintain VFR altitudes.But because i was not flight following and was still in the outer ring of the class C i stayed at 2500 because the outer shelf started at 3K. at this point i still was not released from the frequency or told to squawk VFR then the controller got on the radio and told me in a long explanation like i was doing something wrong that i could climb i didn't have to stay at 2400. I was under the impression that i was not flight following so i needed to stay at 2500 to remain clear of the outer class charlie so i'm confused on why i was told i could climb and all that sort of stuff cause i was thinking something else being vfr without flight following trying to stay out of the class charlie. so i do think this happened, that maybe they assumed i was flight following cause i was never given a release from the frequency or a squawk change and with that being said if you are flight following do you still have to adhere to all airspaces and stay clear of them or because you are flight following talking to atc its permitted. this really isn't an issue and the controller said i didn't do anything illegal but i didn't want to hash it out with them on the frequency and tie up other peoples experience on the network so that's why i am here creating this long run on sentence of a thread so that maybe i can get some clarity into my tiny issue i had on the network. any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Ryan

By default, you will receive Class C service to the edge of the Outer Area (a 25nm ring around a Class C airport, completely different to the inner and outer cores that are shown on a sectional chart). If you do not wish to receive this service, you should make the call to clearance with "NEGATIVE RADAR SERVICE." This way, tower will generally terminate your service at the edge of the inner core of the Charlie)

To summarize, there are 3 ways of departing from a Class C airport:
1) negative radar service - tower will terminate you at the edge of the inner core
2) normal VFR departure - tower will hand to approach who will keep you until the edge of the Outer Area (25nm radius)
3) VFR departure with advisories to a destination - tower will hand to approach who will continue your radar service to the destination, handing off to subsequent sectors as required.

Thanks Keith that did help a lot. I was still a little confused cause even when I was clear of the outer ring I was never given a frequency change or told to squawk vfr maybe they were busy or just thought I was flight following. Anyways this helps a lot thanks for your response.
Ryan

Well,Dont forget that you have class Charlie airspace clearance simply by establishing two way communications with them which you had obviously since you were departing their airspace...on departure the controller didnt give you an altitude restriction,so you had your pick of any VFR altitude,the controller just assumed that you knew you were already clear to be in the charlie

Correction *shortly after departure* for the VR altitudes