Switching to Ground

[felixk]

Hi,

Did my first flight today and I learned a new lesson but I'd like to get some feedback.

I landed at KVNY and taxied off the runway. Usually in real life when I land or cross the hold short line tower will tell me to contact ground or ask where i'm parking and "taxi with me". But in this instance tower didn't say anything even after I was holding clear of the runway. I was considering asking the tower for a frequency change to ground, but I remembered when i used to fly out KFRG (which is fairly busy), you'd switch to ground even without tower telling you. So I switched to ground and the controller told me not to switch without permission.

Am I incorrect in remembering that sometimes switching to ground without permission happens in real life? Whenever I switch to tower (from ground) when i'm holding short I never ask ground for permission to switch to tower. So isn't it acceptable the other way around?

Thanks!
Felix

[Brandon Grchan]

Cant speak for FRG, but you should not change from TWR to GND without being told to do so first. When working tower here as a controller we often have aircraft operating at multiple fields at the same, which can be very hard to monitor your every ground movement at every moment. A simple "clear of runway 26L, parking at XXX" will do when notifying the controller that your clear of a runway and will save them or the GND controller from asking where your going.

[Keith Smith]

In real life it's quite rare to come to a stop without tower giving you some sort of instruction, but it can happen. It's a much more frequent occurrence here because of the number of fields being covered by a single controller.

The AIM does provide guidance on this topic and states that you should not swap from tower to ground without an instruction to do so.

I agree with Brandon, simply let the tower controller know that you're clear of the runway and see what he says.

[Mike Sweeney]

Someone should give a copy of the AIM to the controllers at KFRG, KTEB, KHPN, etc.
As Peter and Keith kindly provided, AIM 4-3-14 Communications is pretty clear: A pilot who has just landed should not change from the tower frequency to the ground control frequency until directed to do so by the controller.

Although the AIM is not regulatory, several real world Tower controllers, whether busy or lazy ... have other expectations.

[Andrew Doubleday]

I have a friend certifying at FRG right now... I'll ask her how they're doing things there, that's interesting.