Upon inital contact to ATC, say "request" or just blurt it all out?

[Sac Arrow]

I guess it just depends on how long of a transmission I need to give to ATC. If I just want to transition an airspace, I'll just say it. But how often do I do that. Pretty much never because if I plan on transiting airspace I'm on flight following anyway. So I pretty much just open with "Norcal, Arrow 123SA with request" whether it's for flight following, or a pop up IFR request. Or whatever.

There's normally two conditions: The first is ATC is really freakin' busy, and it clutters the frequency to blurt out the whole request only to get stepped on or asked to standby, or there is no traffic at all in the sector and they may not even be next to the radio and ready to copy down a lengthy request when you call.

 

[denverpilot]

I was already a pilot when I trained to be a police officer.



It always surpized me that our dispatchers gave no head's up when dispatching calls.



You'd be driving along in traffic, and suddenly hear:



"2334, 34. 3434 NW 35th St. Complainant is a neighbor who does not wish to be contacted. Case number 123456J."



It was downright dangerous to try to write that down while driving.



I wrote a memo to communications recommending an initial call with "Advise when ready to copy", but it was not implemented in my time on the force.



Probably all computerized now, anyway.

It is. The dispatch is mostly superfluous so they can tell the Press exactly how many minutes it was from initial phone call to on the air.

ADS-B done right could have done this for aviation, too. It wasn't done right and we'll be stuck in the 70s at least for another two decades.

 

[Palmpilot]

Speaking of IFR, I think there is reason ATC usually says, "We have an amendment to your clearance" first, before giving it to you. This would seem to be their version of "request". It warns the other party that something different is coming.

And it gives the pilot time to reach for her pen or pencil.

 

[sferguson524]

A lot of good posts here. Flying in mostly congested airspace for a good chunk of my flying career has led me to keep it simple (KISS). "Miami departure, NXXXX, VFR Request". After the "Go-Ahead NXXXX I'll calmly, clearly, and just slow enough to understand "Miami departure, NXXXX, VFR, AA-5, 2,500, Naples ... Alpha-Papa-Foxtrot".

Most of this can be cleared up right away if departing into busy airspace by asking for flight following right from Tower, which they coordinate for you (if departing a towered airport of course).

However, a few times with a very busy SoCal I've been told straight up...NXXXX, SoCal approach, unable, remain VFR" although at those times I just used the "VFR request" verbiage.

I trained for PPL and IR in socal, and found that the more professional I was with the controllers the more I got my VFR requests handled