On Wed, 9 Jun 2004 16:56:34 GMT, Bela P. Havasreti
wrote:

I'll try to be nice and say you are welcome to consider getting
flight following services "mandatory" whenever you fly.

My personal opinion, is that primary see & avoid techniques
are not being adequately taught these days, and (perhaps?)
too much emphasis is put on relying on systems (radios,
flight following, etc.).

Bela, there is a columnist who writes a monthly article for AVWeb. He
is a traffic controller for the Atlanta area. His name is Don Brown
and you should read his column number 37. The title is VFR in a
Vacuum, and the blurb goes: "Have you been turned down lately when you
asked ATC for VFR advisories? Expect it to happen more and more often,
especially when you and other pilots don't file a correct flight plan
or use the proper phraseology. AVweb's Don Brown points out how the
impending controller shortage will reduce the additional services ATC
can provide."

So it appears that while requesting flight following is a good idea
for cross country flights, unless a lot of new controllers are brought
on line, it will be increasingly difficult for them to handle non IFR
requests.

Corky Scott