I take it you missed the 30 minute wait for landing a/c? By the time we
could contact the "local" class "C" approach we are to talk to, it had
expired by 5 minutes.

I had flown at that airport many times before (it was where I took my
PP check ride). Even on a busy day I'd never been sitting, "ready to
depart", for more than 10 minutes.

However, on the day in question, we had gone to the run-up area w/ NO
traffic on freq and no traffic had used the airport for 10 minutes. By
the time we finished run-up and radio settings, there was a tail
dragger on short final, followed by 2 C-150s, then a mix of bi-wing,
C-152, C-172 and a Beech. Remember, landing a/c have right of way, and
they were landing as tight as you legally could.

There is no RCO at that airport. Had we been given a clearance void,
things would have sure been different. But since we could depart VFR
and activate in the air...

The CFII was a former military controller and is now retired. Maybe he
was wanting to teach me how, with a real situation, to file and
activate in the air -- VFR Conditions, not IMC. We had actually
discussed this very situation when we realized that our filing would
expire before all the traffic cleared.

Later,
Steve.T