"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:TiEme.20500$g66.9921@attbi_s71...
Being told by the Class D tower controller to follow the Arrow in to land
isn't being "cleared"?

No, it's not. Not being an actual clearance, it provides no authority to
enter the Class B.

That's just bureaucratic hogwash.

It's a perfectly natural interpretation of the regulations, and it works
quite well in practice.

If the Class D controller didn't have the jurisdiction, he shouldn't have
given the instruction.

The instruction in question didn't require entry into the Class B airspace.

If it had, then yes...it would have been true that the controller shouldn't
have given the instruction, just as no controller should give any
instruction that would require the pilot to operate contrary to the FARs.

Even so, controllers are people too, and thus make mistakes, and thus every
pilot should be paying attention to the implications of any ATC instruction,
and using their PIC responsibility to ensure they don't wind up violating a
regulation (among other things) as a result of complying with the
instruction.

Once again, Class D is shown to be the least controlled, least useful,
most dangerous airspace in the NAS.

How so?

The way I see it, by definition Class G airspace is the least controlled.
Accident statistics will prove what's the most dangerous airspace (could be
Class D, but this thread in no way shows accident statistics).

"Least useful" is an entirely subjective description, but with all the
different kinds of airspace out there, I find it difficult to believe that
an airspace that ensures (as much as any airspace boundary can ensure
anything) only aircraft in communication with a controller are present, and
which provides for an area that a controller can use to sequence aircraft
onto and off of a runway, could wind up being the "least useful". I can
name a half-dozen Prohibited Areas, at least one area being called an
"ADIZ", and a Class E surface area, all of which I find less useful than the
KBFI Class D airspace.

Pete