In article , Gary Drescher wrote:
If we didn't happen to know otherwise via folklore and AIM passages, we'd
reasonably guess that a pilot should analogously comply with an ATC
directive to enter Class B without a clearance. The FARs don't say anything
to the contrary.

Yes they do - they say you must not enter class B without an explicit
clearance from the controlling agency responsible for class B. A class D
tower does not trump this. The police officer analogy is a bit weak
because typically when a police officer is directing traffic through red
lights it is due to an *abnormal* traffic situation. However, a class D
controller sequencing his traffic is not, and the class D controller
(unlike the police officer) giving an instruction without "cleared into
class B" is not clearing you into class B airspace. Similarly, if a
controller instructs you to fly a course and altitude that means you
cannot land without endangering persons or property on the ground (i.e.
over a densely populated area), and your engine swallows a valve and you
crash into the roof of a house, the FAA will find you - not the
controller - at fault for accepting an instruction or clearance that
requires you to do something that is against the FARs. I noticed in the
US not much attention is paid to this - however, here, the documentation
I've read has a couple of reminders that you as pilot in command must
refuse ATC instructions that make you do something against the regs
(such as flying VFR through a cloud, or flying less than the minimum
distances to persons or property, or being in a situation that you would
not be able to 'land clear' in the event of your engine stopping).

The pilot's requirement to not violate the regs trumps any instruction
ATC might give you. The pilot being the final authority to the operation
of the aircraft trumps any instruction ATC may give you. However, it's
always nice that you tell a controller that you're 'unable'!

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"