Greg Esres wrote in message . ..
That's not always the case. And to make matters worse, the pilot
has no way of knowing without direct knowledge.

When would that not be the case? And if it were the case, the pilot
must certainly know. If you don't hear the words "radar contact"
followed by a heading, then you're not being vectored.

Greg,

Now that I think about it some more, I think the issue is
that some VFR towers (which won't tell you "radar contact")
can relay radar vectors from the radar approach control
which serves them. But sitting on the ground, I have no
way of knowing whether Whatzits Approach meets the criteria
(whatever they are) to provide radar vectors to Podunk Tower.
If I hear "fly heading XXX, intercept the ABC 188 degree
radial" is that a vector or a heading?

Beats me. We've sure gotten headings like that from VFR
towers which I'm pretty durn sure were way too far from
a radar facility to have coverage close to the ground, and
in fact we didn't hear "radar contact" until we were above
3,000 ft. So I don't think they were vectors. They were
headings. OTOH "fly heading XXX" from our local VFR tower
which sits under the STL class B might be vectors. Dunno.

I think the rule has to be, if there's something to hit
and departure instructions don't include the obstacle
DP, Ask.

Cheers,
Sydney