Not the best attitude, in my opinion. As others have noted, ATC expansion
and paychecks depend on traffic counts, so by not using them you hit them in
the pocketbook. And you deprive yourself of a safety net that you pay for
every April.

JFK, Jr. was not required by regulation to use flight following...but the
outcome of his flight might have been drastically different had he done so.

Bob Gardner
"John Doe" wrote in message
news:uau7f.6486$vS1.2601@dukeread03...

"Mitty" wrote in message
...
Departing cross country out of the Minneapolis area in severe clear, I
will usually ask for either flight following or will file. I depart from
KMIC, which is under the 4000 foot shelf of the MSP bravo airspace.

For example, Friday I am going from KMIC to KGPZ, which is a couple
hundred miles to the north.

I am curious what TRACON and Center guys think:

Do you prefer to have me on a full IFR flight plan? (I always cancel
when I have the airport in sight if the destination is non-towered.)

Just advisories so you know who I am and what I am doing, but you don't
have to provide separation services?

Or do you not wish to hear at all? (Hopefully not, because I like being
in the system both for traffic info and in case of emergency.)

TIA

I am not, nor do I ever wish to be associated with ATC, but I would
imagine that providing any service is more work for them that not.
Considering I constantly hear how "overworked" or "overloaded" they are, I
would assume that they would prefer you not ask for any more service than
you actually need given their apparent work load.

After all, it's not their ass flying around up there, no matter what
happens, they can walk out the door and go home at the end of the day.

That being said, I'm all for not bothering ATC unless I'm required to by
FAA regulations.