Wasn't the "operational error/deviation" caused by that clueless
trainee controller (the one that barely speaks English) that they have
working in the tower? That bonehead is hysterical - a few weeks ago,
he cleared a plane for takeoff right in front of me (I was cleared to
land) when I was about 1/4 mile from the threshold. THEN, when I
pointed out that I'm going to be landing on top of the departing
traffic, rather than halting the departing traffic, he tells ME to do a
few S-TURNS for spacing!

I hope that trainee never finds himself in a real tower.

I've never understood why HPN wants everyone to have a handoff from New
York Approach - is there an actual reason? I know that HPN likes to
pretend they are Class C, but is that really the only reason?

As far as the new rule, I have no problem talking to Clearance Delivery
prior to contacting Ground, but I don't see why they would want to make
that kind of rule in response to a trainee controller mistake. Of
course, if there's a strip, are we now supposed to expect Tower to hand
us off to Departure?

Oh, well...

Daf