"Roy Smith" wrote in message
...

I had a bizarre experience a while ago along these lines. Had VFR
flight following from Bradley Approach into Hartford/Brainard.

Getting close to the edge of Hartford's Class D, I tried to get the
controller's attention to ask for a frequency change, but the freq was
busy and I couldn't break in. Eventually, I found a hole and he
turned me over to HFD tower, but by that time I was deep in the CDAS.

I had (naively?) assumed he had coordinated with HFD, but apparantly
not. I got the "call me when you land" deal, and when I called, the
tower controller proceeded to rip me a new one on the phone. She
didn't seem interested that I was talking to BDL. I pointed out that
I couldn't just drop off BDL's freq without permission, and she asked
me if I had two radios in the plane, and said I should have called
them on the second one.


Whether you could or could not just drop off BDL's freq without permission
would depend upon where you were at the time. If you were approaching HFD
from within the Class C airspace then, no, you couldn't just leave the
frequency. But if you were not in Class C airspace as you were approaching
HFD you were free to leave the approach control frequency at any time.
There's a requirement to establish communications with ATC prior to entering
Class D airspace, there's no requirement to establish or maintain
communications with ATC when operating VFR in Class E or G airspace.



I let the HFD tower controller vent (and mostly restricted my
responses to "Yes, Ma'am"), and nothing more came of it. My guess is
the approach controller just forgot about me.


If I had been approaching from within Class C airspace my response to her
would have been something like, "I was in communications with Bradley
Approach as is required by FAR 91.130(c), if you have a problem with that
take it up with them.", and that would have been the end of it. If I had
been approaching from outside of Class C airspace there'd have been no issue
with her as I would have left BDL's frequency about ten miles from HFD
whether or not I had been able to bid a hearty bye-bye to approach.