Judah wrote:
Matt Whiting wrote in news:1iSUh.3967$Oc.197261
@news1.epix.net:

A question for Stephen, Newps or other folks knowledgeable in the finer
points of ATC. A friend of mine flew into Reading, PA last week with
another pilot. Since Reading is a class D airport with no TRSA, but
with radar approach control, they elected to simply call tower directly
6 or so miles out. My friend said that the controller was quite nasty
and told them they had to contact approach first if they wanted to land.
By then they were even closer in, but they called approach who
"informed" them gruffly that they were now 4 miles from the airport and
needed to contact tower "immediately." They then called tower and

They do the same thing at my home airport, HPN. They are a class D, but
they have quite a bit of airline and bizjet traffic, and are right at the
edge of the NYC Class B, so they try to act like a class C. Most people who
have flown into the area or are based here are pretty well used to calling
approach to get squawked and sequenced in, so it's a non issue. But every
once in a while you hear someone being told to "Remain clear the Delta and
contact approach on 126.4 for sequencing."

If that was the language used ("remain clear"), and/or he didn't call the
tail number in the first place, then your friend busted 91.129. Not because
he didn't talk to approach first, but because he was told by tower to
remain clear of the airspace until he did. If the tower controller called
his numbers, and didn't specifically tell him to remain clear, it's more
questionable as to whether he busted any regs, even if he did annoy the
tower controllers, which is generally not something you really want to do
at a busy airport anyway... ("Piper extend your downwind you are #9 behind
4 falcons on final, and 5 departures in between...")

He said the tower controller replied with their N number so I don't
think there is any concern about busting a regulation. Just wondering
what the deal was as we fly out of ELM with is a TRSA and tower never
gives us any crap if we bypass approach. I usually call approach just
to keep them awake, but if I'm just hopping from 7N1 to ELM, I'll
sometimes just call tower as I may barely get high enough for radar
identification before I'm near the class D.

Matt