"Chip Jones" wrote:
I wasn't vectoring to the FAC. I do not/cannot/would not vector to the FAC
at this airport anyway because nothing of this approach is depicted on the
radar scope except for the airport. None of the fixes on the approach even
exist in the ATC database.

This brings me back to something you mentioned in your original post,
that got my attention. You said:

There is a large thunderstorm sweeping south
over the Knoxville airport and the TYS controllers are busy holding their
own arrivals for the storm to pass. To ease their workload, TYS calls my
trainee and begs him to work the approach into RKW.

How does this work? Can two facilities really swap airspace back and
forth between themselves with something as informal as a phone call?
There's a reason I ask...

A while back, I was flying into MMK (Meriden, CT) on a training flight
with a student. We were IFR, conditions were night, but clear skies.
The approach chart says Bradley Approach runs the approach control, but
my experience has been that radio contact with Bradley is usually pretty
poor. MMK is right on the edge between Bradley and New York Approach.
That night was no exception, and we lost contact completely with Bradley
while on a vector downwind. This was actually a good thing, because it
gave me the opportunity to hold an impromptu lesson on lost comm
procedures.

We tried calling Bradley a few times, and then got a message relayed by
another flight in the area to call Bradley on a different freq. No joy
on that freq either, and by that time we were out of radio contact with
the other aircraft. I decided to try one more trick and punch up
"Nearest ARTCC" on the GPS. Wonderful feature, that. It put us in
contact with Boston Center, loud and clear. It took just a moment to
explain the situation to the center guy, and he quickly got us a new
freq for NY Approach (by now we were probably pretty deep into NY's
airspace).

I expected the NY controller would give us vectors back towards MMK and
then hand us off to Bradley again, but that's not what happened. To my
surprise, he gave us vectors to final, cleared us for the approach, and
issued instructions to contact Bradley on the missed (the missed takes
you deeper into Bradley territory and radio comm is usually much better
on that side of the airport). We flew the approach, called Bradley on
the missed, and the controller acted like nothing strange had happened.

So, could you fill me in on what was happening behind the scenes? Once
I went lost comm, how did ATC deal with that? Did the Bradley guy just
hand me off to NY when he saw me leaving his airspace? And, most
interesting to me, how was the NY controller able to clear us for an
approach to an airport that he didn't own?