"Roy Smith" wrote in message
...
paul kgyy wrote:
I was taught that, if I needed to file an IFR flight plan in the middle
of a trip, I should contact FSS first to file and get clearance, then
contact ATC. On the other hand, I hear frequent references in
rec.aviation to pilots who just contact ATC directly. Does this depend
on how busy ATC is - i.e. near Chicago contact FSS, near Moline contact
Moline approach?

It absolutely depends on how busy ATC is. Around here (New York), if
they're not busy, you can call them up cold and and make your
request. They'll take the important info (destination, aircraft type,
etc) and give you a route. Sometimes they'll say they're too busy and
tell you to go talk to FSS like you're supposed to.

What I find works best is if things are iffy, is to get VFR flight
following first. Once they've already got you in the system, assigned
a code, radar identified, etc, if you later tell them you need to get
a clearance, they're more likely to handle you directly.

If push comes to shove, if you tell them you need a clearance NOW,
they'll get you one. But the idea is to never let things degenerate
to the point where you have to start playing trump cards.

Actually Roy, ATC'll get you one *if* they can. ATC usually can, especially
under the circumstances you describe. However, the pilot really doesn't
have a "trump" card when it comes to pop-up IFR. You need one on a busy
frequency, you might be SOL for a while as ATC is occupied with higher
priority stuff. My point is that you are in no legal position to demand IFR
if you are already airborne flying VFR.

I totally agree with you about getting F/F making a pop-up easier to get.
Under VFR Flight Following, you already have almost all of the ingredients
in play that ATC needs to handle you IFR. Converting F/F to IFR on a busy
frequency is usually no more workload on the controller other than issuing
you a clearance and a good IFR altitude. Because I already am providing you
radar service, I can give you a clearance with one transmission. Then, I
either send you over to Radio to file the full SAR stuff (souls on board
etc) or else get you to spit it all out on the taped frequency if I have
room/time on the bandwidth. If something happens to cause a need for SAR,
Center can pull the voice tape and access your information. In an
emergency, we can access the voice data in under five minutes.

I've never understood why more pilots on VFR cross countries don't use
Flight Following. Personally, I've never had to turn down VFR radar service
to any pilot no matter how busy I've been with IFR traffic (and I'm plenty
busy, often). Centers don't have to separate VFR's in Class E, which is
where most of our flight following happens. Thus, there's no reason for
ARTCC's not to provide the service, even when the freq is non-stop with
radio traffic. Almost every Center controller I know down here would rather
be talking to all parties when making traffic calls to known aircraft. The
unknown VFR guys represent a traffic wildcard and in my view increase the
workload when issuing traffic to known aircraft, rather than decreasing it.

Chip, ZTL