(Paul Tomblin) writes:

The other day I was north of Syracuse and I asked for direct
Rochester (instead of flying down to Syracuse and following V2).
The controller cleared me "direct when able", and when the GPS
showed that I would just barely miss the restricted area (R-5203?),
I turned. But evidently that was too close for her, because a few
minutes later she turned me 45 degrees off my course for a few
minutes before she let me turn back.

I wonder if I should have said something to her about seeing the
restricted area on my GPS?

I wonder if smaller, slower planes sometimes catch a controller off
guard. Maybe they get too used to leading every turn by a few miles
for the big boys, and then once in a while they slip up and forget to
allow for the fact that a Cherokee or Skyhawk can turn to a new
heading in less than a quarter mile. It would be an understandable
mistake, but an easy one to correct.


All the best,


David