when does a "remain clear" instruction end?

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
ink.net...
Right. The pilot left the frequency so did not hear several calls from
the
controller.

What "several calls"? It is hypothetically possible that the controller
never called back. I certainly have no shortage of instances where ATC
simply forgot I exist, even when I was flying on an instrument flight plan.

It's not your hypothetical situation; you don't get to pick and choose the
specifics. The person posing the hypothetical situation does.

The controller saw the target proceeding around the Class C
airspace, concluded the pilot no longer wished to transit Class C
airspace,
so he discarded the strip.

Says who? Who knows what the controller did or did not do, except that
controller?

The pilot changed his mind about Class C services. The controller
discarded
the strip. Nothing was carried forward to the next day. The next day's
request had nothing to do with the previous day's.

So your claim is that the question of whether two-way radio contact suffices
to allow entry into the Class C hinges on whether there's a flight strip?
How in the world is the pilot to know whether a flight strip exists or not?
That's not the sort of thing ATC is regularly reporting to us.

What about the pilot who is told to remain clear, but who never gets a
flight strip in the first place? What if the strip is discarded (for
whatever reason) before two-way radio contact is made? Even if only a short
period of time has passed? How is the pilot to know that they may enter the
Class C, since they won't know the status of the flight strip, whether it
ever existed, and whether it still exists?

There is no way for the pilot to know whether a flight strip still exists,
therefore the existence of the flight strip is completely irrelevant to the
question of whether the pilot may enter the Class C or not. A controller
might think it's completely black and white -- since after all, they have
the strip right in front of them or they don't -- but that controller would
be an idiot for thinking so, failing to comprehend that they only have half
the equation.

Pete