"Refusing to Handle You"

"I intend to fly my clearance. What are yours?" Hmmph.

An odd thing to say after you've been told that's not an option.

Well, "Potomac is refusing to accept you, what are your intentions" is
also an odd thing to say. It's the equivalent of "get lost kid, you
bother me", which is exactly what Potomac is saying to the controller
who is (presumably) just relaying the message to the pilot. It makes
ATC's coordination problem into the pilot's problem to solve.

I would refuse to fly through thunderstorms to make them happy.

Why would they find happiness in your flight through a thunderstorm?

Because if the thunderstorm is outside of Potomac's airspace, Potomac
doesn't have to deal with you. "It's not my watch". Of course I don't
really believe airborne shredded aluminum makes anybody involved here
happy, my phrasing "make them happy" is metaphorical.

You'd be unable to do anything other than your previous clearance? How
could that be?

The only thing I have is my previous clearance.

I would expect the controllers to work with me to get an acceptable
reroute, not to dump the thing in my lap saying "you can't go here any
more". That is getting close to the controller saying "IFR cancelled,
squawk 1200" while I'm in the soup.

I have my previous clearance. I would fly that unless (and until) I got
something acceptable to both me and the controller. But the controller
saying "Potomac won't handle you, what are your intentions" is
inappropriately confrontational. If Potomac won't accept the clearance
that ATC has already given me, that's ATC's problem to solve, and they
should offer (or at least appear to be prepared to offer) some solutions.

Jose
--
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