"Refusing to Handle You"

"Jose" wrote in message
m...

Well, "Potomac is refusing to accept you, what are your intentions" is
also an odd thing to say.


Why's that?



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.


There's no coordination problem. The problem is the pilot has a route he
can't fly. ATC is going to change his route, the problem will be solved at
that time. ATC is just asking the pilot for his input. Isn't that better
than deciding for him?



The only thing I have is my previous clearance.


But you're going to get a new one. That's why the controller is asking for
your intentions. So that your new clearance can be as close as possible to
what you'd like to do. Would you want it any other way?



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".


He's trying to do exactly that. That's why he said "say intentions."



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.


Bull****. The guy seems to have been overly accommodating.



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.


They're going to solve that problem by directing you away from Potomac
approach. Your choices are to either follow ATC instructions or continue
into Potomac approach contrary to ATC instructions and face the
consequences.