Class D / Class C precedence

Wade Hasbrouck writes:

And when I say "establish two way communication" I mean you call them up and
if they acknowledge you in any way other than telling you to "stay out", you
are allowed to enter the Class D. i.e. if I call "Renton Tower, Cessna
1538V, Downtown Bellevue with Echo to land", and they reply with "Cessna
1538V, standby", that is considered establishment of two way communication
and I am allowed to enter the Class D. If they don't respond, then I must
stay clear of the Class D.

In your simulator you will never run into this.

Actually I will, with VATSIM, as there are real people handling ATC
and traffic then.

One time going from Bremerton (PWT) to Boeing Field (BFI), as I came up on
the North end of Vashon Island, a guy departing BFI had declared an
emergency. The radio was quiet and thought I would see if the Boeing
Controller would acknowledge me (hoping for a "standby") so I could enter
the Class D, and so I called "Boeing Tower, Cessna 738VJ, North Vashon, with
Sierra, to land", and I got no response, so I started a left 360... then
the radio chatter picked up for the emergency and others inbound, and
between about 1/4 the way through the 360, the controller basically told
everyone, "I have an emergency in progress, I will get to as soon as I
can...", just past 1/2 way through the 360 the emergency was over and the
controller had gotten back to everyone but me and asked "is there anyone I
need to talk to that I haven't yet", suspecting he missed someone, and it
was me, but figured I would wait until I was pointed roughly in the right
direction before calling him again. Got pointed east, and gave him a call,
and he thanked me for my paitence. I had to do the 360 to stay out of the
Class D, as I had not yet established two way communication.

I try to be cooperative with ATC. I even feel guilty asking for
flight following. Of course, VATSIM controllers are much thinner on
the ground than the real thing, so the workload is sometimes much
higher. There may be one person effectively working all Class B and
Class C towers, plus Approach and Departure, plus Center, plus Ground
and Clearance Delivery. If there are only a few planes in the area,
no problem, but when traffic picks up to real-world levels, it becomes
impossible. The usual situation is practically empty skies and no
ATC, though.

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