Two questions on VFR flight following into an uncontrolled field

I was too quick with the Send button...

It's almost a sure thing that the top 500 feet of Stewart's airspace has
been released to the overlying approach control by Letter of Agreement, so
SWF controllers wouldn't even be interested in you unless you transitioned
lower than that. In any event "Am I cleared through Stewart's airspace?"
would clear up any uncertainty.

Bob Gardner

"Tman" N/A wrote in message
...
Appreciate this groups insight ...

When getting VFR advisories into an uncontrolled field, when and how ought
one transition to the CTAF. Currently, I tune in and monitor the CTAF on
COM2, and if ATC doesn't tell me "squawk VFR, freq change approved" by
about 5 miles out, i get antsy and cancel advisories. The theory is that
I really want to be focused on other traffic on the CTAF, and the
advisories aren't always that helpful "numerous targets in the
pattern...". Also, there is sometimes a lot of chatter on the ATC
frequency, making it easy to miss a CTAF transmission even when monitoring
it. Should I just cancel advisories proactively 10 miles or so out so
that Ican focus totally on the CTAF? Or should i really let ATC take the
first step, with the assumption that they know best their abilitiy to
provide quality advisories, and they'll drop me over to the CTAF at the
most optimal time. I'd be interested in the different opinions on this...
What if i only had one COMM (like the C152 I on occassion fly).

Second question. Check out http://skyvector.com/#29-15-3-2383-2408, i was
flying into MGJ (Orange County) at 6500 from the E, getting advisories
from NY Approach. Actually the flight from the Ebrought me right over the
SWF (Stewart) Class D airspace, which has a 3000 ceiling. So I was in my
VFR descent actually right over Stewart, being careful and then some not
to bust the 3000 ceiling until i was well clear of the Class D, which gave
me all of 2 miles to get from about 3500 to the 1400 TPA at Orange County.
Rwy 3 was active at Orange County, so i overflew the field, went about 1-2
miles to the West, descended aggressively and entered the left downind on
a 45, still descending 1200 FPM right up to the downwind turn. Somewhere
right over the field, NY cancelled and i turned over to the CTAF.

OK, on reflection this did not strike me as the safest way to do things.
For one, the aggressive descent just outside of the downwind, in a field
that has a fair amount of turbine traffic flying (wider and higher)
patterns right where i was descending through. For another, i would have
rather been at TPA a fair bit out, so that i could have the benefit of
monitoring the pattern at eye level. Ideas on how to do this better?
Some thoughts that come to mind a

* Be more patient, go to the west even more, say 4-5 miles, give it time
for a gentler descent, and enter on the 45 at the TPA.
* Be more patient, and navigate to the N or S to avoid Stewart's Class D
altogether.
* Could I ask NY approach to talk to Stewart tower and see if i can get
permission to descend through Stewart's Class D. Might they do it and
would that be legal anyways -- or would i have to talk directly to Stewart
tower?
* Or would i just ask to cancel flight following in the vicinity of
Stewart, talk to their tower, tell them the deal and ask to descend
through their Class D enroute to MGJ?

There's large turbine traffic low all over the place here...

Any other ideas?

Thanks all! Tman...