Flying through Canadian airspace

Denny wrote

So, there you have it folks... File VFR and you become a scab walking
into the middle of a sit down strike... Beats me... I have been
banging around airports for over 60 years and flying the ATC system for
over 40 years, and I don't have a clue what to do...

NOPE! Denny, you just don't understand what a VFR flight plan is for,
nor the common method for filing and opening one. They are filed
direct with a FSS over the telephone and opened by calling a FSS, either
direct or via the nearest VOR station. ATC doesn't get involved at all.
Yes, there are other ways of doing this, but why not do it the in the
expected manner.

Flight following (RADAR advisories) is an ATC function only and does not
depend on having a VFR flight plan filed nor opened.

Sounds as if you need to spend some time in the AIM.

Bob Moore

I speak AIM fluently...
There is a turf war between the controllers union and the privatized
FSS.. All the AIM manuals in the world will not get ATC to
cooperate..

The solution is simple, file IFR and ATC is under the microscope and
cannot simply drop a flight in international airspace to get even with
Lockheed Martin...

denny

In a previous article, "Denny" said:
I speak AIM fluently...
There is a turf war between the controllers union and the privatized
FSS.. All the AIM manuals in the world will not get ATC to
cooperate..

Except what you are describing is the way VFR flight plans have worked for
at least 10 years before FSS was privatized.

Boy, those ATC guys are amazing if they could have predicted that FSS
would be privatized 10 years before it happened!

--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
Mentally update my CV, paying special attention to the bits
about how to say "Was Fired For Being A Prat" in a positive light.
-- Eric the Read's bad day

Denny wrote:
I speak AIM fluently...
There is a turf war between the controllers union and the privatized
FSS.. All the AIM manuals in the world will not get ATC to
cooperate..

If you are surprised that you don't get a transponer squawk code when
you file a *VFR* flight plan, I'm afraid that you are not as familiar
with the AIM as you may think. Except for a few certain exceptions
(ADIZ, Weirdness in ROC, etc), there has never been much connection
between a VFR flight plan and air traffic control. The ATC guys do NOT
get your *VFR* flight plan, and this has been the case long before
Lockheed got the AFSS contract.

Traffic Advisories (aka "Flight Following") is merely a service that ATC
may provide upon request to VFR aircraft, whether you have a flight plan
or not. They may hand you off to other facilities if they can, but keep
in mind the VFR aircraft may be flying too low for a hand off in any
given area.

I believe if you file a Defense VFR (or DVFR) flight plan than ATC will
get the flight plan. Not sure if this would work for the Washington
ADIZ, but apparently they want all flight plans filed there directly
with Leesburg AFSS anyway.

Being a stubborn cuss I decided to test the system again as I had to
make two more round trips from Michigan through Canada and across Lake
Erie over the holiday weekend... This series of flights I simply
waited until I was about ten miles from Canadian airspace and called
Center and advised I wanted flight following through Canadian Airspace
and across the lake... He promptly assigned a squawk and that was
that... The first round trip I filed a VFR flight plan but did not
activate it... The second round I didn't even bother with that...



denny