Several years ago, not long after earning my private pilot certificate, I departed the Burlington/Alamance Regional Airport, North Carolina, where I was based. My intent was to make a circuit around the outside of the Raleigh‑Durham Class C airspace and return to Burlington to land.
Unsure how to ask for flight following for such a circuitous route, once in the air, I contacted Raleigh Approach, asked for flight following, and recited the three or four waypoints that defined the route I wanted to take. The controller responded with, “Wow, that was quite a dissertation!”
He immediately gave me a frequency change, and said, “Now repeat all that to the next controller.”
Quite a few years later, I’m still not sure the best way to request flight following when my intended route is more than just Point A to Point B, but I can usually muddle through.
Jim Coble
Durham, North Carolina
