Short Final: Flight Following

Editorial Staff

Tuesday, October 18, 2022 at 11:42 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

A pilot struggled to succinctly request flight following for a circuitous route around Class C airspace.
His detailed description of multiple waypoints was met with surprise by the controller, who referred to it as a "dissertation" and promptly transferred him.
Even years later, the pilot still finds communicating complex flight routes for flight following challenging, though he manages.

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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