Advice from ATC'ers pls

[NotAnotherUsername]

I flew a single VFR through East Anglia today from the Clacton VOR up to Cambridge and then west and was wondering about contacting Stansted Approach.

On that route, there's really no-one to talk to on weekends apart from Stansted. I tuned into STN APP and listened out, the poor guy was a touch busy with incoming traffic so I didn't bother saying anything, and just carried on until I got withing reasonable range of the nice man at Cambridge.

So, my question is: from your view point, as long as I remain well clear of your CAS (say over 5 miles) do you want to hear from me?If you do, is there much you can do for me anyway, or I for you?

My normal approach around busy airspace is listen out and, if they sound busy just shut up and listen, else if they're fairly quiet then say hello. Is that reasonable to you?

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

<<<So, my question is: from your view point, as long as I remain well clear of your CAS (say over 5 miles) do you want to hear from me?If you do, is there much you can do for me anyway, or I for you? >>>

No, no, and almost certainly no!

I speak as a controller in a busy TMA but colleagues at much quieter places may have a different viewpoint and may be glad of someone to talk to. Around a busy zone if things are all going swimmingly - you enjoying your flight and us slaving over the big jets - we're probably mutually unattractive. However, if you have any problems - unsure of position or if some emergency arises for example - then do PLEASE call us ASAP and we'll do everything we can to help you.

[FWA NATCA]

You will find most of us controllers will sincerely appreciate that you circumnavigated around the airspace instead of calling on and asking for advisories or service through the airspace when we are real busy.

Most often what occurs is the VFR pilot hears that the controller is busy and thinks, "wow, there must be a lot of airplanes around because of how busy the controller sounds, I better call on frequency and let him know I'm out here too."

Mike

[Aussie Andy]

"mutually unattractive" - long time since I've been called that ;)

Moderator: I think it would be great to cross-post this to the Private Flying forum for the benefit of others.

Cheers,

[Greebson]

If it's busy , but you want to talk to someone, you could contact the FIR controller. You never know, he/she may know something of use.