Originally Posted by
kaz3g
My experience with towers as a rather geriatric Auster driver has always been fine. I flew to Essendon a couple of weeks ago and phoned up before takeoff to see if I could get a direct via Kalkallo. Lovely chap suggested I plan via Doncaster because MELBOURNE was using east-west.
That's not good service. You basically got "Clearance not available" from Melbourne Centre before you even took off. It's marginally better than telling you to plan via Westgate Bridge but not much.
Good service would be a clearance e.g. Broadford or Kilmore to Essendon, with vectors to keep you out of the way of the Tullamarine traffic. ATC can do that but they choose not to.