Perhaps this happened because of a wider problem with what unit to talk to enroute.
One has to think that there is the posibility that Shoreham's R/T traffic is partly made up of calls from aircraft that are enroute and not having any effect on or in any real proximity to the aerodrome.
Solent radar are there to provide a service in the Solent CTA and to traffic in CAS.
Goodwood is an AFISO unit which can only provide a service to Aerodrome Traffic it can not as far as I am aware provide an enroute service.
Overall however, we have a bit of a mess with enroute flights not sure of exactly who to talk to and I believe that every VFR flight should be capable of getting a full enroute FIS service in class G airspace from a clearly defined unit. NOT simply calling up and loading every airfield frequency they pick off the map as being "close at hand".
Many operators have a requirment to be in receipt of a minimum of an FIS at all times e.g. Police Operators and I can tell you that Solent don't tell the police aircraft to freecall enroute asap
- I love their idea of offering an FIS to civil GA traffic enroute to the isle of wight and terminating the service just as they coast out on the leg that is in most need of a good ATS service!
Personally, I think that GA calls to Solent should go something like;
"Solent GABCD request FIS"
"GABCD FIS available from London on 124.75"
That would remove any ambiguity and lots of the complaints about Solent and start a whole rash of "why can't we get an FIS from London" debates which is where the problems for enroute aircraft lies.
Imagine the mound of paperwork that would be generated if every pilot submitted a report whenever a FIS was not available when requested due to frequency congestion / controller workload.
Perhaps the non-existance of a proper enroute FIS is the real reason for Genghis having this unfortunate story to tell.
Regards,
DFC