Must agree that Manchester never oblige. I was at Barton and asked the control room if it was worth phoning before hand for a clearance as i was going Soth East and dont particularly like the 1200 foot corridor. The man who knew all that sort of thing, you know the one who is allways on hand at any airfield?, said that even if they did give a clearance(which is unlikely) they would keep you orbiting for half an hour or so before giving you crossing permission
therby loosing the POTENTIAL time saving of not using the low level route! On the plus side Cardiff, and Bristol have allways obliged in my experience. Personally i cant see what their problem is, if you transit abeam the upwind end of active runway at say 2-3000'? What say you all?