Originally Posted by IO540
Aircraft in contact with Tower and operating in the vicinity of an ATZ are receiving an ATC service and are expected to comply with ATC instructions - even if they're in Class G.
Many people would disagree with the above (Class G is Class G regardless of who you are talking to) even if it seems perfectly reasonable to me that one should follow ATC instructions since they are usually given for a good reason.
They would be wrong to disagree I'm afraid. This is not a gray area, but is actually very clear. It appears in MATS, though I don't have the time right now to look it up again.
There is a proviso though, and that's "Unless you tell them that you are not going to comply."
An ATC'er can expect you to comply with his instruction/requests in class G airspace, unless you tell him that you will not. You are under no obligation to comply with such instructions, but you are under an obligation to tell them if you will not comply.
I suppose this is simply to avoid an ATC'er telling someone to climb to 3000ft, the pilot acknowledging it, but thinking "!!!! him. I'm in uncontrolled airspace and staying at 2000ft" ,while the controller (not unreasonably) thinks that you are complying with his instruction/request.
We have discussed this before, and the appropriate references to the part in MATS has been provided.
dp