Jumbo
I am a civvie flying around in Class G and need a Flight/Radar Service, should I expect to be able to obtain one?
I suppose that the basic answer, actually, is "no, only a FIS as defined by ICAO, so be grateful if there is anything more than that. That is why it is uncontrolled airspace!"
ATSUs seem to only offer me the service as an "extra" to their other commitments?
They would probably offer a "full" service in class G to all comers if the users were to finance the full cost of such a deal!
what sort of non-standard gobbledegook is "taking your own terrain clearance..."
Quite so. I suggested to CAA that this is (a) unnecessary, given the very clear specification of responsibility, (b) confusing, given that it is the pilot's responsibilty and one would infer from the words that prior to this point it had not been, (c) how does a pilot "take" terrain clearance, surely the verb would be "maintain", (d) if a reminder is considered necessary, "caution - terrain clearance" would be a more appropriate phrase. Answer - we discussed this and our minds are made up. As for the introduction of - confusing - military phraseology ("report level") there was no answer.
2 s