Flight routing London to Los Angeles
I hope this is the right place to ask this question.
I am a regular passenger between London and New York and I have always understood that (and please forgive my terminology which is no doubt incorrect but hopefully you will get the idea) that from about half an hour west of Ireland to about half an hour east of Canada the plane is not under radar coverage - that because it is not over or near land the pilots simply communicate with each other by updating their positions on high frequency radio, and do not get their clearances from the controllers on the ground, until they approach the respective coastline.
Now I have just completed a trip to Los Angeles and noted that the plane flew much further north - over Scotland, Iceland, the middle of Greenland, Baffin Island and north and then western Canada. It was therefore over land most of the way.
Do the same rules apply as on a flight to New York? i.e they overfly all these other places without making contact with ground controllers? Or are they handed from one, to another, to another, always under radar control?
Once again sorry for no doubt what is hideous terminology but hope this makes sense.