Sticklers for time...
had a recent experience with a small Class-D tower. Wondering if all small ATC is like this or not....
now I realize, ATC works very hard and depending on the day can be stressed out of their minds and I highly respect them for the job they do. NOw, that being said, story time.
I'm 10 miles out from the airport, I call them up, it's 10:52pm (watch set with airport time) I call up and say I'm in bound full-stop, yada yada. The guy acknowledges me and proceedes to tell me they close in 8 minutes. No pattern entry instructions, no nothing. So I figure I'll start making a base (as is standard procedure there - I fly there a lot) for the active runway as stated in the ATIS. I call him again at another usual checkpoint where they'll either clear us to land or advise of traffic or sequence number. Again he doesn't care and says "ok... fine, I'm closing in 5 minutes" I'm 2 minutes from touchdown, literally. so right before base I call again and ask if I'm going to get a clearance or or are they going to be uncontrolled by the time I touch down. The guy instead of answering me closes it right then in there -- Attn all pilots on XXX frequency, XXX tower is now closed and becomes Class-E uncontrolled airspace, yada yada yada. so I make my final CTAF call and land.
is there some other issue I don't know about that would be that much of a problem for him to clear me to land. then close???