Checking In Properly

[Cobalt]

After a couple of years being low and slow and, as a result of being generally in the way of faster stuff, being vectored around over the UK at FL100 (why bother filing a route? might as well put radar vectors to destination into fhe flight plan ;)) I have now "upgraded" to something flying faster and higher.

I was taught to normally check in with heading and cleared flight level when on a radar heading [which is usually instructed "report heading to xxx on xxx.yy"], fix and cleared flight level when given a random fix [just as a reminder I am not on the FPL route], and just flight level when on the flight planned route.

On a recent trip, after some vectors I was given a "resume own nav" to a fix on the FPL route and shortly thereafter a hand-over - and after checking in with just my level I was queried "are you on a heading or going to a fix". This happened twice, and the controller sounded vaguely annoyed in once case.

So I just wondered what the protocol actually is? Or is this just a communication problem between two ATC units on handover (London to Manchester, in this case?)

[anotherthing]

You are in the right - you do not need to say you are on own nav to pointABC.

Even if you are on a heading, you technically do not need to report that to the next agency unless told by the previous controller. The reason controllers tell you to report heading/speed is because it is a legitimate, laid down method of not having to make a phone call.

Good airmanship however would involve telling the next controller if you were on a radar heading, regardless of whether you had been instructed to report it.

Sounds like the controller(s) in question were having a bad couple of days