Phone on the land line, Fuji, good in theory, but many pilots fail to do this when requested to.

Red four - yes, good point, a shame though.

Of course if you are landing the way I have seen it work, is if you dont they wont let you go!

SD - nah, I was with WCollins in his nice Aztec. Solent were fogged in on the way down (200m RVR) and let us through.

On the way back, they had a goodly clutch of aircraft doing ILS approaches, and were very polite about refusing the transit. We felt that was the right decision on their part. No complaints at all.

The bit I liked, both ways, was when the controllers we were talking to gave us a new squawk (happened most times) - so we knew we were going to be handed over to the next controller on our way.

I've done a lot of miles around the UK and Europe in the past few years, and it's rare to be refused a transit. Yes, there are a few grumpy controllers, but they are very much the minority. I can honestly say that when a transit has been refused, I've known why.

Mind you, I've not been near Manchester...