Under it, round it or throughit?
 

Ok, so you plan a (VFR) flight between Sherburn and Leicester. The track takes you through D class airspace to the east of Castle Donnington, (sorry, EMA, sorry, Nottingham East Midlands) airport.

Do you fly under it (<1500'), round it, or get those ATC boys working and plough on through it?

For me there would be two factors.

1. The weather.

2. Whether or not I wanted to avoid any delays.

Class D clearances are usually readily forthcoming. However, if you end up holding, or are refused a clearance, it will have been quicker to route round - often considerably so.

Routing under may be unattractive in poor weather - do you want to be in a small corridor with everyone else or skirting the zone in the same conditions. In these circumstances a clearance through, under the protection of a radar service, provides some light relief from worrying as much about who you might run into.

(Edited to say that my comments apply generally to class D, with some class D controllers you can almost guarantee a clearance).

Always through it. It is just as much our airspace as the chav transporters and East Midlands are amongst the most helpfull guys out there.

Provided that you are willing to be a bit flexible if needed then no reason that you would be refused transit, I cannot remember the last time I could not get someone through the eastern stub unless the R/T was almost unreadable!
if we have inbounds ie on 27 then normally vfr not above 2000 will be OK routing wymeswold or just east I will run the ILS traffic across the top and descend clear with traffic info-if WX is less than good then down the M1 just east of the field is another way through-the point being that you may have to accept a height limitation or restrictive route(hopefully not both!)
plent of people at sherburn do it on a regular basis

Through it
 

I often fly Plymouth to Humberside to visit the rellies (5.5 hrs each way in the car becomes a more tolerable 1.4 hrs in the air).
Brm and E.Mids are usually very accomodating.
East Mids may ask you to route E of the motorway or Shepshed-Long Eaton so be aware of VRPs.
Sounding slick on the radio may also ease your transit.;)
SB

Flying from Netherthorpe, I have traversed EMA on quite a few occasions, and yes I find then to be most accommodating, provided I had a transponder. In my earlier Jodelling days (OK it's a few years ago, now) I was usually requested to go around/under their airspace.

Especially on PFA rally Sunday evening - fair enough - the sky was thick with non transponder traffic heading home northwards!!

Agreed EMA are very helpful. Though I had an uncomfortable 5 minutes in IMC when Brize had dumped me but EMA couldn't hear my radio transmissions. As soon as they could, they gave me RIS and a zone transit (IFR) in no time; but I was without a radar service for a bit, which is against our club rules.

And they were fine (VFR much lower) on the way back. The only thing they asked for was a change of level each time - not exactly taxing.

Tim

Blimey, your club must have very strict rules on where you go when flying if you require a radar service all the time. how limiting and dull.

Radar service required at all times while IMC. Not, of course, always feasible.

Does the title of this thread make anyone else think 'We're going on a bear hunt...' or is it just me?

Tim