UK PPLs are trained to call up everybody and read out War and Peace. It makes for a lot of work and is pointless.
With most of my flying life in the US, I tried keeping it brief when I moved (giving just what you give in the US, which is who you are, where you are, what you're doing and what you want) but {London|Scottish} Information would always then ask me more questions making it more or less impossible to be brief. I have discovered that I can usually get away with just the above plus where I came from and having no more questions, especially your route is obviously going to be pretty much direct from where you are to where you're going. (I'm guessing they must generate some kind of flight strip for you - I'm not sure why they care where you came from otherwise). This seems reasonably concise.
As for not actually bothering with basic service, it's an option I sometimes take when over land, but since every cross country flight I do requires a medium to long overwater flight I like someone to know when I'm coasting out or coasting in.
Flying towards North Wales I think I hit the same problem the original poster did - there seems to be a bit of a radio dead area around the north Welsh coast and around the hilly parts, but on the return trip I did manage to stay in contact until they turned me over to Ronaldsway approach.
What does puzzle me about what I've seen of the UK training environment, there seems to be disproportionate attention paid to R/T when it's arguably the least important bit of flying (everyone knows the mantra 'aviate, navigate, communicate in that order'). So much so for the BGA bronze for example the pass mark for the R/T portion of the written test is higher than it is for the aviating and navigating bits! In the US they don't even do a written test for R/T.
Do you have a reference to route charges in the USA?
I hear route charges in the USA and just about everywhere else on the continent (with the exception of Switzerland) is considerably cheaper than the UK.
What does that say about use of Class E?
They also have a few other things..... like a nationalised (taxpayer funded) ATC.
Widespread Class E is great but it will never happen in the UK because of the cost recovery requirement. Class E is CAS for IFR so you then need to provide H24 ATC coverage for the IFR clearances. At some £1M/desk annual cost for a radar desk, it would cost of the order of £10M/year to cover the UK in US- or French-style Class E.
In Class G, you are on your own and you need to manage your "stuff" yourself.
An exception to this of course is Flight Following in the USA which sorts out everything for you with handovers all the way. But they have contiguous Class E over there.
UK PPLs are trained to call up everybody and read out War and Peace. It makes for a lot of work and is pointless.
I remember when I first did a NAV exercise round the London Stansted boundary, my instructor had me say "G-xxxx, is a PA28 on a VFR flight from xxx to xxx (it was a circular route) via xxx, xxx, xxx, xxx, xxx, xxx, and xxx, altitude 2300, QNH xxx....". Especially when your new to this, and flying at the same time, this is potentially over a minutes worth of R/T, and mostly unnecessary.
Now if I do the same route I would give only my first turning waypoint to the controller so he/she had a rough idea what I was up to and the R/T is max 20 seconds. When I was training I used to write down the whole Shakespearian monologue in Notepad so I can try and commit it my head, and be a bit more 'fluent' when regurgitating it (the monologue that is) all out over the radio. Seems like an awful waste of energy now I look back.
I've found a Basic service quite useful from Farnborough or London on several occasions. A couple of times reminding me that I was getting close to CAS (which hopefully I wouldn't have busted, but a helpful prompt). Once providing me with weather at Le Touquet when en-route. Other times useful just to get the latest regional pressure settings etc.
I'd say just change to whoever is your next or more important point of contact.
I recall one of my many instructors getting a severe bll*ing for not having signed off Basic service from an adjacent unit. To be fair, he did make the call to change frequency but didn't check that it was acknowledged. In some ways, this is comforting to know that controllers would be concerned if you drop off the frequency unexpectedly.
UK PPLs are trained to call up everybody and read out War and Peace. It makes for a lot of work and is pointless.
That was exactly my training, and I recall my first cross-channel trip when we did exactly that.
But now I've become more relaxed about that and often just have a listening watch.
When in the south coast recently, Farnborough (who can presumably see me on Radar) suggested I briefly speak to the local nearby airfield for traffic information (I was outside their airspace, but quite a lot of actvity). Kept the Farnborough squawk while doing do. Presumably, this would also help local aircraft be aware of my presence, but of course the local airfield doesn't have radar. To be hinest, I'm not sure whether fiddling with radio frequencies and talking on the radio was a distraction or help compared to just looking out the window.
..had established contact with London Information and squawked 1177 (standard non-unique code for them). I reported mid-channel but got no response.
I recall a Le Touquet trip (last year I think) when London Information wasn't operating (presumably due to staff shortages or something). I was the first to radio in when they came back online. I'd always want to be in 2-way radio contact for water crossings, but would use someone else if London are too busy on frequency.
Couldn't agree more...
In Class G, you are on your own and you need to manage your "stuff" yourself. A two-way radio contact actually gives you very little.
UK PPLs are trained to call up everybody and read out War and Peace. It makes for a lot of work and is pointless.
People call up some grass strip like Goodwood for a Basic Service
Even when crossing national frontiers, when radio is normally mandatory, sometimes one can't do it. On a nice day London Info can be very busy. I believe there is some successor to the 1960s RAF Fighter Command where you have a load of poor sods in some bunker watching radar returns (I know it exists because IBM openly advertise the software for matching up radar returns with flight plans and other stuff, for national security purposes) but there are so many holes in the system that if you are flying from say Le Touquet to Old Buckenham, nobody is going to care if the first call you make is to Old Buckenham...
My radio calls aren't always acknowledged, and I sometimes would like to change frequency e.g. for an ATZ transit but can't sign off with them.
I'd say just change to whoever is your next or more important point of contact.
I had a situation a few weeks ago coming back from France, and had established contact with London Information and squawked 1177 (standard non-unique code for them). I reported mid-channel but got no response. Tried a few more times, and also Com2, but no response. I was at 5000ft and never heard their response to anyone else either. Nevertheless I wanted to speak to Manston Radar to get a radar service near Dover so just did a blind transmission, changed, and squawked 7000. I didn't want to waste much more time over it.
