dstates wrote:I’m near a class C airspace and my initial contact is almost always
Me: “Quad City Approach, Cessna 1235D with request”
ATC: “Cessna 1235D, Quad Cities, squawk 4321 and say request”
Me: Squawk 4321 for 1235D, I am a Cessna 170, just departed Geneseo, 2200 climbing 3500, request flight following to ???”
Then normally they shorten it to Cessna 35D and will sometimes ask me type again as they put me in the system.
Doug
That’s pretty much how I do it. I used to go through the whole spiel on the first press of the mic key, and was proud of myself when I got it all in the right order and was rewarded with a squawk code without further questions. However I was admonished by a retired Chicago center controller friend and fellow 170 pilot to simply address the facility, give full registration, and the word “request”. This allows the controller to complete any off-air tasks he may be involved in before he handles you.
As for the type, the official
ICAO designator is C170, which I pronounce Cessna One Seventy most of the time. However, nine time out of ten I get called out to other traffic as a Skyhawk, which I suppose is adequate for the purposes of traffic separation. If a controller specifically asks for type, I pronounce it Cessna One Seven Zero.