Approach not Contacting Me

I was doing a relatively short flight yesterday Southwest from KRDU to KBWI and I noticed that Potamic Approach KDCA and KIAD were all active. I checked in and asked for vectors to Runway 33L and never got a response but every aircraft to KIAD and KDCA got vectors. It was around 9pm est or 0200Z. It wasn’t too busy but is this normal when not flying into approach airspace without active ATC at your airport?

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Do you know the name of the controller?

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No I do not. I’m just wondering what the procedure is because I just like staying ghost free.

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This is because the airport you were trying to go into was not a controlled one. If it was iad and dca, then it’s only iad and dca.

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ah yes of course, I can’t believe I didn’t notice that

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yeah, basically you won’t get a reply if there is not ATC at an airport. It is then the pilot’s responsibility to approach and land at the airport. For more info see #tutorials

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Ok thank you. You can close this.

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I’ll flag it now :)

You were on Unicom as others alluded to. :)

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