I’m curious, when requesting radar vectors to a destination from departure control, has anyone ever had the controller say anything to you other than “Unable at this time, please proceed on course to …” ? If so, what did they say to you?
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Hey there!
As an IFATC, most of the time when pilots request this, they are requesting radar vectors to their destination which is (the majority of the time) wayyyyyy outside of our airspace. If we’re controlling for e.g. LAX Radar we can’t give radar vectors to e.g. Heathrow. Therefore we give the response “unable at this time…/requested airport is outside of coverage area…”.
Another instance is that the airspace is simply too busy to give an aircraft radar vectors to another airport technically in our airspace when we are often focused on providing services to/from the hub airport.
If you are wanting to follow your flight plan to an airport outside of our airspace, fly at a “normal” cruise altitude, you are flying IFR, and therefore all that is needed is “Check In” - we’ll respond with “Radar Contact” and you are then cleared to go on your way.
This last point is a common mistake we see - pilots requesting radar vectors/flight following to their destination when they are either flying IFR or wanting radar vectors to an airport thousands of miles away.
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You don’t have to ask vectors just check in and the atc will let you know if any deviations are required based on the traffic. Also, regarding altitude if you are planning to climb to alt different from your flight plan maybe you can request them if needed.
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Gotcha, thank you!
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