It benefits VFR pilots, too
Free Flight's main objective is to enable aircraft flying under instrument flight rules (IFR) to fly direct from Point A to Point B. You may have read in a newspaper or an in-flight magazine that the airlines-which fly only IFR, regardless of the weather-expect significant benefits from this change.
What about general aviation? Well, GA IFR operations should receive the same benefits. But the rest of GA already has "Free Flight"-it's called visual flight rules (VFR). In most areas of the country we can fly directly from our departure airport to our destination, with only minor deviations for prohibited areas, restricted areas, and maybe Class B airspace.
In general the air traffic control system-"the system," for short-was designed to separate IFR aircraft from other IFR aircraft. If you listen to ATC frequencies near a major airport, it may sound like the system exists to serve the airlines, but GA aircraft operating under IFR receive the same level of service. Where radar coverage exists, ATC also provides radar services to VFR traffic on a workload-permitting basis-if the controller isn't too busy handling IFR traffic, he or she will give radar traffic advisories to VFR pilots who request them.
When they're able to, controllers often will do favors for VFR aircraft.
Receiving VFR traffic advisories on a flight from Roanoke, Virginia, to Frederick, Maryland, one afternoon a few years ago, I got an unrequested clearance through the Washington Class B airspace. It was a beautiful day and the controller sounded busy, so I'd decided not to ask-but his favor let me "cut the corner" and proceed direct to my destination.
As a student pilot on my long cross-country flight-back in the days when it was 300 nautical miles, not the current 150-I was circumnavigating the Philadelphia Class B, and the controller helpfully offered a clearance through the airspace. While it would have saved me some time, I had to decline-I didn't have the required endorsement from my flight instructor to legally operate within the Philly Class B. My endorsement for the Baltimore/Washington Class B didn't count.
Flying home to Maryland from Southern Pines, North Carolina, with a pilot friend one beautiful night, we were instructed by Raleigh Approach to reset our transponder to a different code. "Thank you, Raleigh, we really appreciate that," I acknowledged as I dialed in the new code.
"Why did they change our squawk code?" my friend asked.
"The code that the controller first assigned us was an intrafacility code," I explained. "When we got to the end of Raleigh's airspace, we would have heard 'Radar service terminated, squawk 1200, for further advisories try Richmond Approach'-but with this code we'll be handed off, just like an instrument flight."
The controller had done us a favor by entering our flight into the system, and the new transponder code allowed us to be handed off from controller to controller until we had the Frederick airport in sight. If an approach controller ever asks whether you want advisories to your destination, this is what he or she is offering to do. Approach controllers don't always have time to do the extra computer work necessary to fully enter VFR aircraft into the system (although as Pardo notes in his article, there's no harm in asking for what you want-in this case request "advisories to my destination" or "a handoff to the next facility," and the worst you'll hear is "unable, try your request with the next controller.").
One good VFR trick that I learned shortly after earning my private pilot certificate will normally guarantee VFR advisories and handoffs. If it's feasible, make your initial request for VFR traffic advisories with an air route traffic control center (ARTCC) instead of an approach control. At a center, the standard operating procedure is to enter your flight information into the system, which all but guarantees handoffs and continued traffic advisories. In my case I'll do this when I'm flying VFR to the west or northwest, as I'm in Washington Center's airspace within about 15 minutes.
Regardless of whom you initiate VFR traffic advisories with, request them on all your cross-country flights. Your collision avoidance will benefit from the second set of eyes, you'll become more comfortable talking with controllers, and you'll learn more about how the system works-lessons that will be invaluable to you later if you pursue an instrument rating.
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