I am a bit confused now. Didn’t you suggest just few months ago to change the rules to reduce top-down coverage to solve exactly the same problem here?
If they are too busy to handle a secondary airport, they should either drop all services there
I agree, but how would we achieve that? I believe because of the top-down rule, it’s forbidden to start flying at such an airport. And they’re not going to grant any permission there, because they’re extremely busy: sometimes cannot even handle an initial call, because it’s just constant communication for 20 minutes. They’ll not look at a chat in such busy times, and there is no time to even ask for any permission in voice, because then there is parallel communication (blocking), and they’ll give priority to airliners in the air.
I do believe that the controller adheres to the rules if they don’t even acknowledge any communication in this case, because there is a priority, and there are top-down rules. The only way to solve this problem is to change the top-down rules slightly.
connect while flying. Yes, you can.
I don’t think this is the solution. It’s even better then to not connect at all, if the only other option is to connect halfway through the flight.
Even then, you cannot guarantee that there is an uncontrolled airspace on the route. What if the airspace is still the responsibility of the tower? In that case APPROACH or CENTER 's responsibility to control that part, and that would probably be frowned upon, even if there is no aircraft in the vicinity of that airport.
Also, isn’t this the official rule: Getting Started ? It specifically asks you to connect while being at a gate or stand.