A C172 flight instructor laments being vectored too far off shore by vrb tower without over water eq...

Narrative:

Cleared to takeoff vrb; climb maintain 2000; heading 090??. We climbed out as directed. During our climb; ATC allowed us to climb a few miles off shore at a low altitude. To us; this put us beyond our power off gliding distance to the shore. We then tried to contact tower and request a better heading towards the shore and advise him that we were not equipped to be this far out. He ignored our request and in fact gave us a heading of 100??. This heading put us even further off shore. He then notified us that we were in violation and gave us a number to call miami center upon landing. After we complied with his new instructions; now even further beyond what I was comfortable with; approach then gave us a heading of 180?? And an altitude of 4;000. I then made one final attempt to request a better heading to bring us closer to shore; which was denied. Upon that request; the controller informed us that we were well within gliding distance to the shore. The problem with this is the shore was a crowded beach. This was not a suitable landing point. So; although he may have believed we were within gliding distance of the land; we were not within gliding distance of a suitable landing point that would guarantee no harm to any civilian on the ground. This often is the departure procedure out of this airport and I always have to request a different vector; which is often denied until I am well out of my range of gliding distance to a suitable landing spot. A cessna should not be multiple miles off shore without the proper flotation equipment. I was trying to follow one regulation and it led to the violation of another. As the final authority to the safety of the flight; I believed I was doing the right thing. This departure procedure should be tailored to different category of aircraft. Single engine aircraft have no business being vectored multiple miles out over the atlantic ocean without the proper equipment.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A C172 Flight Instructor laments being vectored too far off shore by VRB tower without over water equipment. The reporter does not see a crowded public beach as a suitable landing point but ATC does not see it this way.

Narrative: Cleared to takeoff VRB; climb maintain 2000; heading 090??. We climbed out as directed. During our climb; ATC allowed us to climb a few miles off shore at a low altitude. To us; this put us beyond our power off gliding distance to the shore. We then tried to contact tower and request a better heading towards the shore and advise him that we were not equipped to be this far out. He ignored our request and in fact gave us a heading of 100??. This heading put us even further off shore. He then notified us that we were in violation and gave us a number to call Miami Center upon landing. After we complied with his new instructions; now even further beyond what I was comfortable with; approach then gave us a heading of 180?? and an altitude of 4;000. I then made one final attempt to request a better heading to bring us closer to shore; which was denied. Upon that request; the controller informed us that we were well within gliding distance to the shore. The problem with this is the shore was a crowded beach. This was not a suitable landing point. So; although he may have believed we were within gliding distance of the land; we were not within gliding distance of a suitable landing point that would guarantee no harm to any civilian on the ground. This often is the departure procedure out of this airport and I always have to request a different vector; which is often denied until I am well out of my range of gliding distance to a suitable landing spot. A Cessna should not be multiple miles off shore without the proper flotation equipment. I was trying to follow one regulation and it led to the violation of another. As the final authority to the safety of the flight; I believed I was doing the right thing. This departure procedure should be tailored to different category of aircraft. Single engine aircraft have no business being vectored multiple miles out over the Atlantic Ocean without the proper equipment.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1247915
Time
Date	201503
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZMA.ARTCC
State Reference	FL
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Climb
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Instructor
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 130 Flight Crew Total 1000 Flight Crew Type 700
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural FAR

A C172 flight instructor laments being vectored too far off shore by vrb tower without over water equipment. The reporter does not see a crowded public beach as a suitable landing point but ATC does not see it this way.