Air carrier captain reported clt tower took an unusually long time to switch them to departure; so h...

Narrative:

After takeoff from clt; I waited an unusually long time for tower controller to switch over to departure control. Tower was busy speaking with other aircraft making it impossible to query whether I should contact departure control. I became concerned about safety of my flight and contacted departure control myself without direction from tower. All was well for several minutes and then departure control informed me that it is clt procedure to keep departing aircraft on tower frequency longer than normal and I should plan accordingly. I apologized; but could not find any guidance for this procedure. Not flying into clt often; I was unaware of this procedure and tower speaking with other aircraft at length did not allow me the opportunity to query. Should be a note listed in ops procedures about clt departure procedures.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier Captain reported CLT Tower took an unusually long time to switch them to Departure; so he switched himself. Departure informed him it is standard for CLT Tower to keep aircraft on frequency longer than usual.

Narrative: After takeoff from CLT; I waited an unusually long time for tower controller to switch over to departure control. Tower was busy speaking with other aircraft making it impossible to query whether I should contact departure control. I became concerned about safety of my flight and contacted departure control myself without direction from tower. All was well for several minutes and then departure control informed me that it is CLT procedure to keep departing aircraft on tower frequency longer than normal and I should plan accordingly. I apologized; but could not find any guidance for this procedure. Not flying into CLT often; I was unaware of this procedure and tower speaking with other aircraft at length did not allow me the opportunity to query. Should be a note listed in ops procedures about CLT departure procedures.

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	1481109
Time
Date	201709
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	CLT.Airport
State Reference	NC
Environment
Light	Dusk
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Large Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Air carrier captain reported clt tower took an unusually long time to switch them to departure; so he switched himself. Departure informed him it is standard for clt tower to keep aircraft on frequency longer than usual.