I would like a clarification about requesting practice approaches.
I have seen pilots at uncontrolled airports shoot practice approaches such as VOR, SDF, etc. without needing approval; obviously.
Am I correct in thinking that a practice approach approval is only required to be explicitly requested when being controlled by ATC via flight following or approach/tower control?
I know this may seem like a silly question, so I will describe a scenario so that readers understand the context of why I am asking a little bit better:
A VFR flight passes through class C airspace, and contacts approach control prior to entering. On the other side of said class C airspace, a few miles out of the boundary line, there is a destination airport where the pilots would like to shoot a practice approach, which is a non-controlled airport outside of the boundaries of "ATC-contact-required" airspace. Do the pilots request a practice approach, or do they request to terminate radar service and then go ahead and shoot the approach?
Maybe the answer lies in the content of the approach depending on whether or not initial fixes or a missed approach segment would lead a flight into "ATC-contact-required" airspace.