Ok so I went in this morning, bad weather. I walked into Bossman's office and sait down and told him he was full of sh!t. He grinned and asked me what the definition of Class D airspace was. I told him it had to have a control tower and was 2500AGL and 4nm of the airport. He then asked me about Class C. I told him that.

Next he asked me who controls me inside of class C. I told him approach control. Correct. He said, "So if Approach handles you in class C then where does the tower handle you?" He said if it has a control tower the airport itself is class D. Approach control and higher restrictions make the airspace around it Class C but the airport itself is class D. That is the area inwhich the tower controls you. So you could do pattern work there and never have to talk to approach. Before leaving that area you are then handed off to approach. He said it isn't depicted on the map because a pilot only cares about the more restrictive airspace. Should approach go down the airport would only have the tower left which would mean the class D is still up and running. I told him no several times but after reading through the regs I have yet to find something to contradict him. Also there doesn't appear to be a reg reguarding the physical dimensions of Class D itself. It's in a few FAA books but no reg that i've found yet.