I'm flying from TPL to ACT by myself tomorrow to do my 3 touch & gos at a towered airport. It says that Fort Worth center is the controlling agency. The flight is about 29 nautical miles (15 minutes). Do I have to talk to Fort Worth first, or can I go straight to Waco (ACT) approach after I take off from TPL? TPL is a non-towered airport by the way.

No need to talk to Center unless you want flight following.

I would not bother contacting FW Center unless you want flight following - which with all this weather and crap lately, is not a bad idea. There seems to be a lot of traffic at Waco lately.....I'll be shooting approaches in there later today maybe I'll catch ya on the radio!

OK, so just go directly to Waco approach?

Yup.
"Waco Approach, [tail number] is X miles to the [wherever], at [whatever altitude], inbound for pattern work with information [ATIS]."
They'll give you your transponder code and you're good to go.
Wham, bam, thank you ma'am!

yo POPA, that is one bad@$$ avatar....

"that's a question you should ask yourself Megatron"
(for those of us who saw the original movie back in 86)

sorry to hijack the thread, just had to comment

yeah when i flew from hearne to Waco I just switched to Waco Approach...