Coming back from Oshkosh, we air-filed an IFR flight plan to easily get across Canada en route to the Northeastern U.S. It was a simple direct and we expected to get a bunch of airways when we picked up the actual clearance over Michigan. We were pleasantly surprised to get, “Cleared as filed.” But it didn’t last more than five minutes:
Saginaw Approach: “Seven Two Zero Echo Charlie, I have a routing amendment for you when you’re ready to copy.”
Us (all three in the airplane rolling our eyes): “Seven Two Zero Echo Charlie is ready to copy.”
Approach: “Seven Two Zero Echo Charlie, amend routing to read direct Peck, then as filed.”
Us (pleasantly surprised again): “OK. Direct Peck, then as filed. Zero Echo Charlie.”
Wiseass in the backseat: “Hey, they could have given us a bushel of changes, but instead we got a peck!”
We thought about asking him to step outside after that.
Larry Anglisano
Hartford, Conn.
