On one of my first IFR flights, my filed route ended JFK‑COL‑KBLM but Clearance told me to drop the Colts Neck VOR (COL) and go direct KBLM after JFK. Later, passing over JFK, I made my turn direct to KBLM as cleared. This was my last waypoint, so as I made this final turn towards KBLM, I proudly noted to myself that I hadn’t made any mistakes and had sounded like a seasoned instrument pilot for the whole flight. At this exact moment the extremely busy controller, seeing which direction I was heading said with a hint of annoyance: “N225VT feel free to turn towards Colts Neck VOR whenever you’re ready.”
I realized he must have gotten the original route, not the cleared route. I did not want to take up too much air time with my reply so I simply said: “Approach, they took that out,” thinking they would know what I meant … Approach having no idea what I meant said with an even bigger hint of annoyance: “Yeah. They decommissioned the VOR but you can still use a GPS to get there. Now how about you make that turn?”
It wasn’t worth taking up valuable air time to explain so I just complied and figured I’d learn to live with the bruised ego of my perfect flight having a glitch!
Michael Rose
Wall, New Jersey
