Short Final

Sunday, February 04, 2007 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

A young private pilot, flying a Piper Six Seven Romeo, requested flight following from Air Traffic Control (Center).
When prompted for standard flight information (location, altitude, and destination), the pilot struggled to respond, only providing "San Antonio" after a long pause.
Due to the pilot's inability to provide the requested details, Center instructed them to call back once they had figured out their location and destination.

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En route from San Antonio to Kerville, Texas, I let my 19-year-old private-pilot-rated daughter run the radios:

Piper Six Seven Romeo: Center, Piper Six Seven Romeo.

Center: Piper Six Seven Romeo, go ahead.

Piper Six Seven Romeo: Request flight following.

Center: Piper Six Seven Romeo, state your location, altitude, and destination.

Piper Six Seven Romeo: [After a long pause] Uh, San Antonio.

Center: [After pause] Piper Six Seven Romeo, when you figure out where you are and where you want to go, give us a call back.