"John T" wrote in message
ws.com...
"Jay Beckman" wrote in message
news:gC1Kc.5213$Zr.2840@okepread01

I'd be very suprised if this were the case.

Surprise!

I was just at DCA not too long ago. I sat at my gate for an hour
with a scanner and I didn't hear anything out of the ordinary being
said verbally.

You need to listen in on the PCT approach freqs when the planes check in
after handoff from ZDC. I don't know how the codeword program works (and
I'm not really all the interested in finding out), but you'll hear
something
like:

"Airliner 123, descending to 9000 feet with Lima, gezundheit."

Just to demonstrate that it's not accidental, the controller sometimes
needs
it repeated.

--
John T

Very interesting...it makes sense that it would be farther out on the
approach.

Thanks John.

Jay