Heh, heh, first time I heard that, I answered, "OK, I request my
clearance". The tower guy, knowing he had a new guy, patiently
explained that what that phrase meant was, he had requested my
clearance from ATC and would give it to me as soon as he received it.
I'm not stupid, and neither are you, if you haven't heard this
experession before, it's not suprising you don't understand it. The
phrase is ambiguous. Of course if you have heard it before, and know
what it means, it is no longer ambiguous. I had another one, "Cleared
CRUISE 4000' to (waypont) (or something like that). I didn't know what
to do with that one either. One thing is, clearances can't be
ambiguous, we pilots need to be certain what is being said, so we know
what to do with the plane. Unfortunately, the only way to clear it up,
is to ask, which, admittadly makes the asker look like a dummie. One
thing about life, we all look like dummies from time to time. Maybe
the best response would be, "lets see, there is a coffee spill on the
section of the AIM that explains that phrase, maybe you could help me
out here". I call it my coffee spill response.

(Paul Tomblin) wrote in message ...
In a previous article, Roy Smith said:
"Clearance, Cessna xxxx, IFR to where-ever."

"Cessna xxxx, clearance on request."
[snip]
"I'd like my clearance now."

You can imagine how the conversation went downhill from there :-)

Knowing the controllers I've encountered, they'd just repeat "clearance on
request", forever and ever, never explaining what it means no matter how
puzzled you sounded.