"Jay Masino" wrote

My instrument instructor taught me to *not* readback the transponder code.
The act of dialing it in *is* your response. In a high volume area with a
lot of radio traffic, it saves radio bandwidth. That said, I often read
the squawk back as I'm dialing it in... especially when I'm about to
enter the Washington ADIZ.

I think it's a good idea to read it back along with your aircraft ID. It
tells the controller which aircraft is responding to which instruction -
important especially when there are aircraft on the freq with similar tail
numbers. Besides, it takes a whole 2 seconds if you do it right.

2007 Cessna 81Z - doesn't take any longer to say than "wilco Cessna 81Z", it
contains more info, and provides a certain level of cya value.

My .02 worth...