Larry Dighera wrote:
I heard the following exchange this morning:


ABC-Tower: "Citation-XXX, ABC-Tower."

Citation-XXX: "ABC-Tower, Citation-XXX; say current wind."

ABC-Tower: "Citation-XXX, ABC-Tower, wind 150 at 4."

Citation-XXX: "ABC-Tower, Citation-XXX; is that wind *ZERO* 4?"

silence

Citation-XXX: "ABC-Tower, Citation-XXX; confirm wind *ZERO* 4."

ABC-Tower: "Citation-XXX, ABC-Tower; that's affirmative."


Was the Citation pilot's pedantic request appropriate? Must
controllers prepend a "zero" to single-digit wind speeds?




They should. 04 and 40 are very different directions and radios in
aircraft are notoriously bad so adding the 0 where it is supposed to be
certainly can cut down on mis-communication.