Perhaps the Citation guy simply thought it might be "one four";
hearing only "four" he thought he missed the first digit and wanted to
confirm. No big deal.

"LD" == Larry Dighera writes:

LD I heard the following exchange this morning: ABC-Tower:
LD "Citation-XXX, ABC-Tower."

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

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

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

LD silence

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

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


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



--
I spent thirty-three years in the marines, most of my time being a
high-class muscle man for big business, for Wall Street and the
bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.
~ General Smedley Butler, Marine