"Going for the Visual"

I've done that when I missed the name of the facility I was being handed off
to.

One time I missed the name of the facility, but my copilot did not. As he
was flying and I was working the radios, I asked him repeatedly the name,
but I thought he was trying to play a joke on me.

Being my first time flying through central North Carolina, I wasn't familiar
with an approach facility named Seymour Johnson. Keep in mind that my help
was from a guy who on occasion files flight plans under the name of "Ben
Dover".

"Roy Smith" wrote in message
...
Ray Andraka wrote:
I've had the same experience. I usually check in with something like
"Approach, Cherokee 3351W, level five thousand, information papa."

To change the topic a bit...

I've been flying lately with somebody who tends to leave off the "who
you're talking to" part of radio calls. He would make the above call as
simply, "Cherokee 3351W, level five thousand, information papa". It
drives me nuts, but the more I think about it, I wonder if it's really a
problem?

What do you controllers say? Do you like to have every pilot call you
by name at the beginning of each call, or is it just extraneous verbiage
that could be dropped with no harm done?