Clearence available upon request

In a previous article, Jeff said:
This one kinda stumps me everytime I am told this.
Call tower, request your IFR clearence, they tell you "taxi to runway
xxx - clearence available upon request"

what I always do is just read back the taxi instructions and wait for
them to call me back with the clearence. I guess I dont understand why
they say "available upon request" when I just requested it.

I never understand why they phrase it that way either, since it seems to
mean that they've requested it, but don't have it yet. But since they
told you to taxi, you should taxi - they probably figure that the computer
will spit out your clearance by the time you get to the runway.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
I forsee one of those "open your wallet and repeat after me,
_help yourself_" moments in your local friendly workshop.
-- Tanuki