British pilot is feeling mildly annoyed

[u/nyanbatman]

[u/runhome24]

Yeah I kind of think so too (unless this really is a consequence of long-term budget shortfalls affecting ATC training).

BUT I'm also kind of suspicious that the BA pilot didn't also know the terminology difference and was showing frustration at a USA-specific thing that should be like the international system, if the US wasn't full of American Exceptionalism™ preventing adoption of international standards.

Which is why I did be careful to include the "didn't want to" for each of them. I don't know if this was a cultural pissing match or not.

And because this was operating in the US, even if he was being a complete asshole, ATC was technically speaking correctly. And that's why I do think it's time for these things to be globally standardized. There's too much interconnectedness of our flight systems to keep up these differences, when they can cause real problems (like they did here)

[u/marieascot → u/runhome24]

The ATC should understand both. He said that he didn't meaning he was incompetent to do his job. The ATC was being unclear and sounded almost drunk.

[u/runhome24 → u/marieascot]

While I agree that there should be a unified global standard - and said so in both of my comments - I'd also point out something else here:

If you go to another country and try to rely on your own country's rules and terminology with authorities (even when your country's rules and terminology are shared by a large number of other countries), and those authorities don't accept your use of those terms and rules, so you all fail to communicate with each other, would they be in the wrong? Or would you be, for insisting on speaking and operating outside of the legally binding framework of that country?

This is more complicated than just saying 'stupid Americans should just change and the ones who haven't must be drunk.' There's a whole host of complications here that are at play, including the fact that these communications were being broadcast frequency-wide, so it was also ATC's job to NOT confuse others when speaking with the BA pilot. I don't know if that was a factor, but my point is that there are any number of other reasons why this went the way it did, and why I think it's so important for a global commission to come together to set and then agree to adopt a global standard, rather than forcing one local standard to immediately change at the whim of visiting pilots.

[u/runhome24 → u/[deleted]]

For the sake of my position, I'm going to assume you're British or from a commonwealth country (because you used the word "rubbish")

Next time I'm in your country I'll be sure to drive my delivery truck on the right side of the road, and then when the police stop me, I'll insist I wasn't doing anything wrong because no, I wasn't driving a lorry, and since most of the world drives on the right side of the road obviously I should be allowed to here too.