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Absolutely. The list of things a controller might tell you at a given point in the flight is actually fairly short. In fact, when they make a call that's out of context for the phase of the flight, you brain struggles to process it!

Case in point, I was transitioning over Teterboro (KTEB) with the intention of doing a scenic flight over the Hudson River. The tower controller said, "say parking" but my brain just couldn't believe it was hearing those words and so I kept asking him to say again, figuring I was not hearing him correctly. When he said it super clearly, the light bulb went on and I said, "we're not landing, we're transitioning eastbound."

Context is very important in the comms and over time, you realize just how few things there are to be said during a given phase of flight.

"cessna 123AB...never mind, disregard."

Unable...

Keith Smith wrote:"fish finder."

Never heard this one before. o_O

jay9909 wrote:

Keith Smith wrote:"fish finder."

Never heard this one before. o_O

It's a humorous reference to TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) displays. Something about traffic in the area resembling the display of an electronic fish finder you'd see on a fishing boat. Not sure how it relates to excess radio traffic though.

Fish finder is a term for TCAS.

So for example:

"United 747, traffic 12 o clock 10 miles a Cessna 172"
"We have him on the fish finder"

Keith Smith wrote:Absolutely. The list of things a controller might tell you at a given point in the flight is actually fairly short. In fact, when they make a call that's out of context for the phase of the flight, you brain struggles to process it!

Case in point, I was transitioning over Teterboro (KTEB) with the intention of doing a scenic flight over the Hudson River. The tower controller said, "say parking" but my brain just couldn't believe it was hearing those words and so I kept asking him to say again, figuring I was not hearing him correctly. When he said it super clearly, the light bulb went on and I said, "we're not landing, we're transitioning eastbound."

Context is very important in the comms and over time, you realize just how few things there are to be said during a given phase of flight.

Lol that's awesome. Sounds exactly like just the sort of thing that would happen to me. It's nice to see that even a pilot with your experience goes through these situations too.