An air carrier captain reported that a pct controller issued two vector clearances that; when compli...

Narrative:

We were on the ojayy one arrival into washington national. The approach controller told us to turn right heading 040 to intercept final. A minute later the controller asked us our heading. I told him we were assigned a 040 heading to intercept final. He freaks out and states that we were supposed to fly a 040 degree heading after ojayy to intercept final. That may very well have been what he wanted us to do; but it certainly was not what he assigned us as a clearance. We are not mind readers. We complied with the clearance he had given us. He barked back for us to make an immediate left turn to a heading of 330 to intercept final (the dca 189 degree radial). I read back the new clearance. I noticed that the dca 189 degree radial was already centered; so I asked if he just wanted us to fly the radial (since the clearance was to make a turn to intercept the radial). He said to standby. A minute later he snapped back asking our heading. I advised that we were tracking the dca 189 degree radial as instructed. He barked back that we were supposed to be on a 330 degree heading. Again; this was not the clearance he gave us. We were following his clearance and advised him of such. He now told us rather rudely and unprofessionally that we were to turn left at 330 degrees and to turn our radios (navigational radios) off; that we were about to enter restricted airspace. We complied with his clearance and turned left to the assigned heading. The whole incident was created by an air traffic controller who seemed to be overwhelmed and was giving out clearances that he didn't want to be followed. Then when we complied with his assigned clearances; he pretended like he never gave them to us. He was rude; unprofessional and had completely lost his composure. He also seemed to possess no short term memory. He definitely needs supervision and additional training.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Air Carrier Captain reported that a PCT Controller issued two vector clearances that; when complied with; caused the Controller to contradict himself and unprofessionally issue additional clearances.

Narrative: We were on the OJAYY ONE arrival into Washington National. The Approach Controller told us to turn right heading 040 to intercept final. A minute later the Controller asked us our heading. I told him we were assigned a 040 heading to intercept final. He freaks out and states that we were supposed to fly a 040 degree heading after OJAYY to intercept final. That may very well have been what he wanted us to do; but it certainly was not what he assigned us as a clearance. We are not mind readers. We complied with the clearance he had given us. He barked back for us to make an immediate left turn to a heading of 330 to intercept final (the DCA 189 degree radial). I read back the new clearance. I noticed that the DCA 189 degree radial was already centered; so I asked if he just wanted us to fly the radial (since the clearance was to make a turn to intercept the radial). He said to standby. A minute later he snapped back asking our heading. I advised that we were tracking the DCA 189 degree radial as instructed. He barked back that we were supposed to be on a 330 degree heading. Again; this was not the clearance he gave us. We were following his clearance and advised him of such. He now told us rather rudely and unprofessionally that we were to turn left at 330 degrees and to turn our radios (navigational radios) off; that we were about to enter restricted airspace. We complied with his clearance and turned left to the assigned heading. The whole incident was created by an Air Traffic Controller who seemed to be overwhelmed and was giving out clearances that he didn't want to be followed. Then when we complied with his assigned clearances; he pretended like he never gave them to us. He was rude; unprofessional and had completely lost his composure. He also seemed to possess no short term memory. He definitely needs supervision and additional training.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	880892
Time
Date	201003
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	DCA.Airport
State Reference	DC
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Flight Engineer Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 285 Flight Crew Total 20000 Flight Crew Type 3500
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

An air carrier captain reported that a pct controller issued two vector clearances that; when complied with; caused the controller to contradict himself and unprofessionally issue additional clearances.