An air carrier captain flying the iad capitol 7 departure heard ATC clear his flight to 'pauki;' a d...

Narrative:

Leaving iad on the capitol 7 departure we were cleared direct 'fluky'; shortly after another controller gave us direct fluky (same clearance) again. We understood direct pauki instead. Shortly after we started our turn to 'pauki' the controller ask us which fix we were flying to; I responded 'pauki'. The controller said we were to far north to go direct 'pauki' so she issued a heading of 190 for a couple miles then cleared us direct 'pauki'. We offered to go back to 'fluky' but she said there was no need! I believe the same clearance was issued twice in a row which created some confusion. The problem was very quickly resolved. I was considering a call to ATC to clarify the clearance when they called us. Query the controller as soon as possible.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Air Carrier Captain flying the IAD Capitol 7 Departure heard ATC clear his flight to 'PAUKI;' a distant intersection; when in fact the clearance was to 'FLUKY' on the SID routing.

Narrative: Leaving IAD on the Capitol 7 departure we were cleared direct 'FLUKY'; shortly after another controller gave us direct FLUKY (same clearance) again. We understood direct PAUKI instead. Shortly after we started our turn to 'PAUKI' the Controller ask us which fix we were flying to; I responded 'PAUKI'. The Controller said we were to far north to go direct 'PAUKI' so she issued a heading of 190 for a couple miles then cleared us direct 'PAUKI'. We offered to go back to 'FLUKY' but she said there was no need! I believe the same clearance was issued twice in a row which created some confusion. The problem was very quickly resolved. I was considering a call to ATC to clarify the clearance when they called us. Query the Controller ASAP.

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	894002
Time
Date	201006
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	IAD.Airport
State Reference	DC
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Dusk
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

An air carrier captain flying the iad capitol 7 departure heard ATC clear his flight to 'pauki;' a distant intersection; when in fact the clearance was to 'fluky' on the SID routing.