Turboprop first officer reports being cleared direct rokit waypoint shortly after takeoff and procee...

Attributes
ACN	996490
Time
Date	201202
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZTL.ARTCC
State Reference	GA
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Beechcraft Twin Turboprop or Jet Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Flight Engineer
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 95 Flight Crew Total 3800 Flight Crew Type 200
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

Narrative:

We took off and contacted departure control. Right away we got a clearance that said: cleared direct rokit. Our flight plan was filed via the rokit 1 arrival into hou; so when the controller said cleared direct rokit; both the captain and I without any doubt thought it was direct to rokit intersection that is in the beginning of the rokit 1 arrival. We fly this arrival every week; and very often get clearance direct rokit. About 30 minutes later; a controller at atlanta center asked if we were going direct to rokit; we said yes; then he said it doesn't look like it. I replied that we were going direct to rokit; a straight line; and that we appeared to be 495 miles from it. I spelled out right O K I T. The controller came back and said; that the [previous] controller must had meant rokit which is rqz VOR; and that apparently was located on the Q route. The controller now asked us to go to aex for the rokit 1 arrival; aex is just one fix before rokit.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Turboprop First Officer reports being cleared direct ROKIT waypoint shortly after takeoff and proceeding direct. Some time later ATC questions the heading and it is discovered that the previous Controller had meant direct Rocket VOR (RQZ).

Narrative: We took off and contacted Departure control. Right away we got a clearance that said: Cleared Direct ROKIT. Our flight plan was filed via the ROKIT 1 arrival into HOU; so when the controller said cleared direct ROKIT; both the Captain and I without any doubt thought it was direct to ROKIT intersection that is in the beginning of the ROKIT 1 arrival. We fly this arrival every week; and very often get clearance direct ROKIT. About 30 minutes later; a Controller at Atlanta Center asked if we were going direct to ROKIT; we said yes; then he said it doesn't look like it. I replied that we were going direct to ROKIT; a straight line; and that we appeared to be 495 miles from it. I spelled out R O K I T. The Controller came back and said; that the [previous] Controller must had meant ROKIT which is RQZ VOR; and that apparently was located on the Q route. The Controller now asked us to go to AEX for the ROKIT 1 arrival; AEX is just one fix before ROKIT.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.

Turboprop first officer reports being cleared direct rokit waypoint shortly after takeoff and proceeding direct. Some time later ATC questions the heading and it is discovered that the previous controller had meant direct rocket VOR (rqz).