Originally Posted by
weasil
no I get his point. I just interpret the controllers words differently than he does. This is the problem with nonstandard worldwide phraseology, we hear the same words and get a different meaning sometime. I don’t think she did want him to keep climbing. I think she was trying to explain to him the difference between climb via and climb via except... clear as mud?
Well, I got the idea that after he asked for clarification, she said she meant to instruct him to climb to FL230. But who knows, you may be right. The main thing though is that we're all in agreement that once a controller says "climb via the SID, except maintain XXXXX", the SID's charted top altitude is no longer in play and XXXXX becomes the "top altitude". Cheers!