spitoon
Depends on the phraseology used.....the only circumstances that I'm aware of whereby the pilot would have been correct would be if you told him to "resume flight planned route" in which case he would fly the most direct way to his flight planned route.
However I assume you didnt say that and you told him "resume own navigation direct...." and that to me is as plain as night is dark that he should take up a direct track (not heading
) to the aforementioned waypoint.
Of course it might be the case as mentioned by Lon (check your pms by the way Lon
) that the pilot was an old gi...er I mean guy, and was following old procedures.
WCollins
The phraseology you mentioned will not be found in any manual, the correct way to say it is simply "continue present heading", and should stop the aircraft from deviating from his track for any reason, eg turn over a navaid, slight deviation due weather, a look at the coastline, whatever.....It means for the time the aircraft is locked on heading ATC is in control of the direction of flight, and we can therefore base separation on this.