Re: Reading "Approved" back
Can't see the difference between "cleared" and "approved" in this case.
No, SYMANTICALLY, there probably isn't, but that's not the point. After Tenerife, a lot of phraseology was changed to reduce potentially catastrophic ambiguity. One of the words found to be at the heart of the problem was 'cleared'. As far as I am concerned, the ONLY use of the word 'clear' and its derivatives now is 'Cleared for takeoff' or 'Cleared to land'. All other uses of the meanings of this word were replaced by other words & phrases i.e. 'pushback approved', 'runway vacated' 'proceed..' etc.
Other changes included 'affirm' instead of 'affirmative' and 'pass your message' instead of 'go ahead'.
As far as we're concerned on the ground, we NEVER have any occasion in a vehicle to use the words 'clear', 'cleared' 'clearance' 'clearing'.
Now, it may well be that far away from any runway and on an entirely different frequency, it doesn't really matter, but personally I think it's better to steer well away from its use except for that very special case, on the runway.
What we're talking about here isn't 'normal' English, it's Aviation English, a very specialist tool.
Cheers,
The Odd One