Light Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 80; Flight Crew Total 10000; Flight Crew Type 2200
Communication Breakdown; Confusion
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Environment - Non Weather Related; Weather; Procedure; Human Factors; Airspace Structure
ATC Center Controller gave us rapid fire reroute. Spelled out fixes faster than an auctioneer. He said PADDE; I thought he said PADDY. When I selected and checked relative position (the does it make sense rule) with the weather east it look plausible. I then advised the pilot flying it looked good. He said okay execute direct. This provided a right turn of about 30 degrees. In about 5 minutes the Controller asked for the heading. I reponded 130. He said you should be heading around 090; fly heading 090. I started investigating; he asked are you PADDY yet. I told him standby. Then asked him to clarify phonetic of PADDE. Called him back and declared now direct PADDE. He was a bit rude about the whole thing. He didn't consider that he was oversaturated and was speaking in tones that were so rushed he was difficult to understand. Next time this happens I will ask for initial vectors; look it up on the chart and ask him to verify. Won't go direct until I am sure.
The Reporter stated that he has limited familiarity with navigation fixes in that area and so after the re-route was very busy. He first had to locate the fixes; then insert them into the FMS. Given that the east coast thunderstorms resulted in numerous ATC east bound re-routes; he consider PADDY a reasonable weather re-route fix for his northeastern destination. He first looked at the inserted FMS route on the HSI for heading guidance then switched to the map mode. He did not remember the distance to the PADDY but it did not seem excessively divergent. He would suggest that in the future ATC specify PADDE with an 'E' when issuing that clearance.
A corporate pilot reported that after departing a Chicago area airport; an airborne weather reroute included PADDE intersection; but PADDY was inserted in the FMC. The track deviation was detected by ATC who then clarified the fix's spelling.