Originally Posted by
le Pingouin
How many times am I told by an international heavy that they can't possibly lose 5 minutes from 250 miles out when I know they'll lose 4 minutes on profile? Regularly. Or they're early and when asked their speed the response is "280" or "300"? Again, a regular occurrence.
I’m regularly one of those annoying “International heavies” that can’t possibly lose 5 mins inside 250 miles, if you want to make a broken system worse, then continuously doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is merely insanity.
From a piloting perspective I prefer the UK, USA, NZ..pretty much everywhere else in the developed world way of doing things compared to Australia..why does it need to be so difficult?
If we use MEL as an example, there are plenty of comparable airports in the UK and Europe with the same mix of fast and slow traffic that seem to do just fine and are infinitely more simple to operate into, Hamburg being one off the top of my head.
Last time into LHR we got told 10 minutes from TOD, plan on conversion 280kts 15 minutes of holding at Lambourne..easy peasy and with an expectation of an onward clearance for the approach.
As for speeds on the arrival, everyone I fly with fly the published speeds unless unable.which is communicated or requested, but please don’t bleat at me when you ask for min clean and for me that’s 235-240kts, which is 20-30kts faster than the minibuses or baby Boeing’s you are used too.