Originally Posted by
His dudeness
Are they ? Kindly tell you colleagues in Europe, there is hardly any flight on which we donīt get a "descent rate of 2000 or greater" or something like it. (and I have zero issue with that, just sayin..)
And the read back is bloody standard. I only ever usen "with the given" if we get several step descents in a row without level off and the controller had given us a rate before and does not specify a new rate - its a read back and a query in that case.
Depends which part of Europe, I guess. Regardless it is redundant or at best, really old fashioned. It had its origins in trying to avoid excessive step descents and climbs. Best practice is to have properly designed STARs that eliminate the whole problem, or otherwise or when en route to specify to be at or crossing a level by a place or time. That leaves it up to the pilot as to how they are going to fly their aircraft to achieve such a requirement.
Regarding readbacks - there are so many variations around the world - by both regulation and local practice/culture, the best answer is if it seems like part of a clearance then read it back (concisely).