Hey all,
I keep an occasional eye on Flight Radar 24, and yesterday I noticed several Air NZ aircraft heading westbound over the Tasman on what could be described as very slow descents. After taking off from NZ and climbing to 35,000ft or so, they then began a very slow descent (about -50 feet per minute) as they crossed the Tasman. Most were at about 25,000ft as they arrived at the Australian coast. Given the strong head winds that were about I am guessing this slow decent helps them keep speed up, but I would be interested to hear from anyone who can tell me more about this procedure.
Cheers, Ants