Originally Posted by
terrain safe
Calling on GMC that you are approaching where you have been told to hold. I know you are, but there is something either in your way, or about to be, so stop wasting RT time.
Just to present the pilot point of view on this one, I take umbrage with this particular piece of advice, the airports I fly into you're cleared to the next point where a potential conflict could arise and 50% of the time if you haven't either been cleared further or informed of the reason for the intermediate hold as you approach said point, we'd come to a stop and wait for a minute or two, only to be then told to continue on to the next point. While I acknowledge some ATCOs are sharper than others we fly with the full mix, we can tell when our presence has surprised you vs when there are specific reasons for our holding position.
If you'd like us not to ask and the frequency isn't too busy, passing the reason why we're stopping at a certain point (traffic crossing, with a slot etc) while clearing us there could avoid unnecessary RT prompts.
Particularly in a heavy it takes a lot of thrust and fuel to get moving again, and can have a noticable impact on brake temps that could all have been avoided by a prompt for further clearance approaching a holding point that would have allowed us to keep it on a roll.