[QUOTE=FZRA;10581318]What an interesting thread....and hopefully a chance to ask some honest questions that quite often crop up on the line.
- Re. speed control. How rapidly are you expecting us to decelerate? The aircraft I fly is USELESS at slowing down with any greater than 1500ft/min VS, even with max spoilers. Quite often the only way to decelerate is to "dive down" to the next assigned level then rely on the speed coming back once level. Or kill the VS to <500ft/min to get rid of energy, then increase the VS again. I presume that you see our actual IAS on Mode-S, as opposed to selected IAS?
Yes, at least at my airport unit, our Mode S shows actual IAS as well as groundspeed (which is handy for getting a feel for the upper winds)... and it feels like crews have stopped lying about their speed now, as it's displayed to us in real time!!! (The only 'selected' parameter normally displayed is Selected Flight Level (or altitude), which is both useful and reassuring).
Very interesting thread... presumably some pilots could start a similar one about us ATCOs and our annoying habits...? Over the years we've had some superb feedback regarding (often) fairly simple things, of which we were unaware, but which can make a big improvement in flight deck workload or SA.