Originally Posted by
pineteam
I wish I had time to watch out the windows in Mainland lol. I think you need to understand the workload of flying in China combined with our very strict SOP on altitude selection; it’s impossible as PM you won’t miss the “1000 to go” once in a while. A flight to mainland you get easily 20 altitude changes in a very busy airspace and high workload. When we get an altitude clearance, the PF must wait for the PM to read back to ATC then the PF will announce the altitude and set on the FCU and point at it. then the PM must point at the FCU and announced “confirmed”. Only then the PF will use the FCU and read FMA and finally the PM will call “checked”. That process takes times. In China, ATC expects you to climb or descent at 2000 feet/min or more most of time. You get alt* before 1000 to go call out. Sometimes you only climb or descend 1000 feet. So by the time the PF reads the FMA and I checked and announced “checked”. ATC will call us again right when it’s time to call 1000 to go. Oh and we fly in meters and sometimes in QFE in military airports. So every time we need to convert the meters into feet using a chart and another chart for QFE when applicable; And the fact ATC speaks in mandarin and a lot does not help either. In my outfit there is no requirement for the PF to announce it if the PM misses it. It’s really not the priority considering how busy it is.There is a reason why captains get ones the the highest salary working for mainland carriers. The workload is much higher than anywhere else I flew. Every time I fly out of China it feels like vacation. I don’t fly for a mainland carrier; I only did wet lease for one of them.
Today I flew to Beijing and we got these altitude clearance: 1200m, 2700m, 3300m 3600m , 5100m, 6000m, 6300m 8100m, 8900m, 9200m, 10100m and 11300m. Then for descent: 10700m, 10100m, 6300m, 5700m, 5400m, 4500m, 2700m, 2400m and finally 1200m.
As others have already said, there are several reasons for calling the "1000 to go"
I personally fly to China 3/4 times per month so i know well what you mean with staggered climb or descent..nevertheless i will call the 1000 to go in case the PM misses it.