Hi guys,
Heathrow Director - I think you will find the reason pilots react differently to the same weather comes out of experience. I am a co-pilot, so I deal with the kind of diversity all the time - any leeway in the Company SOP's that calls for an opinion, will result in 5 opinions out of 4 Captains. Each guy will assess the threat from weather differently - thats what make it interesting.
I could also probably own up to slight dishonesty with position reports. It is not intentional - you will probably find that the guy passing FL136 is descending at 3000 ft/min = 12 seconds to FL130. I imagine on a busy frequency he is simply taking the gap - he may only get his next word in after leveling off at FL120, so he probably "pushed" it a bit in the hope of further descent.
Expeditedescent - I hear you, I know generally to keep my mouth shut in a busy environment - I am sure you know that we try work out our decent efficiently as possible, so we build very little room for change into the descent profile. Being kept high causes lots of stress(especially for the Captain). Sometimes the reason is not apparent to us(I know, I know - there is method to your madness) - then we start to wonder if we have not been forgotten. Anyway, point taken.
I can't say there's too many ATC things that peeve me. Apart from where the guys have had a bad day and lets you have it.
I think that there should be more training for pilots in the workings of the ATC system, so that we can understand how things are done - this will also allow us to plan better.
Regards
4g
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