Ranger One-quite true. Even if our system allowed time for a complete readback, there must be time for a "hearback" and a limited workload which allows comprehension.
My observations here are not about BOS-I know next to nothing about it. I've flown only a limited number of times outside the US, but a bit more to Canada, where ATC sounds much less rushed; on occasion into Montreal and Toronto (we had 4 separate approach/arrival controllers there one day), a few times to Edmonton or Winnepeg. The most stressed out controllers I've ever listened to on a fairly regular basis were LAX Approach or Tower controllers several years ago on the wonderful Civet Arrival
. That d@^^ ^ e& approach has no level-off to reduce from 192 to 164 knots for full flaps-and it was difficult for me even with fully extended speedbrakes and flaps 15, but I never was one of the better 757 FOs (especially in Initial Training). They once gave us an EXTRA altitude restriction which was not published, after two or three runway changes!! What an ATC system. I sympathize with many of the comments made by foreign pilots about our "flow control factory" over here.
Although based upon this mostly one-sided background, I wonder whether some traditional procedures developed at US airports, including the very contradictory "maintain 180 until C0ckroach (represents most real estate near major US airports)" is partly a result of both our previous generations of pilots and airline Training/Fleet Standards Departments wanting to be team players. We train one way in the simulator but the US is the Land Of The Real World, and we can not change it, unfortunately. Our simulator training is based upon ATC in a Perfect World, but most of this is vital for good training and checking.
Over here, and even with Air Traffic Control (?), quantifiable results and getting the job done are what count most, if we all feel that it can be somehow done safely (but we must voice concern to the other pilot and ATC if we are uncomfortable with something), by being so flexible that only very partial readbacks to ATC can take place. Several pilots are all now waiting for their turn to click the microphone button, as the next two guys/gals assume the same thing and are ready to block his readback, if not transmitted in just ONE very short partial, condensed readback. And this is with Washington, New York, Boston, Cleveland or Chicago Enroute Centers when the weather is good. How about with Approach control, or when the weather produces a cluster of major thunderstorms? I'm sure glad that I've not been to "La Garbage" (Guardia) or Boston for about a year or more.
I know nothing about the mishap in Boston, but starting many years ago I got so used to being pushed through an always over-saturated ATC system (this means time and space in the eastern US; maybe Stephen Hawking has a phrase for this?) that when I feel the need to change a clearance, it is very difficult to get through to the controller without blocking at least one call from another aircraft, thereby making it at least four times as difficult for the controller, who always has my sympathies-he/she did not create our system. On approach, a pilot who refuses to accept about 170 or 180 knots to the OM or approach Final Segment can feel that he simply can not handle what other pilots can "hack". But these are just my very generalized impressions of many, very typical Great Lakes and East Coast (from northern Florida to North Carolina the enroute situations seem ok in good weather) enroute airspace and approach scenarios at the larger airports. With certain exceptions, the problem is with our ATC system's inherited procedures, certain policies and how controllers are trained and expected to handle the many aircraft in the over-saturated areas. Doesn't each controller have to use standard procedures as with pilots, but be very flexible? To me it still is a mystery how it functions as well as it does. But are there reduced margins of error in the system because pilots try too hard to be team players? Many ATC controllers are retiring soon and must be replaced.
