Whilst on the subject of radio comms I have noticed that some people have there own way of doing things on the radio. When I was going through my ATPL's IFR comms was drilled into us and especially how radio comms should be kept to a minimum (especially in airspace such as London). Perhaps a controller can correct me if I am wrong but the way I understand it is for example: If you are joining London airspace from the French direction and the clearance is descend when ready FL190 by AVANT and this clearance is read back as such there is NO requirement to state when leaving your cruising level and commencing your decent.
In the same sense there is NO requirement to announce when reaching an intermediate cruising level or your final assigned cruising level.
I'm guessing if you are held at an intermediate cruising level for a period of time and there is obviously no conflict - a prompt to the controller doesn't do any harm.
As I understand it the Mode S transponder is a powerful bit of kit and the controllers are more than aware of what we are doing - let’s face it the big picture is right there in front of them.
