Originally Posted by
Five Green
Easy sweet pea. Flight crew fly to airports all over the globe (as I am sure you are aware) so rather than saying that something happens far to often, maybe stop and think that there might be a reason ? Most airports transfer a/c on to tower at about the same time ( 1500'-2000' feet on the glide slope) so if you are holding them longer than the norm then you will get questioned as flight crew start to squirm, because guess what ATC occasionally drop the ball too !
Also many flight crew may not have been to Hong Kong in years. They may be tired as well so have a little sypathy as I have for the pressures you are under.
I am not sure that I want to be cleared to land by approach !
Regarding speed restrictions, it happens quite often that you are maintining the speed asked for and getting in to high and hot and want to slow down when all the while the speed was not required. So again the flight crew are getting skittish. maybe the initial speed restriction should have an expected end point ie maintinan 250 to 15 dme...to limes (yeah right ) or something.
Cheers
I was tired when I posted my rant - so unreserved apologies for being so hard. I stand by my points however.
A better way for 69 or other crews to go is to state their callsign and distance from touch down - this avoids a loaded question and sticks to the facts. It also leads the controller to a simple - but not necessarily pleasurable:-) '... roger' as a suitable reply or to assess the separation and transfer to TWR if appropriate. Sometimes the way we say a thing makes a big difference. And added advantage is it allows a cross check between navaid, radar, nav equip on the range from touchdown.
If APP issue a landing clearance they do it on ADC's behalf - ADC will have applied the same criteria to their decision as they would if they passed it directly to the a/c themselves and then told APP - who then pass it to the a/c for ADC. I can't see a problem with that - it must surely be better than a late freq change and rushed clearance. Many clearances are passed on behalf of others in all ATC systems everywhere all the time - for example when crossing FIR or ATC sector boundaries a/c do it on a clearance from the receiving FIR or sector but passed by the transferring sector. If you have and emergency then APP keeping you will avoid a freq change when your workload is high. In bad wx with many missed approaches keeping a/c and passing landing clearances may also be the better way the manage the traffic.
I can only speak for myself on the speeds - I avoid hot high and issue appropriate speeds based on many years of ATC experience here and abroad. I base my final issued speed on the published procedural approach speeds and don't issue speeds above 210 that would apply on the glide. I have witnessed some of the less experienced ATC here issuing inappropriate speeds and I'm with you regarding that. But sometimes I do get it wrong or can't get in to make a change in time - I'm human like us all.
tolosweetpea