G-VATCO
I agree with you there, its annoying too when you have leveled off aircraft and just as the blips merge, one pilot calls "XXX123 is clear of the traffic". I have been known to reply sarcastically a curt "No you're not", or "You just fly your aircraft, I'll worry about the air traffic" (if I have been having a particularly bad day).
As an aside - I have been told that pilots on some airlines are instructed through company SOPs to report approaching a cleared level, when climbing to an intermediate, non cruise level.
Pilots in the London TMA on first contact with radar calling "London ABC123"; sometimes you don't even get the 'London' bit. Give us all the info!! (All airlines are guilty of this, LOCOs are no worse than flag carriers in my opinion, and it seems to be getting worse recently in the London TMA)
Also, there's no use squawking ident as you switch from tower to radar frequency then happily telling me you are doing so. Your ident has to be in response to my instruction to properly identify you by the book..... therefore you will have to do it again - so it's not because I am not listening properly if I do instruct you to ident!
Approaching a Heathrow/Gatwick/Stansted or Luton stack when the controller is obviously busy - if you have not been told otherwise,
HOLD!! You should ideally be told specifically to hold and given the sort of delay to expect, but sometimes it's not possible due RT congestion.... so don't make it worse by asking what you should do on reaching LAM/WILLO/ABBOT..... you follow your clearance, which is to the hold!
Although some things (like initial calls) seem to be becoming more slack where I work, in general, the standard of airmanship is very high
