From the other side of the world it is interesting to hear the many opinions that are in fact very similar to that elsewhere.
I believe that many of the R/T 'problems' that we have are the result that we are still hanging onto much of the R/T garbage that evolved from morse code and procedures of days gone by. Much of the ICAO procedures today are outdated and many countries use their own variation of those recommendations and in some cases make it worse.
Why on earth do we still read back the QNH?
Why should you report level passing on an enroute frequency change in a radar-identified environment? (does your transponder fail on changing frequencies?? )
Why should you repeat a heading (or any other instruction)on a frequency change if there has been no change to the instructions? (must be a UK'ism!) assigned level or altitude is fine, but that should be it - some pilots and controllers must be talking for the sake of it!
Why even do we read back as much as we presently do?
Entering the hold! Who else does that? (unless asked)
Many of the answers to these and other questions are lost in history and we only do it because that is the way it has always been done. Over the years, many words have been added but I doubt if many have been removed. Many controllers even contribute to the problem by giving instructions that need a read back when in fact the instruction may have already been given or it perhaps is not necessary at that time. And of course there are the pilots that don't know what to read back and when, so they blindly read everything back (gee I hate that). No point in reading it back unless you know what you are reading back and why?
When the traffic levels get high as they do in Europe and North America, the whole system is likely to fall apart because of the tradition of using outdated R/T calls and many unnecessary readbacks. Any wonder why many pilots in the US cut the words back.
Sure the bottom line is clear and concise communication and that should over-ride everything else, but I believe there is certainly a better way to do it. The whole package should be revised to reflect current practice and traffic levels in the 21 century.
Given that it takes ICAO around seven years to process any changes and nobody goes into bat for the greater good, it will only be fixed when we are all on data link. See what happens to your situational awareness then!
