ISaidRightTurns>
Without any offence to US controllers, jusk asking...
I think plenty of us cannot imagine how you manage to separate those huge amounts of aircraft without assigning vertical speed. It seems almost impossible looking at "standard" European radar situation.
Some of the instructors who work at the training center here in the Czech Rep. (German, Swedish, and other) also think that rates of climb/descend are nowadays being overused. However, I haven't heard a satisfactory explanation of "how to do it without it" from them - could you give us some insight on this?
MunichACC>
By the way - I hope I am not mistaken but I think ICAO only allows to assign vertical speeds if the aircraft are on the same route, i.e.
- A/C1 descend FL240 rate 1500 ft/min or greater
- A/C2 descend FL250 rate 1500 ft/min or less
However, in reality it is normally used as a means of ensuring separation on crossing tracks (to get a climber above an overflight or so).
How come? :-)