L337, like my colleague says we had alot of short notice this afternoon for holding out, not the TMA's fault, weather was causing a few problems and holding for LHR was around the 25 min plus mark for nearly all the afternoon which isn't that usual anymore for such long sustained periods. Added to this, bunching from the French was higher than usual and it just made a difficult afternoon. We need min clean as early as possible as holding at TIGER isn't that common and can cause knock on effects and high workloads which we naturally try to avoid. Unfortunately our French colleagues won't agree to transferring LHR traffic at a set lower level all the time so we have to accept you at whatever level you are cruising at unless other traffic dictates a level change is necessary.
In the situation you had, I would always say plan on the level restrictions on the STAR chart. They aren't just to get you down, they ensure separation against other routes and other sectors RELY on you being level by a certain point. If a speed restriction means you cannot make a level restriction then let us know ASAP. We can only guess you MAY make them, only you know the exacts. It is quite surprising at how different a/c can perform on the same route, all get the same instructions but the results can be very varied. We know low speed means low descent rates (we teach with the phrase "you can't slow down and go down" often), but we can issue some instructions that are met without any seen problem so can only try with all a/c types assuming any non-able to comply is told to us. Basically its one of those situations we really need you to work well with us as, even if the RTF doesn't sound it, a lot more hard work and planning is going on making sure all flights are still soundly safe.
Maybe its yet another call to get ATCO's back in the cockpit more so we can broaden our knowledge, I wouldn't mind seeing what Mauritius looks like this time of year when the rain is tumbling down on the centre......
