Gents
Strict adherance to SOP to save 50kg of fuel disregarding any other users of the sky seems unreasonable to me regardless of how many sectors you fly per day/week/year.
Found myself behind an A319 at AGP the other day who was back at 180knts at 20 odd miles "Because it was SOP to be at that speed when on the Loc"
I remember getting moaned at before RVSM for hogging a mid thirties level in a light jet at M.66 you cant have it both ways.
Fly as slow as you like just make it known to ATC that you are happy to move over and delay your approach to let faster traffic by............now we all know thats not going to happen but you could help the air picture by advising air traffic your speed on transition at TOD faster guys can then do the same.
Not all aircraft you chaps share the sky with are bothered about saving 50kg, never mind 50kg on somebodys elses a/c. Those who say it only saves 2 or "x" mins comparing 295 to 250 should put the OM down and smell the coffee, add in additional vectoring and the greater ground covered at the higher speed which then needs to be made good at a slower speed when we get the late "slow down" call with vectors and it can be 10-12 mins .....happened 2 weeks ago.
A perfectly fair and admittedly unrealistic analogy might be to imagine a fleet of kingairs getting in the way of your desired speeds and making you regularly slow down to 210 from your 250 and you might begin to understand peoples frustrations.
Not as passionate about it as BabeMagnet but understand that you are inflicting your will on others for whom flight time is still paramount over £70 quids worth of fuel (my fuel not yours) who still have yet to be hogtied by restrictive SOP's that IMHO replace airmanship safety with SOP safety who's reason d'etre are there to account for the lowest common denominator in terms of decision making and to reduce insurance premiums [[rant mode:off]]
Last edited by G-SPOTs Lost; 3rd Sep 2008 at 23:29.