Standard Speeds
The environment: TMA arrival to radar vectors.
Most STARs have speed limit points. What are they there for?
Here is my interpretation. Its the Pilots job to fly at an appropriate speed to join a hold or get the aircraft around any other procedural work, not withstanding that I'm sure people sometimes mess it up and take up half the sky with a 300 Kt hold join.
Surely if ATC want us at a particular speed, they would just tell us. But in a busy TMA RT utilisation is critical. Therefore publish 'standard speed control' to get everyone at roughly suitable speed for sequencing and save RT workload.
Is this assumption on my part correct?
The reason I ask is that I seem to fly with ever increasing numbers of colleagues who habitually want to maintain high speed. Hence, when they are the non handling pilot they either ask ATC (without me asking) whether the speed control applies to us today. When it is their sector they ask me to ask ATC.
Now, obviously maintaining high speed for a while might be suitable, e.g. when things are obviously quiet and we are on a straight in, but what I feel is inappropriate is the habitual asking of 'does the speed control apply today'.]
The reasons I feel it is inappropriate are twofold.
Firstly, if my assumption above is correct, then what should be an RT saving measure actually becomes counterproductive.
Secondly, most of the time it doesn't get us there any quicker. When we land is a function of our place in the sequence. If we fly faster at the beginning we'll either just get put under more speed control earlier in the intermediate approach, or we'll get sent further down wind before meeting our gap in the approach stream. In which case more track miles at higher speed equals a double whammy of extra fuel burn.
And yet so many of my colleauges seem to think that maintaining high speed in the arrival is invariably a good thing that I'm starting to wonder whether I'm missing something!
To be honest I almost wish to hear 'does the speed control apply to us?' met with something like 'Of course, since I haven't told you anything different'.
So tell me, controllers, do you ever sit there and think something like that but not say it? Do you think us asking wastes RT? Does it make your blood boil? Or does it not bother you?
Basically I'd like to be offer firmer guidance to my colleagues, and would appreciate the controllers point of view.
CPB