I was a regular at Milan. I am a regular at Bergamo. I have been a regular at Mexico City, Denver, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Teheran, Bogota (the highest). I know about TAs, TLs and VERY high MSAs, pressure altitudes and density altitudes (and I still get accused of being just a flightsimmer by idiots here!). IMO, the US/Canada does not have it right. I think TAs should be 6-10,000' unless there is a very good local reason not to have that figure. 18,000' is ridiculous when there are no repectable mountains within 1000 miles, so the assumption that the whole world should have 18,000' is absurd. And 250kts below10 doesn't cut it for me. If Mr. Boeing wanted speed restricted to 250, he'd have restricted the aeroplane. We have 313 below 8 on the 757 and red line on the 737. People pay for jet speeds, they give them turboprop movement. If the option is there, go for it- and if the copilot won't, I ask why he is applying his own set of limitations- let's just stick to Mr. Boeing's please.