AMAN is [for me] pathetic.......crew file plan for transatlantic to EGLL and expect [for example] OCKHAM 2F arrival........maybe over Ireland they prebrief for OCK 2F......on first contact with London they are given OCK 2F........about 50 miles out, the frantic panic calls arrive from Terminal Control "switch to BNN 1D".
End of a night shift for me and after an ocean crossing for them.....by the way....the pilots I speak to do NOT want to shuttle around the London TMA from stack to stack at low level, they would prefer a spin or two further out and at a more economical "mid" level.
Is this progress?
These "frantic panic phone calls" as you put it arise from not knowing if we are going to have the levels in OCK until we see what heathrow approach are going to do with them, 3 or 4 may come off with no delay, followed by 2 or 3 with a landing restriction (which we don't find out about until you transfer the plans at Bedek. Then we count back the levels and let you know what levels or to which stack we can accept the next ones.
If the preference in AC is that you would rather spin them around some way back down L9 or for S22, down SW of us, then please disseminate that information to us via your ops department, because we are of the understanding that you would rather give us the traffic than keep hold of it.
I say this as, during the first couple of years after I validated (05/06), S23 and S22 used to throw a fit when we asked to hold out any further inbounds rather than us doing internal stack swaps in the TMA.
There was then heavy pressure put on us from our Group sup's via your LAS' to do as we do now.
I would much rather do it your way, as just saying no more is easier than talking to north, the south atsa, yourselves and the GS to sort out a stack swap for each aircraft.
Agreed Aman is balls though!!