250 Knots:
Have you ever experienced Spanish ATC from the front end (where the windows are)?
I have.
It started in 1962 when I was on my way south to Ascension Island and we called into Las Palmas on the way south. I was quite astonished to see a whole bunch of Buchons (Me109s) and Spanish-built He-111s get airborne.
I was totally fascinated. This was history in motion.
In many ways, things have not changed very much.
Spanish ATC have always been "interesting" and, I suspect, some of them are still in the Buchon era.
I can remember some 40 years later going into ZAZ one morning with a new F/O. When we got down town and got a beer in our hands, he told me a fantastic ZAZ story.
He was flying a Bandeirante with his previous company and was inbound to ZAZ one night when his problems started with an engine fire. His Mayday did not get too many people's attention.
Things got better, he then had an electrical failure etc. etc. etc. No radios.
He landed on 30L at ZAZ in the middle of the night (almost deadstick) which, those of you who are familiar, 30L was a standby skid strip for the space shuttle.
Just as he was breathing a huge sigh of relief for having got himself and his aeroplane on the ground in extremely difficult circumstances, the locals almost had him locked up for landing on a "military runway" despite the fact that the next scheduled space shuttle launch was not for about 60 days and the Spanish Air Force used 30R anyway.
I suppose that when you are paid €800,000 per annum and accept that a shouting match within the ATC centre is quite normal (as per the video) then there is little room for conversation.
What is the Spanish phrase for "common sense"?