Thanks guys. Very helpful thread... You have to love the Internet!
"Getting our oar in early" comes fairly high up the priority list after takeoff actually as we are aware that the longer you leave it the more likely you are to get stuffed.
It gets even more complicated coming out of the far east. We have to look at who is leaving around our time, who transits the airspace as we are leaving and try to work out whether to go for an economical flight level, or go for a tactically higher level on the basis that the bl@@dy A340 in front of you is going to nick your level and then fly at M0.80
Fairly easy to get stuffed all the way from Beijing to Helsinki... Not easy this piloting lark
