Shy - if you read the post again you will see that I did ask for a change of clearance but it was refused
10w your last para first, yes of course I do think self separation is a good thing.
2nd para quite agree, I was too hung up on RCS and now realise that I didn't really know what it meant. In fact I still don't know what it means and no-one so far has been able to point me to a written description so perhaps that is not too surprising. Certainly the name to me implies more rigid control and this was compounded by fixed altitude. The tone of the controller when I asked for altitude change was a littile along the lines of "you just do as you are told and everything will be fine".
This is the intended main thrust of this thread.
As far as the track went, it wasn't "direct to the threshold" but when things got sticky I was nearly over the threshold so a deviation at that point would have meant I didn't comply with the clearance.
Perhaps it boils down to what one is accustomed to. At my home airfield in Class D when we fly VFR it is just that. Only when IFR do we hear "Radar Control Service" . At the airfield I was transiting they clearly have a different policy in that all VFR traffic is told "RCS". I think that is the root of my being misled and just goes to show what lack of standardisation does. Perhaps there are 2 groups of pilots, one who routinely hear "RCS" and to them it just means "fly VFR", another who don't. For the latter I think there is a danger of not understanding what is meant, and that is due to the choice of its name and seeming lack of any information being promulgated about it.
From your lack of comment I presume you think the controller showed good practice when he cleared 2 aircraft to the same place to arrive at the same time, same altitude?
HC
Last edited by HeliComparator; 17th Jul 2011 at 10:32.