Topjet, thanks ;-)
I have obviously caused somewhat of a stir here, now, it may be true that you may not be required to hold in other countries. Surely though, there is some awareness that when you are inbound to one of the busiest airfields in the world, where there are a number of other airfields within a 30 mile radius which also have a reasonable amount of traffic, there may just be some holding required? On the STAR charts it clearly states not to proceed past the hold unless instructed by ATC. Would you just climb to your requested cruising level without ATC Clearance because we have not told you to climb? Or same point, would you make a landing without having received the clearance 'cleared to land Runway.... ' i doubt it very much. That said, for all the doubters out there, i have a link to the LAM arrival into Heathrow
http://www.ead.eurocontrol.int/eadba...2010-06-03.pdf
The other STARs for the other holds are the same. Some caution is exercised, but at times during a busy period when you have pilots stepping on each other, we can occasionally miss out the 'hold at....' it is not often, however, this is not a requirement from at ATC point of view. We give that info to AID the pilot for flight planning purposes. The only requirement i have seen for aircraft inbound to LHR is published plainly for all to see..... 'Do not proceed beyond (hold) without ATC clearance.'
Falcocharlie:
In the London TMA, the delays are very usually less than 20 mins.... hence we need to give no EAT. If we were to be in a situation where holding was above 20 minutes, then you could expect the 'Hold at LAM, EAT is....' but on occasions where we don't have EATs in force, and specifically when you have reduced the aircraft to 'holding speed' and then said aircraft still ploughs straight through the hold, it can be most frustrating.
I just wondered if there should be something more that can be done about this. Maybe as others have said, it needs to become another air traffic rule that we have to tell pilots on first contact to hold at ...., just in case, there are the few pilots incapable of reading the STAR chart and complying with the rules.