ATCO Two - yeah, fair enough, there's no reason not to, it just seems an awfully arse-about-face way of doing things. I often seem to roll up to the holding point, hear a frantic burst of activity on the RT as half a dozen conditionals are given, then minutes of utter silence broken only by the occasional T/O clearance. And then of course every once in a while the whole thing has to be rearranged when some aeroplane with a tight slot suddenly appears! (And don't we just love it when it's a Virgin
) Still, if that's what blows your hair back, far be it from me to carp about it!
One point I should make is that I, and every other professional pilot I've ever flown with, always approaches the hold expecting an immediate T/O clearance - in other words, we make sure all the checks (except the "below the line" checks which should only be done as we enter the runway) are complete and the cabin is secure so that if we do get an immediate we're ready for it. In the instances when we're not going to be ready on reaching the hold(and there seems a chance that we might be cleared immediate) then we'll tell you we're not going to be ready - it's only proffessional. There again, maybe I've just had a sheltered upbringing.