Can someone explain this to me?
Plodding down to MEL recently, fat dumb and happy on an Ozot track (did I spell that right?) when the old CPDLC goes Bing Bong.
Contained in this message was a something a little puzzling and actually a bit annoying.
"filthy Oz raping ME airline (I'm using poetic licence and humour) you have not yet recieved STAR clearance, do NOT proceed beyond point xxxx, this is your clearance limit, you will recieve STAR instructions via voice"
Leaning over to discuss this with the skipper, we indulged in our usual tirade about the level of anal retentiveness and generally unhelpful service we recieve these days from air services (actually we get a pretty good service, but as always one or two muppets tar the rest with the same brush).
Anyway, back to my story, at the stage of getting this messsage we were somewhere near Darwin, a good 3 hrs or more from our TOD, so I got to wondering...what the F%%k are some of you guys on or thinking when sending us a message like that? Just because the planned STAR is in our FMC, it doesn't mean we are going to proceed beyond a clearance limit, nor does it mean we won't accept another STAR....its there for planning purposes with both ETA's and fuel, moreover it actually helps you guys out as it can give you an indication of timings etc...and better yet we can adjust our arrival time to suit a required ETA.
So anyway, can someone explain this message to me? I'm genuinley baffled at the lack of logic/common sense.