Baron Captain....Phew, where do I start?..."rapidly becoming the worst ATC in the World" eh? Now that's a pretty subjective call. It's so easy to chuck around epithets in a semi public domain, and then feel good about it.
I'd just like to discuss your comments about runway changes. For starters you have your point of residence as "Australia", and yet you insinuate that you have lot's of HKG operating experience. So may I surmise you're CX Aussie based? Anyway Ocker, I would have thought by now, that any CX pilot operating here (HKG) would be well aware that for probably more than 50% of any one day, we have a downwind component at every one of the four runway thresholds...I think it might have something to do with the huge lumps of terrain that encircles this airport! So, what to do? Eventually we have to make big decisions as to whether to run with the 7's, or go to 25. This is predicated somewhat by: the amount of downwind reports that our highly sophisticated instruments (and pilot reports) are telling us; windshear and turbulence; forecast wind trends; reported winds at 500' to 1500'; and of course disposition of traffic. We take all of these issues into account and then have to make the big decision as to whether or not to change runway direction. Changing runways is a total pain in the arse, for us (as controllers) and for the industry in general. Some RWY changes can take nearly an hour from inception to completion. If you think that we take this lightly, well I assess you as being a fool. Sure, you get frustrated and you vent your spleen about reaching the 25L departure point, only to be told "....downwind 7kts clear for take-off", but we have a wind environment here that we struggle with on a daily - no make that hourly basis, to come to grips with. Every runway change that we do causes back ups that can sometimes take hours to sort out the subsequent mess.
Any useful guidance from you as to how to get around this wind situation in HKG would be greatly appreciated, but somehow I doubt it.
Last edited by Bedder believeit; 24th May 2012 at 09:56.