Atco-matic, thanks for your perspective on this. As it is a couple of years since I flew a 747, then please treat with caution. However as I'm sure you are aware , A large airline operating 747's from LHR is very sensitive about having it's A/C arrive as close to schedule as possible to make ground handling as efficent as poss.The company exerts considerable pressure on those who disobey. Therefore having operated the said 747 all the way from the other side of world, trying to get efficent FL, headwinds, etc, to fly 300 kts in descent as opposed to 250 makes a marginal diff on arrival time. As the cost index in FMC calculates a descent speed of 250-260 knots, then that is normal to us!! We fly it without problems during early morning arrivals, of course the sector is quiter then! Part of the problem lies in the fact that many longhaul crews only do the arrival into LHR twice a month. However on many an occasion, we have elected to descend at 290-300 kts as " it causes problems for ATC" We are keen to assist as much as we can, so just ask us what speed we will be flying and if poss WE WILL COMPLY.
AS a background to this , due to rising fuel costs we are using lower cost indexes(?) or indices(?) which has greatest impact on decent speeds, ie 250 knots!
Hope that helps, as we try to be on the same side!!
As regards fam flights, I'm all in favour and recently(last summer) took a trainee atco from scottish to warsaw on my shiny airbus. We both learnt a lot, not least how close a 747 looks whilst crossing in RVSM at 1000'!!!
Flying shuttle trips this week and will try my best to get the correct speed for each sector!! However I suspect That I shall fail miserably
