Hi TS, Thank you for that explanation - which I understand. Since it is mandatory, could we at least reduce the length of the information? Instead of "Runway in use zero eight right. ILS approach to be expected" how about "Runway zero eight right. ILS"
9 syllables instead of 18.
I realise that Heathrow Director and others might be spluttering over their coffee now that I am talking about syllables !!
However, what used to take a moment, now takes longer. More syllables mean that the ATIS message takes longer to repeat, so if you just missed the QNH or whatever, and you need to listen through twice to get all the information, this extra delay is doubled. This becomes a problem because ideally we want to brief before we start descent. Approaching the UK, we get the ATIS as early as we can but the ATIS only has a limited range. Descent into the London TMA is a very busy time but one pilot has to go off the active frequency to listen to the ATIS and write it down, while the other pilot is flying the plane, and doing the radio. Sod's law says that even when you judge it to be a quiet moment to get the ATIS, ATC suddenly issues instructions, so only one guy is handling all this, including new descent clearances while the other is getting the ATIS. Later in the approach we would want to check the ATIS for updates, but with a long winded ATIS, this can take one pilot out of the loop for too long.
Therefore, ideally the ATIS needs to be as succinct as possible, without uneccessary verbiage.
The clearance information on the ATIS takes even longer and is useless to inbounds, and therefore really does need to be as short as it possibly can be. Taking 20 syllables to transmit completely useless information "Clearance delivery, on one two one decimal niner fife zero, is closed" is a total waste of everyone's time. Please can we ditch it.
Last edited by Uplinker; 12th Feb 2015 at 13:26.
Reason: Re-Counting syllables !