Originally Posted by
psycho joe
That would be easier to swallow if we didn't have schedules and slot times, and if we weren't sitting at the gate watching a clock wind down as part of a Ground Delay Program. If I were to push back outside -5/+10 of my COBT then my friendly controller would remind me that I'm non compliant and can expect up to 60 holding. If I am compliant, then I can expect the same holding/last minute slow down/now quick speed up, as before the implementation of ground delay programs.
It's simply not acceptable to be tracked from one side of the country to the other, with a slot time, and COBT compliant to then be treated as a shock/ surprise at 200 miles. As airline Pilots, we work hard to be fuel efficient, only to then throw that efficiency out the window with a ridiculously inefficient descent.
You misunderstand the purpose of the ground delay program. It's to reduce delays, not eliminate them, by limiting the number of arrivals over a given time. Given the -5+10 "slack" in the system it can't prevent multiple aircraft trying to arrive at the same time, but reduces how many aircraft that is.
Seriously, into ML we rarely hold these day when conditions are as forecast and nothing untoward happens to interfere with the sequence. Delays don't often get above 8 minutes. Used to be we'd hold any day when conditions meant we had to reduce the acceptance rate, so we'd often have several bouts of holding a day.
It's a dynamic world and things don't always go as planned. You can stamp your feet as much as you want but that's the reality. I understand that you'd like your fix delay as early as possible but we just don't know what it will be with any certainty 2 hours out, 90 minutes out, even an hour out. We can give you a current guess but it will almost certainly be revised at least several times.