eagleflight
Well I'll start by saying Maastricht airspace is F250 and above, so the clearance in your post will not apply to us.
However I take your point, and will answer it as best I can. There are a million possible reasons why this could happen. It is not only other aircraft we have to keep you clear of, there are also restricted/danger areas, military airspace, adjacent sectors etc. None of these are obvious to you as pilots, even if you check your map you do not have the activation times or levels at your mercy. There are also LOA restrictions to adhere to, some of which you may well become familiar with if you fly the same route several times. However these too are liable to change, again for no reason apparant to you as pilots.
All I can really say is we never give restrictions for no reason, and giving the reason every time on the freq would be impossible. If for whatever reason you are unable to meet the given restricyion you are obliged to let us know. That way we can do something about it, arrange something with the military, arrange a later descent etc. But this is all extra work for us, and is not always condusive to an orderly flow of air traffic. Personally if I need to give a "tough" restriction, high rate of descent or whatever, I have it in mind that it might not be possible and I try to have a plan "b" ready just in case.
However it sounds to me that the clearance given as an example in your post is rather excessive, and could fall into the "controller mistake" category!! We're all human, even me
, and of course we might simply forget to climb/descend/turn in time, which will lead to a more stern restriction. Again, on a personal note, if I have screwed up I will try to make amends and organise the necessary as outlined above without prompting from the pilot.
As has been done to death in other threads, atc is a fine balance between what pilots want and what controllers need, a bit of understanding on each side goes a long way. That is the whole purpose of this thread.
have another coffee
Like the name
, and thanks, I will!!
Ok first off I am a Deco controller, so don't really know about approaching SPL from the South, you're with AMS by the time you reach my airspace.
But interesting to hear your comments re descent clearances. The meaning of what you see as a more confusing clearance is just as simple. Descend to be level in x mins/miles etc, means descend when ready, as long as the restriction is met I don't care when you start descent. (If I wanted you to start descent now, for whatever reason I would include it in my clearance.) Such a clearance would usually be issued if there is no traffic to effect the descent, so why would it matter to me when you start down? What really pi$$es me off mind you is when I give a clearance to descend when ready, the pilot stays level for 5 mins and then says he cant keep the restriction!!
Still, as I said earlier, we're all humans, I guess a bit of Karma wouldn't go amiss!!
A lot of pilots in my company usually let the airspeed build up with 2000 ft/min to intercept profile sooner (ever noticed?).
Noooooo really?
Nothing like giving your company away is there???? Its well known and doesnt give us cause for complaint.
The thing I would add in defense of our Brussels sectors is that they do have a very busy and very small airspace to get you down and meet the restriction. I don't really know how they work but they dont really have too much time to plan your descent. The other option would I guess be for the French to take you down to say FL300 or so and leave less for Maas to do. Maybe this is done in busy periods.
Once again thanks for the responses guys keep em coming
