I was thinking about requesting a visit sometime soon for a look-see of things from your end..I know a couple of my colleagues at BA-LGW would be keen to do so too...
first Q: are you still at West Drayton or have you been shipped off down to Swanwick yet?
2nd Q: recently I've often started to pre-empt speed reduction back to 220kts when you peel us off downwind on a heading between MID and Holly, just as we come abeam the airfield - either to
(i) broaden our 'window' for a fairly decent CDA, or
(ii) to try and minimise the distance we cover downwind, or
(iii) allow us to increase airspeed to get a better rate of descent should you shorten track miles to go before we get the official 'reduce 220kts' call from you..
Is this sort of thing
(a) helpful?
(b) a pain in the a$£# ?!
(c) a combination of the above?
It often seems that you tailor the track miles to whatever altitude we're at! ie...exactly 3x altitude or thereabouts
..........or delay the descent from FL's through transition alt to 4000' or 3000' till you have us in the optimum position for a CDA to suit the sequencing...
Just trying to get an idea of how you do it...
Obviously it's not good to assume that's the way it happens every single time, but it would be helpful to know, along the lines of the 'sharing mental models' thing...
would be grateful for any feedback, positive or negative!
cheers,
BB