Quite a few airports are [now] fitted with cameras near the parking stands and the controllers are able to see whether an aircraft is actually ready or not.
Gotta hate this.
Said it before and I'll say it again: I'm in my third decade of doing this and I am, from time to time, disappointed. The aircrew/atc relationship is clearly a "belt and suspenders (braces)" arrangement: We trust each other but never bet lives or careers on a single plan. There is, however, a point where this simply becomes ridiculous. I say "say heading" and you say your heading. Not always exact, but we're speaking the same language here and you understand the accuracy which is required. Same thing with "say airspeed" or "say mach number." Or you're on a mile final and say, "wind check." I check wind direction and speed (which shows wind direction varying by 10 or 15 degrees and speed up and down five or seven knots) and I extract the info you're needing. Rather than keying the mike and reporting "wind 270 at 13...wind now 265 at 11...wind now 262 at 14..." I give you a direction and speed that appears, based upon my watching it for the last hour, to best represent the conditions you're likely to see in the flare. If the wind turns to, say, 170 at 12 while you're on final you can bet you'll know about it. It is all part of our understanding.
I know this is a rant, but I'm troubled. Are you saying that an aircrew is calling for push and a controller is looking at a monitor and saying, "you're not ready to push. You've still got a door open (etc)?" Who the hell has time for this game? Puts me in mind of the dead parrot skit. Honestly, doesn't a "push clearance void time" make more sense than video monitoring? It would certainly limit the arguments about whether your push is dead or simply "pining for the fjords..." Look, it’s your airframe. If you say you’re on fire, you’re on fire. However, if you say you’re on fire you shouldn’t be surprised when the crash trucks are there to meet the aircraft. Likewise, if you say you’re ready to push, well, you get it…
I'm a tad sleep-deprived at the moment and I’ve got a touch of flu as well, and so I am uncertain about whether or not I've made a valid (clear/lucid) point here. Forgive me if I've gone astray. All I'm trying to reiterate is that neither aircrew nor ATC have time to baby-sit the other on the fundamentals. They never have. We’d ALL loathe it.
Dave
PS Steve, give an old controller a break...
