Data Link at LHR

[Gonzo]

And I'm now assured that our gallant Training Dept. have things in hand.

Aparrently I had been informed of the plans to train on the Sup's layout and DCL, but knowing me then it went in one ear and out the other. I humbly apologise to LL Training, I'm sure they know where my real beef with the whole thing lies.

[Silk Merchant]

Gonzo et al,

I was told (by a reliable source) that we at Heathrow get trained on PDCS in the level 5 SIM run. Level 5 involves four different seats, one of which is GMP. So we all get circa 45 minutes of GMP, with a mixture of PDCS and "old fashioned" clearance delivery - in November! So the next time you do it will be with real aeroplanes after 'O' date. I am not convinced I will remember what to do two months later, so the (re)learning curve will be quite steep.

"Revert to voice"

SM

[tired]

Scott, what you say is undoubtedly true, but I don't think it's confined to ACARS clearances. Just because I read back a clearance correctly over the RT doesn't mean that it's what I've put in the box, unfortunately...... And I do think you Yanks could improve the layout of your PDCs a bit, the squawk code is awfully hard to find, buried in amongst a whole bunch of other 4 digit numbers. The number of times I've tried to squawk my STD....

BTW, did I read one of the other posts above correctly? Are we actually going to be able to acknowledge the PDC electronically at LHR, without having to read it back, have it acknowledged, acknowledge the acknowledgement etc. Good heavens, such sensible thinking, what is the world coming to? But gadzooks man, we don't do things that way in the UK, next thing we know you'll be allowed to clear us for the ILS without first wasting RT time by clearing us for the loc, us reporting established on the loc, you clearing us down the slope, us acknowledging that clearance etc etc.....

[surfingatco]

next thing we know you'll be allowed to clear us for the ILS without first wasting RT time by clearing us for the loc, us reporting established on the loc, you clearing us down the slope, us acknowledging that clearance etc etc.....

I'd love to say "Cleared ILS" tomorrow if it meant "don't descend to 2500ft below the glide path and hit the low level traffic working Thames" and it was understood by all nationalities of pilots. RT saving would be immense on a busy frequency. "When established localiser descend on the ILS", introduced a while ago, is a bit of a mouthful and gets varying responses!
One of the problems with "cleared ILS" is that you could still be at 4000ft on the closing heading with City traffic at 3000ft. When do you descend to if I say "Cleared ILS?
Finally, in answer to your point about all the acknowledgements, missed readbacks are a major cause of incidents in ATC, and we're to blame (mostly) if we get it wrong - that's why we need the (correct) acknowledgement

Edited for spooling mistakes