"Level Busts" increasing in UK -- The Times

[puddle-jumper2]

3 of the 7 most serious incidents involved people being cleared to a flight level and not setting standard straight away but waiting until they passed Trans Alt then forgetting to set standard bingo, level bust!

Keep it in trim,

I agree, I still see this one with new F/O's. They have been trained to only change to STD when within 1000' of transition, a level bust in the making.

The other thing that doesn't help is doing a multi sector day with the auto pilot u/s in and out of busy airspace. Met a guy the other day who had fell victim of this in the London TMA whilst receiving the usual step climbs and dealing with routing around poor weather. Unfortunately when I met him he was on his way to head office to get his hand smacked.

No doubt some here will think that he should have been good enough to operate without an auto-pilot or that he should have refused to fly but.....
it doesn't help when the MEL say's "sure you can do multi-sector days without an A/P, you don't need one of them !"

[Airbubba]

I agree, I still see this one with new F/O's. They have been trained to only change to STD when within 1000' of transition, a level bust in the making.

Some operators use this "new way of thinking" and I agree it causes more problems than it solves. The theory is that ATC might ask for "level passing" or give an amended clearance to level before the transition layer. In those rare instances, I say just reset the altimeters back to standard or QNH if you need to.

Being an American, I don't read ICAO pubs much, perhaps this "new" procedure is buried in some recent training standard or something.

[PanSardine]

Well if you only ply routes within USA you can probably disregard ICAO pubs, but if you do cross the pond or westwards into the Orient you gotta be conversant with ICAO procedures.

[NO LAND 3]

They all must be right.

Yep the Aussies do it one way, the Asians another, the Africans like this, the Americans like that. And lets not forget the British! The ATCOs perspective is the same every day and I geuss they can be forgiven for developing a perspective that "hey, surely the way we do it is the obvious way?!"
Well, no actually, and the inferences involved in new clearances vary around the world. Not to mention differing clearance and start up procedures, taxi, ADS and CPDLC procedures, loss of comm etc etc etc etc. Boy I wish you guys would all go into a room together one day and get some standardisation going.
Our airline has about a dozen flights a day to the UK and yet I may only be rostered to fly there once a year. Or the same might go for flights to Aussie.
Thankfully I fly a 777 which is damn near airliner perfection (except for the seat) and flashes the altimeter setting orange if you forget to set it at transition. Not that I ever do forget it because "I was always taught blah blah blah..." Ha!

[Ali Sadikin]

Mohdawang; please read the thread " Near miss in East London ". You're damn right. The sky gods are indeed inept and fallible like us poor mortals! I suppose you can rest your case.