Lifting it up for people who still need to read this. Some guys take those large blocks as a means to plummet down like a rocket and fly at 3,000 for thirty miles. Be sensible.
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Great post, will have to try it on TS2 :)
MaxSez: @JoshFly8. Initiative & Innovation are the hallmarks of the Professional!.. Well done! Josh.
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Amen. This also doen’t mean to descend at -250 vs. If you are at FL380 and you are 20 miles away chances are you are going to end up in a hold until you get to a more friendly altitude.
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Right. I think this could also give some initiative back to the pilot. Make them a bit more conscious about calculating their descent rate. In turn, they’d actually go to places like the forum to figure it out, learning new techniques in the process. Definitely two-fold here.
I actually did a variation of this today and pretty well accurately timed via waypoints how far down in x time with a steady descent rate.
Keep in mind I was also flying the CCX at just about the lowest possible IAS prior to stall. Reverse barberpole indeed.
@JoshFly8 hello, can you explain please what are the ideal heights? example: ils 3000. 20nm to ILS 6000. 30n, to ils 10000. Of course I speak from the ground level. thank you!
A good generalized rule of thumb to follow is 3,000/4,000 feet every 10 miles in terms of descent for the pilot. 1,300-1,500 FPM is probably the norm, depending on traffic conditions and speed.
What you outlined above is usually average in terms of height to the localizer, so that’s fine. Heck, you could just point them towards it and send them to 3,000 from cruise if no aircraft below will interfere. It’s on the pilot to descend appropriately. If they want to dive like a kamikaze and fly at 3,000 for 40 miles, then fine by me. If they want to do -250 FPM, back to the line or deal with diving to the runway. Not my problem.
The whole point is to promote responsibility. I’m done with babysitting descents for pilots.
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@JoshFly8. Josh what would be the impact if all commercial aircraft where required to file and fly airways with altitude separation and E/W rules as proscribed similar to the majors for all point to point sorties on the Expert?
It would make our job 1,000 times easier. Instead of coming from 100 different directions it would be 4-5 dirrections. If people knew the altitudes to fly at it wouldn’t waste our time assigning the proper one. If pilots would ask for decent if needed would be easier then relying soley on the controller to do it. If pilots flew right I could breathe and give them better service.
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Since my [best buddy] Brandon decided to hijack the reply, I’ll leave my $0.02 here. :D
It would get super easy to just pull people from an arrival corridor into the vectoring path for final intercept. The problem we have with the current system is that once a pilot checks in, they have to ask, we have to reply, then we have to assign them something, and finally start vectoring them.
If they all came in on filed airways and used the right charts, then all my efforts would be focused on the immediate airspace within 30 miles. No more assigning a heading and alt to pilots who are still 50 miles away and doing collision avoidance/damage control to get them all into holds, a line, or pointed towards a specific spot. Since the speeds and altitudes are incredibly variable, I have to keep doing sleight of hand to even get a semblance of order in.
In a perfect world, pilots would keep separation in terms of altitude and come in a few ways. All we’re here for is to give service. My problem with people who fly is that they whine when we give tight restrictions, but if they did a very basic job and maintained separation and fit into the flow of traffic themselves, we wouldn’t have to do anything. If charts were followed to the letter, they can just descend, slow, and continue on the path prescribed by the chart. I’d just take over on downwind or something and give final vectors, which is the norm. Depending on airfield, situation, and procedure, of course.
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So if a controller gives me a large block of descent altitude, I should get down ASAP?
P.S. love doing that, there is nothing like tuning your descent profile for the perfect open descent.
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You descend at your discretion. Preferably more than 800fpm but you don’t need to go crazy like 3000 or more. There is now an “expedite” command that can be used if you need to be moved faster.
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