Life's a Beech
12th Sep 2007, 21:56
I am not having a go at controllers (I have a good relationship with all the controllers I know), just trying to solve a problem.
I fly an uncommon aircraft that has some very rare characteristics. Being unpressurised I can't descend especially quickly, especially with passengers on board. The aircraft is fairly slippery and I can't reduce power very easily until I am level at lower altitude without risking damage to the engines, so it is hard to descend quickly without speeding up a lot. Therefore I always ask for descent from FL90 or FL100 about 60 nm from my destination for a gentle, controlled 500 ft/min or so descent.
The problem is that I often don't get that descent, and the controllers don't seem to know how difficult it is. Often I am left so high that even with an average unpressurised multi-engine piston I would not easily be able to make the vertical profile safely.
I have had to make a radar orbit back onto the localizer in order to descend below the glide. I recently at a UK regional airport where I was already too high, over 7000 feet above the airport at only 15 nm DME range, and was told to standby for descent. When I insisted that I really needed descent urgently the controller finally turned me about 40 degrees out and started me on the descent. I get the feeling, no offense intended, that controllers are not aware of the limitations of these aircraft types. Most of the traffic into these airports is pressurised jets and turboprops.
What do controllers know about the performance of light aircraft? What should I be doing? Should I be asking for extra track miles every time? Should I be slowing when I can? Should I even be asking to hold or fly the procedure to give me extra space? All of these are of course a pain for me, I want to get on the ground as soon as possible, but they are a nuissance for the controllers as well.
More specifically why are some controllers so reluctant to allow me to descend outside controlled airspace, even in VMC?
I fly an uncommon aircraft that has some very rare characteristics. Being unpressurised I can't descend especially quickly, especially with passengers on board. The aircraft is fairly slippery and I can't reduce power very easily until I am level at lower altitude without risking damage to the engines, so it is hard to descend quickly without speeding up a lot. Therefore I always ask for descent from FL90 or FL100 about 60 nm from my destination for a gentle, controlled 500 ft/min or so descent.
The problem is that I often don't get that descent, and the controllers don't seem to know how difficult it is. Often I am left so high that even with an average unpressurised multi-engine piston I would not easily be able to make the vertical profile safely.
I have had to make a radar orbit back onto the localizer in order to descend below the glide. I recently at a UK regional airport where I was already too high, over 7000 feet above the airport at only 15 nm DME range, and was told to standby for descent. When I insisted that I really needed descent urgently the controller finally turned me about 40 degrees out and started me on the descent. I get the feeling, no offense intended, that controllers are not aware of the limitations of these aircraft types. Most of the traffic into these airports is pressurised jets and turboprops.
What do controllers know about the performance of light aircraft? What should I be doing? Should I be asking for extra track miles every time? Should I be slowing when I can? Should I even be asking to hold or fly the procedure to give me extra space? All of these are of course a pain for me, I want to get on the ground as soon as possible, but they are a nuissance for the controllers as well.
More specifically why are some controllers so reluctant to allow me to descend outside controlled airspace, even in VMC?