Not a controller, but other than the "at least 500 fpm" thing, the FAA also publishes 'standard' climb and descent rates by type in 7110.65 Appendix A.
They'll change based on airline sops and training obviously, but it seems like a handy tool for dealing with dissimilar aircraft types.
I may be confusing the two and got the 1000' number from somewhere. Maybe it was just a typical average expectation. I knew I saw a standard somewhere, thanks for posting it Weasel! Not gonna lie, kinda embarassed, I should have known.
[QUOTE="dasleben, post: 2423523, member: 4341"But, I'll always ask before slowing. By all mean cooperate to the extent possible, but if you're being shoved into a corner, don't be afraid to say "unable".
Yes yes yes yes. A lot of pilots (I find this more with students and GA) will say they'll do something and can't/won't. If you can't, that's really ok, just please tell me so I can adjust my plan accordingly.
Not to hijack this, but maybe a little bit... I find that there are times I'll clear someone for takeoff and also call the traffic on a X mile final, and they'll pull out on to the runway and SIT. Twice I've cleared someone for immediate and said what mile final the traffic was on and they got out there and sat. One I had to send around and the other was, well, I dropped my pencil but I'm sure he was 6,000 and airborne ;-) An "unable immediate, we'll hold short" would have been nice, assuming some last minute thing didn't happen in the cockpit that prevented them from rolling around the corner and going. If I'm getting all puckered up I'll key up and say I need you rolling, but sometimes it's too late or that was the whole point of immediate.
So, I want to yell at them, like - "You wouldn't do this in ATL, don't do it here!!" But I think they are so used to the lack of traffic here that they just don't think it's necessary. I don't bother to yell at them because 1-I don't believe in berating pilots over the frequency, and 2-what am I going to do.. yell at them, they'll say, "uh.. k..won't happen again, switching to departure". I mean they're gone and it's moot at that point.
If I tell you X mile final, do you have an idea of how long you have before you need to be rolling? I know as a pax when we pull on the runway I always look out and up the final and if I see someone and we aren't immediately rolling the back of my head gets itchy and feels weird because I know a plane is coming at us and we ain't movin'!!
