Impatient controllers

[Guest airtel]

How can i pacify the impatient controllers?Scenario -Cruising FL410 and cleared descent (45nm early) FL270.Descending FMC Path descnet 0.755/209kts with speed restriction 240/FL160. Approaching FL270 I am further cleared Descent FL150 followed by FL100. Approaching FL170 ROD reduces from 3000 fpm to 400 fpm to slow the aircraft at which point the controller angrily reminds me that I was cleared to FL100.NB on this particular occasion i was going to be given holding vectors and did not receive the usual "I need you level in 30 miles or less".BTW does one ever get holds rather than holding vectors?TIA...

[ronzie 21]

400 fpm is extremely slow for other than maneuvering on final. You did not say what you are flying, but if your IAS is within tolerance I suggest the use of speed brakes/spoilers to hasten your descent.Depending on which stage of approach or the last of enroute you are at I would suggest at least 2000 fpm, no less than 1500, for the upper flight levels until you get to FL100. So far on a newer model I am trying, I have not been griped at for 800 fpm although I forced 1200 fpm with brakes at IAS 240 down to 5,000 with brakes.

[Guest airtel]

Hi Ronzie,I obviously didn't explain myself correctly (slap)...I was slowing down from 290 - back to 240 kts (PMDG 737NG) using the FMC in a path descent.Normally as you would expect the aircraft's rate of descent is reduced substatially to slow down to 240 and then increases once this speed has been achieved. In Real life coming into gatwick whilst flying a super 27, I've been asked to come in at high speed (370ias) but i've also had to come in at 240 or less to prevent holding. This is usually asked for by London and usually takes place during the leg Gurlu - Timba mostly around bexhil which is where the speed limit point is. The 727 being a very clean aircraft even with the gear down you cannot descend and slow down it's one or the other. this therefore necessitates almost levelling off especially as the speed brakes are almost innefective below 270kts. A classic place to prove this is the ILS into malaga on 14 which is a 3.2 degree slope. If you have no flap down and commence the descent clean at 210kts you will maintain this speed all the way to thew threshold. You need at least flap 2 preferably flaps 5 to fly the apprach and still come back to vref30 plus 10.Maybe i'm apply old technology to new technology. :-)thanks for the reply.

[ronzie 21]

This may not help your specific problem but I always fly with NOTAMS available in the Controller panel. I fly in with real plates so if there is a discrepancy between RC's calculated altitudes and the plates which I follow for GS interception, "they" don't get too upset.I live near KMSP and approaches are flown from what I've monitored at 210 (if able to go that slow) down to 170 IAS reporting to approach at 11,000 feet (roughly 10,000 AGL) I would assume within 30 nm of the airport.By the way, what's the difference between a speed brake and (non-ground) spoiler? In some aircraft I note that speed brakes are tail mounted devices that expand to cause drag but not affect lift. Some label spoilers as speed brakes.Anyway, I'm surprised that spoilers don't have that much effect at the lower speeds - - or are they only at the outer wings where the airflow is dominant at the higher speeds. Maybe it is only the newer aircraft that have inner and outer spoilers each effective in its own speed range.But you fly the real ones. Thanks for the explanations.

[Guest Scott Campbell]

Ron,As far as I know, speed brake slows the plane by introducing a lot of drag. Spoilers break the laminar flow over the wing and stops it generating (as moch) lift so you drop quickly.A lot of people, including me, think of the airliner spoilers as being both when they're really just spoilers as described above. I often hear pilots telling controllers that they can either slow down fast or descend fast, but not both. Spoilers, do help to slow the plane a bit, though, since they open up and cause some drag.FS has it set up where spoilers can create a lot of drag as well as less lift, but that can be changed in the air file.A F15 has this massive speed brake behind the pilot you nay have seen. It looks like a big open door aft of the cockpit.