Interesting read of all comments/replies.

I flew in France near Paris where we have inbound/outbound traffic from three major airports:
_Paris Charles de Gaulle (LFPG) - 50km away
_Paris Orly (LFPO) - 40km away
_Pars Le Bourget (LFPB) - 40km away

We were operating under a Class A airspace with strict restrictions in terms of altitude. Basically, we could not fly above 760m MSL (2500ft) above the airport, then 1060m MSL (3500ft) 10km away and so on... So we sat down with the DGAC (french FAA) and local ATC and managed to discuss operational processes with which we could extend our max altitude on days we were flying..

Basically, each pilot was supposed to have 5 sectional charts of the region depending on the wind conditions in LFPG/LFPO and whether the derogation was active or not. Our club would call LFPO each morning to activate our "zones" and LFPO would then make sure airliners (like an A380) would stay in Class A airspace. Should the wind condition changed, LFPO would call the club and let us know that the zones would then change in 10-15min. The club would then inform us of the change via the radio.

All pilots had to sign an mutual understanding agreement where we acknowledged those rules and would be held responsible if we would break them. Our chief pilot would then check flights if any suspicion of airspace breach was raised.

Although it was still limiting our ability to fly away quickly, this mutual understanding between ATC and us created a safe place where we would fly safely. Because we had FLARM installed in all airplanes, it provided another security to ATC as he could track us and make sure we would abide by those rules.

The key is always to establish a relationship with ATC where clear navigation rules can be agreed upon for safe flying. Utah Soaring seems to take that even to the next level by providing ATC guidelines and checks/reviews for its pilots. An example to follow for the rest of the community!

On a side note, I flew DL149 yesterday to KEWR: we started our approach 45min before touchdown and spent 1/2h at/below 6,000ft while we could have flown higher, faster, cleaner to intercept the approach on runway 04R. What a waste of time, fuel and money! It is a busy airspace but still there is a GIGANTIC room for improvement/efficiency gains/flight optimization here

Replay on Flightradar24 speaks for itself.
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/f.../dl149#f12e3ce

Fly safe!