Narrative:

For starters; this may not be the appropriate avenue since this episode is primarily an ATC event and nothing wrong happened; other than the way we were hassled by ord tower; and earlier in the day in pretty much in the exact same fashion by iad tower. Typical summertime weather day with boomers all over creating the usual havoc with the ATC system. We were issued a pre departure clearance with an estimated departure clarence time for wheels up. Prior to push we confirmed our estimated departure clarence time. Upon initial taxi we again confirmed the time with ground. Prior to shutting the engines down in the block we again confirmed the wheels up time; this time with tower. ATC tower advised us of a new time. At xa:00 I started the left engine. At about xa:00 and 30 seconds tower wanted to know if we were ready to go. 'No' was my reply. This began the 'well why not' line of questing as I started engine no 2. Next comes the instruction to taxi up and hold short and to be ready. 'Unable; we need 2 minutes' was my reply. The second engine was still starting; the control checks hadn't been done; people were still up in the back; the checklist hadn't been started etc. 'Well if you don't go now you'll mess up the flow and you'll lose your slot time and we need you to go now.' he was agitated and and it showed. We had confirmed our time on three occasions to prevent this exact scenario; ATC had pushed our time up by nearly 16 minutes without a word. Never mind the fact that we told him that our engines were shut down. The controller then wanted to know when we would be ready and I said that we haven't even begun the checklist yet; as number two was still starting. 'We still need two minutes'. With this we were greeted with an invitation to lose our slot and get back in line. Had I been the captain; I would have gladly taken him up on it. I'm sure that other planes in the block who had no idea how we got to this juncture thought we were inept. Fortunately; my captain was a good sport and didn't try to rush either. He had rushed a 757 crew right before us. Not intentionally; but by revising their wheels up time and or sequence as well. This exact same scenario played out just 3 hours earlier in iad with almost the same frenetic response to our 'unable' after our wheels up time had been pushed up without our knowledge and with minimal notification. In both cases ATC was aware that our engines were shut down. In both cases; they changed our sequence at the last minute and didn't allow us time to get our fertilizer in a singular parcel. I hate being rushed and will not tolerate it during a critical phase of flight. It's a bit of a tightrope walk as a first officer because not all captains share my attitude. I'm not a sloth; I can get this stuff done fairly quickly but I will not allow anyone to rush me into a stupid and/or unsafe situation again. Those days are over. I am paid to be methodical and deliberate. I suppose that this is more venting than anything; but if we had something go wrong because of a helter skelter approach to getting that mother in the air I'd be filling out a job application at wal mart instead of this fsap. Have a swell day and thanks for reading this.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier pilot voiced displeasure with ATC handling with regard to expected release times; engine start changes and the general uncertainty of ATC release procedures; listing ORD and IAD as example airports.

Narrative: For starters; this may not be the appropriate avenue since this episode is primarily an ATC event and nothing wrong happened; other than the way we were hassled by ORD tower; and earlier in the day in pretty much in the exact same fashion by IAD tower. Typical summertime weather day with boomers all over creating the usual havoc with the ATC system. We were issued a PDC with an Estimated Departure Clarence Time for wheels up. Prior to push we confirmed our estimated departure clarence time. Upon initial taxi we again confirmed the time with ground. Prior to shutting the engines down in the block we again confirmed the wheels up time; this time with tower. ATC tower advised us of a new time. At XA:00 I started the left engine. At about XA:00 and 30 seconds tower wanted to know if we were ready to go. 'No' was my reply. This began the 'well why not' line of questing as I started Engine No 2. Next comes the instruction to taxi up and hold short and to be ready. 'Unable; we need 2 minutes' was my reply. The second engine was still starting; the control checks hadn't been done; people were still up in the back; the checklist hadn't been started etc. 'Well if you don't go NOW you'll mess up the flow and you'll lose your slot time and we need you to go now.' He was agitated and and it showed. We had confirmed our time on three occasions to prevent this exact scenario; ATC had pushed our time up by nearly 16 minutes without a word. Never mind the fact that we told him that our engines were shut down. The controller then wanted to know when we would be ready and I said that we haven't even begun the checklist yet; as number two was still starting. 'We still need two minutes'. With this we were greeted with an invitation to lose our slot and get back in line. Had I been the Captain; I would have gladly taken him up on it. I'm sure that other planes in the block who had no idea how we got to this juncture thought we were inept. Fortunately; my Captain was a good sport and didn't try to rush either. He had rushed a 757 crew right before us. Not intentionally; but by revising their wheels up time and or sequence as well. This exact same scenario played out just 3 hours earlier in IAD with almost the same frenetic response to our 'unable' after our wheels up time had been pushed up without our knowledge and with minimal notification. In both cases ATC was aware that our engines were shut down. In both cases; they changed our sequence at the last minute and didn't allow us time to get our fertilizer in a singular parcel. I HATE being rushed and will not tolerate it during a critical phase of flight. It's a bit of a tightrope walk as a First Officer because not all Captains share my attitude. I'm not a sloth; I can get this stuff done fairly quickly but I will not allow anyone to rush me into a stupid and/or unsafe situation again. Those days are over. I am paid to be methodical and deliberate. I suppose that this is more venting than anything; but if we had something go wrong because of a Helter Skelter approach to getting that mother in the air I'd be filling out a job application at Wal Mart instead of this FSAP. Have a swell day and thanks for reading this.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.