Hi Jim;
The first come first served is something that we strive for in moving traffic, however at the busier airports the rule is to get as many aircraft on the ground as you can in the most efficient manner. That makes getting slower aircraft into the busy airports a bit of a challenge that sometimes is rather daunting due the sheer numbers of aircraft that are arriving and the limited amount of airspace for a particular airport. In the case of FLL they are indeed busy and have been experiencing traffic flow management delays due to the congestion.
Now as to treating you as you say like a low time pilot, we don't know the levels of expertise in each aircraft and have to sometimes make some assmptions which aren't always accurate about what a pilot can and can't do. Some of these assumptions are also caused by a controller having tried to make something work with a particular type of aircraft or company and recieved a ramming of the most uncomfortable type in a generally lower rear postierior area. Controller then decides that they aren't going to do that again. <shrug> Not good for the rest of the good pilots out there, but once burned, it is hard to gain trust again and you just play it safe, which as a Safety Rep, I can not fault any controller on. We are paid for safe and the rest of the stuff is a by product of what we do and enjoy doing, that would be moving as much metal we we possibly can.
For the Center stuff asking for speeds, most of us know what the norms are for the types of aircraft. If the aircraft is doing the norm, then we are normally not going to ask for more and will slow the other one down a bit. Sometimes we don't slow the front one down due to it trying to climb and with the advent of the RJ's of every ilk out there, we can't afford to get any less of a climb rate out of them. If we asked for more speed, we would have to have them do a dippsy doddle to get going <G>. They just don't have any preformance to speak of...
You have probably figured it out already, but it isn't going to get any better here. We are fitting more and more aircraft into the system and there is only so much that you can do with limited runways and airspace, something is going to give. If you think it is fun now, just wait until all those little personal barbie jets come out that are going to be having somewhat low time pilots flying... It is going to a real joy <G>.
regards
Scott H. Voigt
NATCA Southwest Region
Safety and Technology Chairman