Originally Posted by
172_driver
Fear of the unknown? Not many larger airports in Europe operate visuals and often they’re banned. Unlike the US (I have flown on both sides) ATC cannot waive radar separation when you report traffic in sight. It seems instead they’re squeezing traffic with accurate radars. I think LHR is allowed 2,5 nm separation? Wake separation can be more restrictive but if you’ve got a series of MEDIUMs (no specific wake separation) you can squeeze them pretty tight too. Any ATC guy, please correct me if I am wrong. My knowledge may be outdated as I think time is now a parameter in maintaining separation??
Apart from above, I am afraid to report that the profession has moved away from piloting to system management. That horse has been beaten to death many times! I am glad to work for an airline encouraging visuals and manual flying. That said, a visual approach and maintaining visual separation may be perceived as two completely different things. In the former, the airspace is yours and you can wiggle your way down as you like. In the later, they pass over some traditional ATC stuff to you, the pilot, in a busy airspace. SoCal and NorCal can be exhausting for someone not used to the pace.
LHR utilizes 2.5 miles with a single runway operation. Any US airports can do the same. The problem is that at SFO the runways are 250’ apart. If you limit approaches to IFR you effectively become a single runway operation and cut your arrival rate in half. Either you do visuals or dramatically slot restrict the airport.