Beags
And they should NEVER "tweak the circuit a little wider"' they should continue in the normal circuit pattern, giving way to any traffic on final which has landing clearance by going around as necessary .
This is where we're going to disagree, and where the difference between 'mil' and 'civil' will show itself.
In the mil world you send the guy around, the idea being that the go around takes him ahead and above the instrument traffic, positioning deadside to rejoin the circuit. Fair enough, it works in the mil environment, and that's what is expected.
However, in the civil world that VFR guy might not want to go around, he might want to land. (He's paying for it after all - not me, or H.M Queen Betty). In which case you pass traffic information and it's up to the guy who is number 2 (often, but not always the VFR) to adjust his circuit to fit behind the IFR traffic. This is done by orbiting (not tidy, not favoured) or slightly extending (tweaking) the visual circuit.
The thing is this practice is perfectly within the ANO
I, as an ATCO, have established an order of landing, and as such it is up to the aircraft involved to conform to that by whatever techniques are required and by fulfilling any conditions I put on it ('tweaking', slowing down, etc etc).
Bear in mind here that we're not talking about unnecessary separation - we're talking about only one aircraft being able to be able to land (by which I mean the actual transition from flight to non-flight) at any one time.
Also another thing to remember which sometimes enters the equation - civil Vortex Wake Criteria are larger than military, and these have to be attempted to be complied with for landing aircraft. (You can't say have to be - nobody can judge 3, 4, 6 or 8 miles in the circuit).
Having said that, it's the IFR traffic that needs to remain IFR, you don't need him to. So, it's much more appropriate for the controller to either ask him to become VFR, or to move him !
Come on Beags, you should know better - I
cannot ask that. Choice of IFR or VFR is pilots decision only and if he wants to stay IFR there's nothing I can do about it. Even suggesting it would get me a one way interview with the boss!
Tacpot
What do we think of reducing speed to (your) slow flight speed as a mechanism to introduce spacing between you and the aircraft ahead?
My only concern with this is the pressure it puts on following aircraft, who may not be able to slow down as much. (60 Kts is a typical slow flight speed for what I fly).
If you're flying something that can fly that slow then you're never going to be asked - if anything people are going to, more often than not, ask you to keep your speed up. I would suggest you fly circuits at normal speed and leave the slowing up to more high performance aircraft which have a wider operating envelope. If you brought the speed back that far and I was behind you in an Aztec or similar expect to get over-taken
