Yes DFC, I was just looking at the Calais L/DME approach and came up with some interesting numbers. In the best possible case, without DME, you have 1 minute to descend from 2000 FT to 1310 FT, which equates to a ROD of 690 FPM. You better hope that there's no tailwind component to deal with, or you'll be blown toward the Locator in the inbound turn in the hold and then have less time to descend.
The designer can get away with requiring a high ROD in the initial approach segment but the problem is that, if you don't reach 1310 FT by MK Locator, you're above profile for the final segment and have to use a higher ROD than is particularly comfortable.
However, as you can initiate descent during the inbound turn in the hold, when within 5 degrees of the track, it probably works out pretty well. Most of the time. Much nicer if you can use the DME of course because you've got an on-going monitor on your descent profile.
I've finally been able to look at that Albi L09 approach again too. It looks like I must've had the wrong idea about the outbound timing in the racetrack. My calculations tell me that the nil-wind ROD is less than 655 FPM and, on the whole, this approach seems pretty reasonable to me.