brain fade
And this might be my last post on the subject too! Although you might not believe it from some posts above, most ATCOs accept that in almost every situation, the quicker you shift a/c through your area of responsibility and onto the next frequency (or stand if they're inbound), the easier the job becomes. So for approach controllers it usually is easiest if no.1 in the sequence does go visual and keeps it tight and fast, as it also does when you want a gap behind that one for any reason. There's always the compromise, though, between landing the most a/c and getting the most airborne if you're just using the one runway. And I did one multi-sector fam flight with a 737 crew where the captain made it clear he wasn't happy with another 737 rolling ahead of us when we were at 3 mile final (turbulent wake in the flare zone, missed approach confliction etc). His preferred situation was more air holding, a slower and wider and less fraught circuit and landing, at the cost of just a couple of minutes per sector. Now I know this isn't a view shared by all or even most crews, which just proves we absolutely ain't going to please everybody!
Certain crews did seem to get frequently sh@fted, particularly twin turboprops who were capable of flying 200kts to 4 miles (company restriction, I know the plane could manage 240 and still land...) but would be behind a 73 or 757 and have to be back at 160 by 15 miles to maintain vortex spacing. But that's what happens sometimes with limited airspace and a genuinely impartial first-come, first-served ethos which is rumored not to be the case in some parts of the world...
Oh, and I'm forced to agree with L'n'L (I think) who pointed out that not everybody on a visual goes straight to min. final - I have been embarassed on more than one occasion by number one taking a wide visual base leg AND slowing down, the cad!!!
Finally I agree more visits, in both directions, including beers when possible, work wonders for exactly this sort of debate. Now, where's that ruddy picture of the ILS aerial gone to?