Perhaps the occasional inefficient clearing of the hold (aircraft coming off with 15-20NM gaps, vacant level bands of 3000' to 4000' feet with traffic sauntering slowly down instead of the more regimented and efficient holding management seen in the likes of the London TMA where things bump down naturally as levels are vacated and a tight pack of aircraft and level useage exists) might be part of the reason that ScACC prefer to try and go for a sequence instead of everything to the hold. A few of us have been bitten.
You are right with the vacant bands of 3000' to 4000' with traffic sauntering down. However what you fail to say is that it is Scottish who control the hold and so is your responsibility for descent, the approach controllers control most of the hold in the London TMA. Maybe if we controlled the hold with our larger radar screens and a specific stack controller then we could perform a better job, as at T.C. Don't get me wrong there are people who need to improve their stack management at the airport, but we are forever sitting on radar having told TLA that say FL80 is free and then twiddling our thumbs whilst the aircraft descends through FL100, then FL90 etc. Just give him to us in the descent. We are not going to level him off and if we did there is something called co-ordination. So you prefer to go for a sequence that mightn't suit the airport because YOU can't manage the stack efficiently as YOU have just stated above. Call me old fashioned but who has had incidents before now in the stack, I don't believe it was us at Edinburgh
Aircraft coming off the hold with 15-20 mile gaps is irrelevant. Through your vast experience of the approach job you must realise that they do not end up 15-20 miles apart on the ILS i.e usually the requisite 6 mile gap is achieved. It is called vectoring and speed control which I understand you at Scottish know little about with the 'No ATC speed restriction route direct to an 8 mile final' Also the main reason for the initial large gap is Scottish very rarely give us control of more than one aircraft in the stack and so by the time we can bring an aircraft off the stack the gap is already there!
improve your knowledge folks
How about improve your attitude, have you ever met an ATCO3?
As most traffic is handed off about 10NM or more before the holding fix, then APC still have the option to take the aircraft off the heading and direct to the holding fix if that's a better plan for them.
So you think that is sufficient room for a Captain to prepare his aircraft for the hold? The aircraft should already be going into the hold like in the London TMA and if they then don't hold then it is a bonus for them, not the norm.
Sometimes it's like banging your head against a brick wall!
