I flew through the Tindal control zone VFR every day last week (and several times a week for months now). There is an exercise going on up here at the moment with a whole swag of military aircraft including F/A 18s, F111s, C17s, C130s and Caribous. There have been times where we've had multiple F/A 18 arrivals and departures in a short period sharing the same piece of sky with several 210s, GA8s, 206s, Kingairs, 310s and Barons.
Want to know how many times I've been knocked back for a clearance?
None
Want to know how much holding I've had to do?
None
Want to know how hard it is to get in and out of there considering the traffic and the beginnings of some interesting wet season build ups?
Not at all
All of the Tindal controllers have treated me fantastically even during periods when its obvious that the stress level at the other end of the radio set is high and rising. Great work on their part every time
I'd have to say that my only criticism so far would be that perhaps that military controllers tend to have fairly optimistic perceptions of what a light, unpressurised piston single or twin can do in terms of decent profile and speed control. There have been a few occasions (and more than a few in Darwin) where I've been asked cleared a visual approach while already on a base position but have been held up at 4000 or so feet for traffic seperation. That's not really practical, though I've never been knocked back nor treated improperly when I've consequently requested extra track miles or offered to join crosswind onto the opposite side circuit to help out with both traffic separation and maintaining the integrity of my passengers ear drums.