RAAFASA, the F111's were coming in from the east. I was coming from the north west to the north, I was told to track to the south of AMB and hold at Rosebank, I think (I can't be bothered looking it up at the moment). The F111's then came from the east to about two miles north of AMB, did a beat up (Is that what you call a "Tactical" approach?) then broke and did a less than two mile circuit. My positiom at 10 miles north would have in no way clashed with them. It was cavok. My working position at ten miles north and below five hundred agl would have been further away than the point they told me to hold. It doesn't make sense but military airspace is like CASA, it doesn't have to, tough titty.
Thanks SuperCecil. Holding at Rosewood (you were so close
) is commonly used as it provides a procedural standard in case radar sep is not suitable (low level, intermittent returns etc).
It also gives tower a fighting chance of being able to sight acft (through binos unless you're a C17, of course) to minimise the sep standard required. If you and the piggies were the only acft in the airspace at the time, it does sound like your ops would have worked. Again, all I can say is that the pigs may have requested more airspace than they actually used, or the controllers may have misunderstood their, or your, request and erred on the side of safety.
If it was recent, give me a date and time and I'll pull the audio and radar tapes and have a more exact look at it. If it was a while ago the tapes will be gone but next time something like this happens to you just give us a call on the next working day and we will be able to view the tapes and either justify the controllers actions or counsel them to ensure a better service next time. Cheers.