Speaking of Moscow (SVO), can someone tell me if it has an ILS ?
The reason I ask is that I made a number of trips there last year and the final approaches were somewhat different to what I am used to as a passenger - rather than a relatively smooth descent, it was usually engines power down, descend a bit, engines power up, level for a bit, engines off again etc. all the way to the rwy.
It does have ILS. But it's usually only used as a pickup after vectors along mentioned racetrack pattern to a short final.
The problem with the descent is that, unlike most other countries, there are quite a lot of different controlling units you have to talk to during approach/departure, each one of them being responsible for as much as about 1500' of altitude. Only when you have reached this border altitude (or have reported so, which is not always the same
) will you be passed on to the next controller, who then issues the next climb/descent clearance, and so on...