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Old 24th Apr 2002, 11:49
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1261
 
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I think that another factor in the US is the use of a dedicated arrival runway at most busy fields; in such situations arrival spacing is often (not always, though) of little relevance.

EDI is obviously a far quieter field than LHR, but for us visual approaches are a useful tool - they reduce the controller's workload (in my experience) and actually increase our capacity as almost all pilots will fly a tighter pattern than we would have given them under vectors. Under the banner of "reduced separation in the vicinity of the aerodrome" we would routinely clear the first two in a sequence for visual approaches (always in response to a pilot request). Mis-ident of traffic ahead by crews is (again, in my limited experience) not a factor. I can remember it happening once, but (in fairness to the crews) the controller made a very poor call on that occasion.
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