As promised, I spoke to the ATCO concerned and listened to the recordings today. I've been in touch with Glasswasher Man and, with his blessing, post the PM I sent him which is a precis of events. He PM'd me last night with some more details of the situation, which are referenced to, but fairly self-explanatory within the context. I've removed the names (to protect the innocent
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Originally Posted by matspart3
Hi *******
I've listened to the tapes and had a chat with **** (the Controller.)
You didn't 
him off!' He was just understandably concerned that, as a solo student, you'd gone around twice and that you may have a problem. In going around, you did EXACTLY the right thing and made an excellent Captain's decision.
When you said on your second go-around 'due traffic on the runway,' he simply offered the advice that 'there's plenty of room, your at three quarters (not 1/4) of a mile' as an encouragement and an explanation that the situation would have comfortably worked out, rather than a b*llocking.
He wasn't aware, of course, that your profile was not ideal, that the turbulence was affecting your flight more generally and had assumed that you weren't comfortable with the spacing. This is the crux of the issue and I'll come back to it...
At that point, he phoned **** just to ask his advice on how you were generally, to gauge whether your might be nervous or have any particular training issues affecting your performance. The conversation was very lighthearted and certainly not any form of admonishment. If *** implied that you'd upset ATC, that was definitley not the case, **** was just worried.
The 'say again' part downwind related to your position in traffic. You were following a company aircraft (GGFCA), who was joining directly onto base leg and crossing your track from right to left. After the couple of transmissions, you reported the traffic in sight, followed and landed safely.
**** has been an ATCO here for almost 10 years and he's without doubt, one of the best we've ever had. I'm very sorry to say that we're losing him very shortly to ******** airport. He's an experienced PPL and a CAA ATC and RT examiner, who is very well versed in dealing with students. His RT is sometimes quite 'short' but he assures me he wasn't ' off.' Your more then welcome to come across and listen to the tapes in realtime if you wish.
In summary, the key here is communication. **** had no way of knowing that the turbulence was making your flight uncomfortable and was doing his best to offer you some assistance. As I said in my message last night, we have absolutely no problem with you asking us to 'say again' over and over again or even using plain language. Please don't be afraid to ask for help, that's exactly what we're here for.
You'd be more than welcome, and I think it would help boost your RT confidence, to come over to the Tower for a visit next time you're around. They're a friendly bunch (especially if you bring cakes and biscuits!) Drop me a line if you're interested.
Finally, if you're happy, I'd like to post a precis of this response on the PPRuNe thread, just to stop the 'armchair experts' degenerating it into an 'us vs them' argument.
Hope this helps
Glasswasher Man has responded and will be coming to the Tower soon (with Shortbread biscuits!!) thereby guaranteeing himself straight-in approaches in future! The small number of posters who immediately jumped to the conclusion that the ATCO was in the wrong might like to reconsider their comments. More generally in relation to other comments, handling upwards of 80 000 movements per annum in an 11-hour day Gloucester does use 'land after' and 'land after the departing' regularly. 7 of its 9 ATCO's has, or has had a PPL at some point and we're not averse to visitors to ATC, especially if they bring cakes and/or single malts.