Although I was not on the other morning i will try and clear up some of the questions people might have.
First on the holding then max speed then slow to min thing, there are so many variables in moving traffic in the TMA it's not funny!!! Is the director nailing the spacing on final or is he/she wasting a mile or two? Is the sector controller a minute late or early with his/her aircraft entering into Sy airspace? Is the aircraft on downdwind reducing to 180k and refusing to increase speed thus making it impossible to get him to the position on final where he should be? Is the tower trying to get a few A380's away which require bigger gaps on final because of the time it takes them to line up? Is someone on final refusing to call visual even though the guy behind is, thus requiring us to maintain a radar standard instaed of letting them close up on each other. These are just some of the things that can occur.
PRM appraoches allow us to have aircraft side by side in IMC where as ILS's require min 2nm between the finals thus reducing the arrival rate. Even though your downwinds are longer we are excepting more aircraft on PRM so the actual delays are less.
Not Clearing an aircraft for a visual during the PRM approach, maybe the guy next to you has not called visual so we still need you on the PRM approach as we could have to break you out if they stray into the NTZ.
MED 1 choppers don't come to Sy but they land at hospitals under the Approach paths eg RPA, Prince of Wales and St George. In full IMC the tower controller can not visually seperate inbounds with the helicopters as he/she can not see the aircraft. In this case a gap in the arrival traffic is required.
I urge people to come and sit in with us and see how it all works, everytime pilots come and watch they always remark how useful it is to see things from our side
