When I flew into LAX earlier this year it seemed like we were on a closing heading for one of the westerly runways ever since flying over Vegas, and joined final approach at least 50 miles east of LAX. How does that work?
I'm a controller myself here in England and have often wondered about the differences in procedures and the way it's all done in the States. Forgetting the congestion within the US TMA's, my guess is that because of the very large, fairly empty, distances between the TMA's you can arrange/sequence the traffic much further out, plus design the procedures with a lot more freedom. Next time I'm near San Diego I'd love to pop in to SoCal Tracon and see how you guys do it.
My thoughts are that there are just too many regionals here in England, getting in the way of sequencing the London traffic farther out. Plus obviously the Paris/Amsterdam/Brussels/Manchester TMA's all fairly close by. Obviously this shows the regional's have enough traffic to get in the way, which is great, but they're all just a wee bit too densely packed here in little Blighty.
The messiness of the LTMA frightens me sometimes. Me reckons it would be one all mighty re-jig needed to fit in procedures for a third Heathrow runway.