thought with the installation of DFS as a private enterprise in German ATC some 22 years ago all the old threadmills became abandoned !!
Just because the guys aren`t working for BFS but DFS does not change a thing. The BAF (Bundesamt für Flugsicherung - the government agency for air traffic control) never changed and was not known for proper knowledge on the subjects on hand then and certainly has not changed much.
After decades of offloading civil servants that weren´t excelling in their fields onto air traffic control what would one expect ? My father was an ATCO for the BFS and his superior was an architect with no knowledge of ATC whatsover, nor had that guy ever worked the ridiculous shifts they had in BFS. Yet this bigmouth told the working ATCOs how to do their job...
Even when these dinosaurs are dying out (and probably are gone by now), DFS focusses on the big airports and flows, AKA cash-flows. If your tower is not DFS run, then DFS and BAFs coorperation seem to lack 'enthusiams', I´m told. And BAF consults with DFS when a procedure is to be established....
The design of airspace and flows speaks volumes. We - homebased at a small IFR airfield S of EDDF - are considered an annoyance and treated accordingly: descending 270-300 trackmiles before homebase is not uncommon and flying the last 80 miles below FL140 is the usual thing.
Last time I arrived from the southeast, this cost us 1000lbs of fuel plus whatever we have to spent for the ETS and I landed min div fuel + 20lbs.
DFS means Descend, Fly Slow.