As a resident subject to LHR westerly approach paths who has neither a cheap house,an insensitive ear nor an eyesight problem may I take issue with some of the unsympathetic comments regarding this trial.
I watch many approaches into Heathrow and generally am appalled at the variance of gear deployment and occasional glide path divergence within normal operations. There are some operators who clearly adhere to the requirement for a stabilised, gear deployed approach at a ht of 3000+.
Any 'Trial' that seeks to alleviate noise without invoking flight safety issues is to be welcomed. Those that protest the difficulty of a 3.2 degree slope I would hope operate other than at Heathrow or on less demanding equipment! They certainly would struggle significantly at some of the global airports mentioned.
I would mention a familiarity over 30 years of heavy jet operations worldwide and naturally discount ATC induced speed,sequencing, traffic and abnormal requirements.