You couldn’t make it up!
Just the other evening in an almost identical situation to MachineMan at LPA, except that there was no one ahead of us and we were cleared to 3000’ on a fairly wide downwind (just over 6 miles). As ADFS would probably say, I failed to plan ahead and had configured to flap 5 as we reached 6 miles downwind, stupidly expecting to be turned onto base any moment.
Just as we were about to ask for a turn in, the controller asked our speed? He was told 165 kts (and as I was thinking to myself that the turn must definitely come now, as he realises we are set up for base, I realised that the “dreaded” extended exchange in Spanish was taking place. Just as I said to my colleague “I don’t believe it – they are going to do it again,” our next instruction arrived. “Expect a turn in 5 miles.”
As we continued heading away from the airfield – there it was on TCAS, approx 5 miles behind, initially 1000’ above us shortly before starting it’s turn onto finals. (Ooops there I go again “playing ATCO with my TCAS”).
We finally received a turn towards the localiser about 12 miles out. I had glanced at our fuel when we were abeam the threshold and from the difference after we had landed, I would conservatively estimate we burned well in excess of an extra 600kgs to allow that Air Europa 737 get in ahead of us. (Obviously my fault because I should have planned to get dicked about and stayed in clean config.)
A couple of observations here:
It is easy to see that controllers from other countries, particularly the UK simply cannot comprehend, that what a few of us are bothering to describe here, could possibly happen anywhere. It is beyond belief to think of anything remotely similar happening at any UK airport, that’s for certain. But it really does happen with monotonous regularity in Spanish airspace.
When I think back over the worst examples of this type of controlling I have observed, it is always after a more lengthy exchange than normal, between the pilot and the controller. I can only come to the conclusion alluded to by Crackerjack, that most of this is “driven” by the pilots involved, but it is the controllers that are either “caving in” to their demands or are quite happy to go along with them.
The controllers, presumably, are unaware that this way of doing things is not the norm elsewhere, but the pilots for sure, know damn well that it is not!
(Well, maybe not the Binter pilots........)