Hey,steady on GMS.Using such words as airmanship,initiative,and"fly the aircraft" is tantamount to treason.You'll be suggesting that flying is pleasurable should be enjoyed and even personally rewarding.Thank goodness you stopped short of suggesting that pilots exercise judgement as well!

Cheers you all-keep smiling.

I seem to recall that if met conditions allowed at ALC, then over the top at whatever the 25 nm MSA was (easing down towards circling minima within 4 nm's), right downwind for R/W 10 at night was a neat and safe action to take for a visual circuit and certainly speeded traffic flow if you were leading the stream southbound from CLS. Have things changed recently?

Things changed a few years ago, highcirrus.

Now, it's a DME Arc to a loooong final. This is called "progress" :hmm: :uhoh:

Jeppesen have issued a Radar Vectoring chart for ALC as well. I don't know why, because I've never been vectored towards final approach at ALC, even by Valencia ATC!

Oh, and I agree with other's sentiments;
VILNA to a 10nm Final in Daylight, VMC, ONLY!
This IS called airmanship.

Surely going direct to Vilna at night is against most (all) companies SOP's. While I agree that direct to Vilna is more than likely safe, surly if complied with the required terrain clearance the procedure would follow that track.