Another training maneuver involving an underqualified military pilot?
Nope
“Another training maneuver involving an underqualified military pilot?”
“There’s no radar here. The tower is controlled—excuse me, the tower does everything visually. And so they said, “Report about six miles from the airport.” So we did that.”
It may not be the military pilot’s fault. For years the airlines have been reporting distance from the airport that were not true. They do this to cover heavy traffic time or weather problems so they can arrive on time by getting to the destination faster than needed and “getting in line” on the stack earlier making the arrival time correct.
There are a number of “tricks” pilots use when getting into range of an airport. A good example I have used is when going into San Francisco International from the west I break cloud clearance coming over the mountains and they will ask me to re-report over Dumbarton bridge. When I re-report, I request a straight in to either 28 left or 28 right and normally they will slip me in between larger aircraft as long as I can get off the main right away. The vortex from the previous aircraft is a little rough but it beats burning fuel in line.
wy69