I appreciate you taking time to answer questions on this forum, and please don't take my question/remarks personally as they're neither directed at you nor accusing you, but rather the product of experience.
Let's talk separation. There are two major flaws going into EWR:
22L/4R - Visual, let's understand each other here from pilot to controller. If you clear me for a visual and I'm following a heavy, why do you bother giving me a speed? I am going to maintain 5 miles separation whether it complies with your speed or not, as separation is now my concern. Many times I've gone into EWR, given a "follow the traffic, clear for the visual, maintain 180 to the marker", then the heavy will slow early, and we do as well to maintain separation, then either tower or approach will get their panties in a bunch because we slowed down. I will maintain separation, no matter what speed you give me, and if that's not something you're interested in then don't clear me for a visual and do your job. The alternative would be to either go around or to not accept the visual. So what say you?
11 visual - You guys apparently seem to think that instead of executing a go around on 11 (because the 737 on approach to 22L was too good to comply with instructions) that you can ask for a circle to land on 22R. Well my friend, that's all nice and good if you're above 1000', but not below. Our book specifically states that we cannot circle to land below 1000'. Expect a big fat UNABLE in the near future if you decide to give us a circle to land for 22R from 11 inside of a thousand feet. Instead why don't you guys ask the CAL 737 on approach to 22L to go around?
ok..let me see if I can explain this without scaring the crap out of you.
What you're saying makes perfect sense, but to be brutally honest, when we're issuing visual approach clearances, we're doing it to run a super tight final that would be illegal for us to do otherwise. The aircraft behind you is doing the same speed and if you slow down, its going to compress a lot, to the point that either him, or the one behind most likely will end up going around. This is the reason why a lot of controllers are very hesitant to give visual clearances when its really busy, and only use it as a last resort bailout. If you refuse a visual, you will be sent around or taken out of line for resequence. its not uncommon to spend another 20 to 30 minutes flying for resequence.
I'm going to throw a question out to you pilots...are you able to safely fly on final and land behind a heavy/B757 with less than 5 miles by staying "above" the descent profile of that heavy? I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that if you stayed at a higher profile/angle, and touched down at a point further down the runway than the heavy, that you would stay above such wake. Again, I'll confess I'm not a pilot, so I may be misinformed on this.
As for the second question. Normally...we don't do visuals to Rwy 11 anymore. In the past we did on ocasion, but after CRDA rwy 11 final was created RWY 11 arrivals are only ILS11. I haven't seen many circle for 22R since we opened CRDA, but...in any case, if and when that happens, that is never ever initiated by us. That is something the tower would initiate, and as far as I know, very rarely would the tower send a rwy 11 arrival around if there was a conflict with a 22L arrival, because a rwy 11 go around is a mess that is not easy to clean up for us. If you go straight out...you're in the river dancing with the LGA traffic. if you turn right, you're dancing with our departures, if you turn left you're head on with the arrivals and/or the TEB departures. Trust me when I tell you...if you're set up for 11, we all want you landing, and the one going around is usually the 22L arrival.
Which brings me to another observation. Watching the Singapore heavy coming from Kuala Lumpur go around because of a conflict with a Rwy 11 Colgan arrival that took off 35 minutes ago makes me cringe my teeth every time it happens. Not fair but its just easier for the tower to have a 22L go around than the 11.