is this fair?

Surprised he didn’t just give you a few vectors to keep you out of the way.
 
blueskyMD said:
On my last flight to home KXLL I was being vectored for RNAV 7 approach . I was planning on doing the full approach on my own but the controller offered to provide vectors so I accepted. As I got very close to the Dostr intersection and anticipating loc intercept any moment I was told that I had to go to Katve intersection and hold because there was Allegiant flight is on the way to KABE . The airline was still 15 miles out and still at 6000 ft. Well after about 10 minutes of hold finally I was cleared for the approach. So the question is , is this standard way to handle the approaches where a smaller airport lies inside the class C airspace , to move little guys out of the way to make room for airlines ?
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It's tough to say without seeing what was going on at the time. If you were the only 2 planes going on at the time then I'd say that should be unusual for you to get a 10 min hold so an airliner can go unimpeded. I'd think at Lance speed you would have beaten the airliner and they could always slow the airliner a bit to make both happen without holding. I know XLL doesn't have a tower. Does traffic going in there have to cancel before starting the approach into ABE? If so, given you said it was OVC007 that could be an easy explanation. We'd all like to think that people call the second they clear the active to cancel when known traffic is waiting but unfortunately that is the exception, not the norm.

Real time update while typing...:) After seeing that the published missed is a left turn climbing to 3000 that would put you right in the face of the ILS06 traffic into ABE. I'm starting to think that given your approach having less than 300 feet from mins and that published missed it may have been the best for the system to run the jet in. Of course I don't work there and the only true way to get a good briefing is to call the facility with the date/time, have them pull the data and go over it with you.
 
I was a new captain having just acquired the magic hundred hours in that seat flying a turboprop many years back from Fredericton, Canada to BOS. The weather was good at the time of departure and forecast to remain so. The forecasters must have been snoozing as the weather turned bad from Bangor south to New York City. We were in several holds approaching BOS and our fuel was getting low. We had declared minimum fuel when we checked in with BOS approach and airports within fuel range were below minimums. We turned base to 4R at BOS 42 DME declaring emergency fuel. The controller came back telling us we were #6 fuel emergency on final. Wx at BOS was right at minimums. The controllers at BOS ARTCC, approach and tower were working their asses off and did a great job getting a lot of us down. Some missed their calling as auctioneers but were easy to understand. That was probably the best ILS I ever flew my partner in crime that day said later when the needles centered they never moved. After landing I talked with a tower controller I had known for years on the phone much later and he said 2 planes had engines flame out taxiing in.
 
By ABE approach standards that's not too bad actually. I was once vectored out past Braden and over the Delaware River when coming from Arner in one of Ace's Cherokees while they were running 24 at ABE. Told me to turn then and "fly straight in 24 no delay" they didnt like when I said "Cant find 24 from Jersey, I'll need more vectors!"

Had them put a Dash 8 on straight in 6 while I was doing pattern work on 24 at night time once too. FYI Dash 8 landing lights are very blinding right as you rotate.

Never did anything but VFR at what was then 1N9 though when training with Gateway. Just got below 1900 by Buckeye's tank farm and didn't even have to talk to the goons at ABE. Back then Gateway seemed to go out of their way to keep students from talking to ATC actually, I hope it's still not the same.
 
In addition to my correction above I would like to say that ATC in general has been very accommodating in my experience and they all do a great job working us little planes in with the bigger ones. Here is a funny exchange I had with Teterboro tower coming in one time in my previous plane (I'm N135SR)

 
Radar Contact said:
It's tough to say without seeing what was going on at the time. If you were the only 2 planes going on at the time then I'd say that should be unusual for you to get a 10 min hold so an airliner can go unimpeded. I'd think at Lance speed you would have beaten the airliner and they could always slow the airliner a bit to make both happen without holding. I know XLL doesn't have a tower. Does traffic going in there have to cancel before starting the approach into ABE? If so, given you said it was OVC007 that could be an easy explanation. We'd all like to think that people call the second they clear the active to cancel when known traffic is waiting but unfortunately that is the exception, not the norm.

Real time update while typing...:) After seeing that the published missed is a left turn climbing to 3000 that would put you right in the face of the ILS06 traffic into ABE. I'm starting to think that given your approach having less than 300 feet from mins and that published missed it may have been the best for the system to run the jet in. Of course I don't work there and the only true way to get a good briefing is to call the facility with the date/time, have them pull the data and go over it with you.
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Thanks Radar Contact
The missed approach turn was possibly the reason for him not to clear me approach. Anyway he was quite professional and the hold was not exactly 10 minutes little shorter but it felt like it. They provide a frequency to cancel on the ground and I always cancel during the rollout even before turning taxiway especially in this kind of wx
 
You are right KATVE does not have hold but he used the term hold and I guess he just wanted to send me in that general direction to make way for airliner
 
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