Narrative:

We had trouble getting approach to give us lower altitudes on vectors to approach to runway 18R. He/she always seemed to be behind the power curve so to speak. We could tell we were going to be too high to complete a stabilized approach if this kept up. I lowered the gear about 10 miles outside the outer marker to allow me to descend faster without over speeding his assigned speeds. He finally cleared us for a visual; but we were approaching the outer marker at 2000 feet above the approach marker altitude. He was vectoring a cessna citation under us; which was the immediate cause of the restricted altitudes. I informed approach we would need to abandon the approach and circle to get in proper position for a landing. He then gave us vectors back for another approach; which went well as the citation was now out of the way. Upon talking to approach control supervisor; I was told that he himself had been observing and checking the controller as he was not yet qualified. He admitted he had seen the situation develop but hesitated to intervene; as he wanted to see how the controller would handle it. He apologized for the bad handling and we talked at length about how the situation had developed and how it was handled. He mentioned several things the controller should have done to prevent the situation. I explained to the supervisor that our company has a set of parameters that must be met in order to conduct a stabilized approach. I went over them for him; explaining that this situation had deteriorated to a point where it was impossible to meet those standards and to safely land the aircraft.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier landing TPA was forced to abandon a visual approach because of high altitude; ATC later admitting training was in progress and instructor intervention was late.

Narrative: We had trouble getting approach to give us lower altitudes on vectors to approach to Runway 18R. He/she always seemed to be behind the power curve so to speak. We could tell we were going to be too high to complete a stabilized approach if this kept up. I lowered the gear about 10 miles outside the outer marker to allow me to descend faster without over speeding his assigned speeds. He finally cleared us for a visual; but we were approaching the outer marker at 2000 feet above the approach marker altitude. He was vectoring a Cessna Citation under us; which was the immediate cause of the restricted altitudes. I informed approach we would need to abandon the approach and circle to get in proper position for a landing. He then gave us vectors back for another approach; which went well as the Citation was now out of the way. Upon talking to approach control supervisor; I was told that he himself had been observing and checking the controller as he was not yet qualified. He admitted he had seen the situation develop but hesitated to intervene; as he wanted to see how the controller would handle it. He apologized for the bad handling and we talked at length about how the situation had developed and how it was handled. He mentioned several things the controller should have done to prevent the situation. I explained to the supervisor that our company has a set of parameters that must be met in order to conduct a stabilized approach. I went over them for him; explaining that this situation had deteriorated to a point where it was impossible to meet those standards and to safely land the aircraft.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.