Opposite Directon VFR/IFR question

At my tower we run consistent opposite direction traffic arr/dep arr/arr to the same runway. It is not unusual to have N123 3 mile final cleared to land on rwy36 and military aircraft 3 mile final rwy18 cleared option. Now standard procedure is giving traffic of course then sending one of them around. Now i have been told multiple times "no separation requirement for vfr/vfr" "don't scrape paint, etc."
I can dig that but what about when it's IFR/VFR same scenario?
Any input on the opposite direction stuff is appreciated. Haven't found anything in the .65 ever reguarding that situation for a VFR tower.

wow, just point them at each and plan to send one around? what if the one you dont send around goes missed. Anyone actually try a spacing manuever to make it work instead?

We do that all day long with VFR aircraft because we only have instruments to one runway and the wind may favor the other. The VFR a/c to the active may be cleared to land/option, but the opposite direction a/c always has an altitude restriction or is told to report missed approach, but never cleared simultaneously with opposite direction traffic that close. One radio failure or 'brain fart' and you could be in a world of hurt, but... the separation is clear of runway prior to the threshhold.

As for IFR you should have an LOA stating your minimums. Mine is 10 miles IFR/IFR(departure turned prior to inbound reaching 10 miles) and 4 miles IFR/VFR(VFR turned prior to IFR reaching 4 miles). Each airport will be different.

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~controller since 99'

Opposite direction separation is locally directived. At my base it used to be IFR/IFR-6 miles, either A/C VFR-3 miles, but was recently changed to IFR/IFR-10 mi, either A/C VFR-6 mi due to too many close calls. I actually got busted on my rating day for opposite direction separation bust, but it was 9 1/2 miles separation and this was 2 days after they changed the rules (I didn't even know they had changed the rule). So I still got my rating cuz the rest of the day was exceptional for me.

Haha, yes MP we use spacing maneuvers plenty. Just works out that way alot, we deal with alot of inexperienced pilots who won't make their initial transmission to you until they are 3 mile final. You already have somebody else straight in 3 miles to the same runway opposite direction. Not to many spacing maneuvers to be used. We actually should be writing pilot deviations constantly but ...

The same situation BZ, wind lined up one way but Practice Approaches to the other. Usually just send the practice approach around on the right, or "discontinue approach, at the middle marker go around right side, traffic etc." LOA doesn't have anything though. Only IFR/IFR which is departure turned prior to inbound reaching 7.

Buck, your situation involves a VFR tower, which means you don't apply IFR separation, just visual. I'm assuming that you have some sort of FAA TRACON or Center dealing with your IFR Arrivals/Departures, which in your case some assurance should be given that you are in fact going to apply visual between the two A/C. (LOA's, SOP's, verbal confirmation, or whatever your facilities boss decides) Basically make sure that you are giving one of the A/C restrictions and keeping positive control you'll have no problems. This is one of the things that I find most difficult for prior military controllers to adjust to in FCTs. I know it was really strange for me, in the military most things are sequenced and sent to another reporting point.

thanks for the info jake, yeah took a bit to get used to the tower here at first but now i'm just ready to move on to something with more traffic again. 2 years to go, hope the FAA is still hiring.

Who's the LOA with?? Are you at a DOD/military facility? Never heard of putting mileage restrictions on yourself. Why have an LOA with yourself if there is no separation standard to begin with? You must be military or DOD where they can make things stricter. Again though, who is the LOA with? The RAPCON? Or do you just mean an SOP.

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How about you circle the guy at a mile final. A go around on the side of the runway seems dangerous to me. You still have 2 within the runway environment pointed at each other. Too many things could go wrong. What if they guy you try to send around loses their radio, or more realistically just doesn't hear you. Now you have two rolling down the same runway opposite direction at each other.

Two facilities ago I worked at a place where there was a lot of this going on. I just circled them at a mile final and sequenced them in to the runway in use. If they declined the circling maneuver then they were instructed to leave the pattern and were not allowed any more practice approaches. Was pretty simple in my eyes. You either go the same way as everybody else or go bye bye. It was consistently enough traffic where you couldn't really accommodate opposite direction all the time, even for practice instruments. We even had 3 parallels and still had to circle or deny.

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In the real world that would be fine, but we are a GA tower where the majority of our traffic is military pilot training from another airport. They train mostly over here for practice instrument approaches. They can accept a circle but then the instructor would have to take over, student would have to be vectored around and try the same thing again. Now i would normally have no problem with that but it's kind of a political situation i guess. We don't wanna piss off the majority of our traffic. We try and work with them the max extent.