Originally Posted by
ATCBob
Without restating the speed, we expect speed will be at your discretion.
He's talking about like on the downwind, when you're given "fly heading 270, reduce speed to 210" which you do, but then some minutes later decide you're going to slow to 180. You can't do that! The only reason you don't get called on a pilot deviation is because we can't see your indicated speed to prove it. But if we say a specific speed, that means you're in a string and we're relying on everyone keeping it to maintain spacing and separation. The more people who cheat, the more other pilots get screwed over when they need to get pulled out and resequenced, and ultimately the more buffer room we need to build in (which means lower arrival rate and longer ground delays for everyone).
It's not a problem if you need to slow, just tell us first so we can adjust everyone else without having to give panic vectors.
Thanks ATCBob. That's what I thought. We were "Cleared for the Visual" the other day, no speed restriction assigned. I began slowing for our last notch of flaps and the approach controller got pretty upset. She said we needed to speed back up and that we should have notified her of our speed change. Again, we were cleared for the visual, no speed assigned and established on the localizer within 3nm to 5nm of the FAF. We reminded her that we had been cleared for the visual w/o a speed restriction and got an indignant "Otis 1234, switch to tower".
I understand that tight tolerances on the arrival exist, but if I am told I am cleared for a visual, slowing the aircraft reduces the workload and makes the speed transitions a little smoother for the folks in the back.