Delivery is everything, and the delivery of "unable" by the Heavy was a little hard -- but he certainly made his point.
I found it interesting that the Tower Supervisor conveyed
his expectation that the pilot should notify ATC
prior to the issuance of Visual Separation -- that he would/could not accept Visual Separation.
There have been several instances in my career where I've been informed by a pilot that he was refusing to accept Visual Separation, and I've had to move on to Plan B. These were generally not a problem, as long as had not painted myself into a corner.
Personally, I believe issuing the Visual Separation before takeoff clearance is preferable -- at least this would give the crew the opportunity to say "unable"
and allow ATC to switch to Plan B
before the aircraft gets airborne.
MEM_ATC
Originally Posted by
Alterbridge
Yeah, sounds like heavy just needed to respond to the Local's question by simply saying, "Yes, but we're unable."
It's the first refusal of this type that I've ever heard.
Call your colleagues in LAS about answers to your 4 questions, as visual separation is common practice there. They clear guys for takeoff while the preceeding departure is still on his takeoff roll.
I think flight crews are very willing to help his friendly ATCer get out of a potential bind. Just listen to the responses you get when you query a flight about his speed or climb/descent rates.
"...Mach .79, whaddya need?"
"2000 fpm, whaddya need?"
They don't seem to realize that you're asking out of curiosity and not necessarily because you "need' anything (apologies for the slight thread creep.).