Pilots reported of being told to keep speed up on final. Pilots realized they were getting to close ...

Attributes
ACN	1332301
Time
Date	201602
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	A80.TRACON
State Reference	GA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-700
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 124 Flight Crew Type 9000
Person 2
Function	First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 106
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Speed All Types

Narrative:

While being vectored for the visual approach to 26R in atl; the approach controller pointed out traffic 'one moving to two o'clock'. We called the traffic and the runway in sight. The approach controller then issued the instruction to 'follow the traffic; cleared the visual approach to 26R; maintain 170 knots to ajaay.' when it became apparent that our traffic was less than 2.5 miles from the traffic in front of him and right at 2.5 miles from us; we elected to slow to 160 knots. Before handing us off to tower; approach asked us our speed and instructed us to speed back up. Upon switching to the tower frequency the aircraft in front of us was asked to slow to approach speed and the aircraft in front of them was asked for minimum time on the runway. We began slowing again; as we were passing ajaay; and the aircraft in front of us cleared the runway as we were passing through 500 feet AGL. We deviated from our assigned speed in order to safely accomplish our other instruction to follow the traffic in front of us. We didn't inform ATC of this as the frequency was too busy.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Pilots reported of being told to keep speed up on final. Pilots realized they were getting to close to traffic they were following and slowed. Approach told them to increase speed and go to tower. On tower frequency they heard minimal time on runway for traffic that just landed and the aircraft they were following was told to slow.

Narrative: While being vectored for the visual approach to 26R in ATL; the Approach Controller pointed out traffic 'one moving to two o'clock'. We called the traffic and the runway in sight. The Approach Controller then issued the instruction to 'follow the traffic; cleared the visual approach to 26R; maintain 170 knots to AJAAY.' When it became apparent that our traffic was less than 2.5 miles from the traffic in front of him and right at 2.5 miles from us; we elected to slow to 160 knots. Before handing us off to Tower; Approach asked us our speed and instructed us to speed back up. Upon switching to the Tower frequency the aircraft in front of us was asked to slow to approach speed and the aircraft in front of them was asked for minimum time on the runway. We began slowing again; as we were passing AJAAY; and the aircraft in front of us cleared the runway as we were passing through 500 feet AGL. We deviated from our assigned speed in order to safely accomplish our other instruction to follow the traffic in front of us. We didn't inform ATC of this as the frequency was too busy.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.