Narrative:

We were conducting [a] flight to tlh. Weather was great and we had completed our initial descent down to 4;000 feet; having asked for a visual to 36. About 12 miles north of tlh; approach advised us to expect a visual to 27 instead. We were given abbreviated vectors to the south; to establish a right base just outside the FAF for the ILS 27; when ATC advised us that we were cleared for the visual 27; but there was traffic ahead of us; and requested we slow down to 180; because we were overtaking the traffic also on a visual to 27. We turned inbound about 9 miles from the runway; at 1;800; indicating 180 KTS; when ATC advised us we were still 80 KTS faster. We inquired if ATC wanted to give us a vector for a box pattern; to provide more separation; but ATC just said to continue. We slowed down to 160 while configured with gear down and flap 30; now about 7 miles from ray 27 and about 3 mile from the FAF. We could see the traffic about 3 miles ahead of us; and it looked like the separation was not going to work out.instead of waiting until we were at 500 feet or so AGL on final and 'then' having to make a low altitude go around; I simply made the command decisions to tell ATC (the same folks we had asked if they thought the separation looked good previously) we just needed a box pattern for 'separation with the traffic.' ATC cleared us to do a box pattern; which allowed the extremely slow [aircraft] (they must have been trying to build time; since apparently they flew at close to vref of 100 KTS for most of their 15-mile straight in visual) to safely land on 27.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier Captain reported a conflict with traffic while on a visual approach into TLH.

Narrative: We were conducting [a] flight to TLH. Weather was great and we had completed our initial descent down to 4;000 feet; having asked for a visual to 36. About 12 miles north of TLH; Approach advised us to expect a visual to 27 instead. We were given abbreviated vectors to the south; to establish a right base just outside the FAF for the ILS 27; when ATC advised us that we were cleared for the visual 27; but there was traffic ahead of us; and requested we slow down to 180; because we were overtaking the traffic also on a visual to 27. We turned inbound about 9 miles from the runway; at 1;800; indicating 180 KTS; when ATC advised us we were still 80 KTS faster. We inquired if ATC wanted to give us a vector for a box pattern; to provide more separation; but ATC just said to continue. We slowed down to 160 while configured with gear down and flap 30; now about 7 miles from Ray 27 and about 3 mile from the FAF. We could see the traffic about 3 miles ahead of us; and it looked like the separation was not going to work out.Instead of waiting until we were at 500 feet or so AGL on final and 'then' having to make a low altitude go around; I simply made the Command decisions to tell ATC (the same folks we had asked if they thought the separation looked good previously) we just needed a box pattern for 'separation with the traffic.' ATC cleared us to do a box pattern; which allowed the extremely slow [aircraft] (they must have been trying to build time; since apparently they flew at close to Vref of 100 KTS for most of their 15-mile straight in visual) to safely land on 27.

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.