Narrative:

I was working final east and the winds were very strong out of the west. The same speed issued to 2 different aircraft was showing a difference of 30 KTS. A PA28 was on a right downwind for runway 23 and a B737 was on the straight in. I asked the PA28 what his speed was and he said 140 indicating 160. I thought that was sufficient to get him into the next hole on final. I issued him a cautionary wake turbulence for the traffic he was to follow and turned him base at 3 1/2 mile in trail of the large he was to follow. It pulled away to over 4 miles which was perfect for his wake turbulence. I switched him to the tower and then noticed he had slowed down to 80 KTS. The B737 was spaced tightly behind so I called the tower and asked local east if he slowed and if he did to tell him to speed back up. I was then told to break the PA28 out by the supervisor but I told the supervisor that I didn't have him on my frequency. I was then told that he would be broken out by tower so I switched the B737 to tower since I thought they had already started to break the PA28 out. As I was switching the B737 to the tower I got called by a coordinator from the tower to tell me they were breaking out the PA28. This caused a lot of aircraft to be slowed and or broken off the final to regain control. We have reduced separation within 10 miles so we can go down to 2 1/2 miles but I didn't have the splat 'T' function on at the time so I don't know exactly how close they got before the PA28 was broken off the approach. I would guess less than 2 1/2. [My] recommendation [is] to not try to force the situation with bad winds. Realistically; I think I should have been given a little more room from the arrival controller to get the aircraft in there or the small should have been held out for a while until there was enough room for him to do 80 KTS down the final. Maybe the tmc could have flowed one away from me to make room.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CLT Controller described a loss of separation event when trying to sequence a light aircraft onto final in a minimally spaced hole.

Narrative: I was working Final East and the winds were very strong out of the west. The same speed issued to 2 different aircraft was showing a difference of 30 KTS. A PA28 was on a right downwind for Runway 23 and a B737 was on the straight in. I asked the PA28 what his speed was and he said 140 indicating 160. I thought that was sufficient to get him into the next hole on final. I issued him a cautionary wake turbulence for the traffic he was to follow and turned him base at 3 1/2 mile in trail of the large he was to follow. It pulled away to over 4 miles which was perfect for his wake turbulence. I switched him to the Tower and then noticed he had slowed down to 80 KTS. The B737 was spaced tightly behind so I called the Tower and asked Local East if he slowed and if he did to tell him to speed back up. I was then told to break the PA28 out by the Supervisor but I told the Supervisor that I didn't have him on my frequency. I was then told that he would be broken out by Tower so I switched the B737 to Tower since I thought they had already started to break the PA28 out. As I was switching the B737 to the Tower I got called by a coordinator from the Tower to tell me they were breaking out the PA28. This caused a lot of aircraft to be slowed and or broken off the final to regain control. We have reduced separation within 10 miles so we can go down to 2 1/2 miles but I didn't have the splat 'T' function on at the time so I don't know exactly how close they got before the PA28 was broken off the approach. I would guess less than 2 1/2. [My] recommendation [is] to not try to force the situation with bad winds. Realistically; I think I should have been given a little more room from the ARR Controller to get the aircraft in there or the small should have been held out for a while until there was enough room for him to do 80 KTS down the final. Maybe the TMC could have flowed one away from me to make room.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.