Originally Posted by
Car RAMROD
JFK- “speedbird 15k heavy, 180 or greater to 5dme”
BAW- “ I cant do that ma’am, I can do 160 or greater until 5”
”I can’t do that” sounds a lot like “unable” to me when it comes to plain English.
what he said he could do came BEFORE she questioned him.
Yes I do agree that unable would have been a better choice of words, however the USofA isn’t particularly standard with the phraseology and do use a lot of plain English instead, so I’d imagine “I can’t do that” should get the point across the same.
After his statement that amounted to "unable" and what he able to do at 5.0, her question to him was simply how long he could maintain the speed assignment of 180/when he was going to slow to 160. He never answered that question. He could have answered he was able to do 180 "until 6", or "until 7", or even "for X more miles" (then begin to slow in order to be at the160@5 ), but he didn't.
All she needed was the point where he would begin to slow below 180 to 160 in order to calculate how much effect it would have on those in trail and how much adjusting might need to happen. Perhaps he didn't know where that point in space was and/or was too busy announcing he was flying a 747 and giving a lecture on company stabilized approach criteria to figure it out.
If he had responded with "unable" and nothing more she would have still asked him the same question about when/at what point he would slow from his speed assignment.