that's more or less the way I've understood this over the years - 250kts below 10, unless it's below minimum clean speed, in which case fly min clean. (Believe me, if you ask me to fly slower than I think is safe, I'll tell you
) I also see both sides of the argument about whether it's a "go-slow" or a "go-fast" instruction. The thing that confuses me, and i think I probably speak for a lot of my colleagues, is why on earth anyone would issue an instruction when we're passing 3 or 4 000' when they know perfectly well that we cannot comply until we pass 10 - it makes no sense. If you want us to fly 280, or whatever, at 10k why on earth issue a (very ambiguous) instruction at 3k, why not wait till 9 or 9.5? I really don't see the point. It's going to take us 5 minutes to get from 3 to 10, so there's no rush. (Yes, I fly a Bus, but even those mighty Boeing machines don't go upwards all that fast at the beginning of a long-haul sector. Even a short-haul twin is going to take a couple of minutes to climb 7000', so why not wait until we're passing 9k at least???)
Until the other night I had only ever encountered this ex LAX and I had always assumed (yes, I know, rule number 1 - never assume
) that it was because we were past the distance limit, which I have always thought was 3 miles. I'm not sure - will try and keep track on my next trip - but I doubt that we exceed 12 miles from the coast on the LAXX dep that we do - but we're under radar vectors so the only controller knows what the plan is, we don't. However the other night, ex JFK, we were still over Long Island and just out of 3k, when we got the "maintain 280" call, so I really can't see the point of that if the controller knew that we couldn't (shouldn't?) comply till out of 10 - unless, of course he was acting on the "if he does it that's his problem" principal.
Once again, thanks for the replies, at least I now know the score - I'm glad I asked.
Next time I shall refuse, or at least request confirmation, which seems a pity in an already-busy RT enviroment, but there you go.
Yu'all have a good weekend now! I was planning to watch the Woman's Final at Wimbledon, but I see that the nice Russian girl with the loooooong legs has been knocked out, so there's no point anymore!
t