In answer to the comment that it's too busy to say that you need 160 to 5 miles not 4 is a red herring. If you know that is what you need, when told to maintain a speed you can't you immediately reply (as you have to give a readback) that you need something else. As previously stated if given an instruction and you wilfully disobey it, then you are breaking the law. I know your SOPs come first, and I agree with that, after all you are sat at the sharp end, but you MUST inform if you are unable to comply with any ATC instruction. Otherwise it will lead to chaos with people choosing which instructions to comply with or not. We, as stated previously, need to work together to make it work. We don't as a general rule know every operators SOPS which is why we need to have standardisation. I try and paint a picture on the RT so that if a pilot can help they will have a full understanding of what's going on, please can we make this a 2 way process.
PS thanks to all the pilots who have helped me out over the years, I hope we're even!
