by OTTOL » Thu Aug 26, 2004 9:04 pm
A lot of it depends on the airspace and the airplane that you are flying.
I'll start with airspace; I know from experience, that when I fly into the New York metro area, to fly at 250kts(after I've descended through 10,000 ft)until the approach controller advises me otherwise. Usually by the time I have been vectored onto final, I've ALREADY been slowed to 170kts or less, by the controller, because I and am behind a daisychain of aircraft that are heading for the same airport.
Aircraft; on a rare occasion New York has a slow day and I can keep 250 all the way to the airport. I usually start slowing at 10miles, so that I can be established(gear down, flaps approach)by the time the glideslope has centered. This would STILL be considered on the "tight" side as far as speed goes and 12-15miles might be a more reasonable distance(depending on which aircraft you are flying).
Another factor is the direction you are flying. Smart Captains used to tell me "there's no use speeding away from the airport!" What they were saying was; if you are on the downwind leg and have passed the airport, you should probably slow down. Why go fast and burn extra gas when you are heading away from the airport?
A good rule of thumb is to have the aircraft at or below flaps(1) speed(the speed at which you can add the first increment of flaps), when you are on final less than 15miles from the airport or have passed abeam the airport on the downwind.
.....so I loaded up the plane and moved to Middle-EEEE..........OIL..that is......
8) :-X ), otherwise, legally, you would have to be at 200kts or less within 10miles of the airport.