Crossing restrictions

[labbats]

Can anyone point me to the FAR about crossing restrictions? I seem to have some conflicting advice from different captains about whether you slow down to hit that airspeed right at the fix, don't slow until after the fix, etc. I could have sworn ATC preferred a rapid decelleration (sp?) to hit that speed at that fix. Which is it?

 

[sydeseet]

I don't know the exact FAR that covers these but I'm sure it's somewhere in the vicinity of 91.175, just a hunch.

When to slow down depends on how the clearance was worded:

Example: "Cross XXXXX intersection at 10000 and 250 knots" is very un-ambiguous as to what they want you to do - cross the fix at the altitude AND the airpseed.

Example #2: "Cross XXXXX at 10000" or "cross XXXXX at 10000 THEN slow to 250" is also clear. Cross the fix at 10000 at normal speed or cross the fix at 10000 and then slow to 250 in the latter case.

If the captain wants to hot-dog it a little, which we've all been guilty of at least once, then pleasantly remind him of the specific wording of the clearance or just hit the speed-brakes as he's about to level off. No, not really.