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“Best forward speed until 5 miles” from where?

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Airspace, Commercial Pilot, FAA Regulations, General Aviation, Instrument Rating

When flying an ILS approach the approach controller requests "maintain maximum forward speed until 5 miles out."  What does that mean?

  1. Five miles from where?  The ILS DME? ( FAF at 6 miles... so a mile past the FAF before starting to slow down?)  The runway threshold? The center of the airport? The VOR?  Wherever you feel like it?
  2. Does that mean to push the airspeed to redline Vne Vmo?  Balls to the wall?

2 Answers



  1. Gyouska90 on Aug 04, 2023

    Personally I think you are putting to much thought into it. Just use localizer dme. And I don\’t think that means push it to redline just do the fast speed you can that will allow you to configure in time with out overwhelming yourself.. and if you cant maintain a speed they request tell them unable

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  2. Russ Roslewski on Aug 05, 2023

    I agree. This is not a precision measurement. It means 5 miles from landing – what else would it mean?

    As far as what speed to fly, that’s up to you. Fly as fast as you feel comfortable with, and giving you time to get slowed down to a stabilized approach at some point. Start slowing when you think you need to. If that’s 5.0 miles to the threshold on your GPS, or just something that’s “about 5 miles” to your eyeball, that’s fine.

    And the reason for “5 miles” is just that ATC can’t assign a speed restriction within 5 mile final. There’s nothing magical about that point, it’s just the rule.

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