Narrative:

On approach to atl runway 26R outside of ajaay was told cleared the visual 26R behind aircraft Y maintain 160 knots to ajaay. Outside of ajaay we noticed that the separation between aircraft Y and our aircraft was 3 miles and decreasing. At 160 kts we were overrunning aircraft Y in front of us. We decided to slow down as we felt this was the safest course of action! Inside of ajaay; tower asked why we slowed I replied over running traffic in front of us. After exiting the runway we were instructed to contact TRACON. In my conversation with xxx (TRACON) I reiterated our concern for safety and closing in on traffic. He specifically stated that atlanta runs 2 miles separation on visuals. I was not aware of this nor have I been able to find reference of this in either the 10-1B or 10-7 pages for atl.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Pilot reported being on a visual approach into Atlanta; slowing for separation; and then after landing being told by TRACON that they should not have slowed.

Narrative: On approach to ATL Runway 26R outside of AJAAY was told cleared the Visual 26R behind Aircraft Y maintain 160 knots to AJAAY. Outside of AJAAY we noticed that the separation between Aircraft Y and our aircraft was 3 miles and decreasing. At 160 kts we were overrunning Aircraft Y in front of us. We decided to slow down as we felt this was the safest course of action! Inside of AJAAY; Tower asked why we slowed I replied over running traffic in front of us. After exiting the runway we were instructed to contact TRACON. In my conversation with xxx (TRACON) I reiterated our concern for safety and closing in on traffic. He specifically stated that Atlanta runs 2 miles separation on visuals. I was not aware of this nor have I been able to find reference of this in either the 10-1B or 10-7 pages for ATL.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.