A PA44 conducting practice pattern maneuvers was instructed by ATC to reduce the spacing between him...

Attributes
ACN	992946
Time
Date	201202
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Dusk
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	PA-44 Seminole/Turbo Seminole
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Route In Use	None
Flight Plan	None
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	PA-28 Cherokee/Archer/Dakota/Pillan/Warrior
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 50 Flight Crew Total 2400 Flight Crew Type 1500
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Conflict Airborne Conflict
Miss Distance	Horizontal 0.5 Vertical 200

Narrative:

I was practicing touch and goes with a PA28 ahead of me doing the same detail. After the second touch and go the controller told me that I was turning final too far away from the runway; I told him that I was just maintaining a safe distance with the preceding aircraft and he replied saying that my separation with the other airplane was too much; that I should have been turning base sooner; and that is what I did afterward; but obviously did not work; I ended up going around as I was too close to the PA28 on final. As I did not feel safe; requested a full stop landing and had a conversation with the controller afterwards. He tried to convince me on the phone that I should fly my airplane slower when following a piper warrior on final; but seemed not to understand that if I maintain the same airspeed as a C152 or PA28 I would be flying my airplane against the pilot operating handbook and probably have control issues. Another fact that stated was that if I am turning base with a tailwind component; I should also reduce my airspeed; probably not being aware of that lift depends on true air speed (TAS) and not on ground speed (GS). It is obvious for me that this ATC in particular has very little understanding of basic airplane aerodynamics and could result in a safety issue.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A PA44 conducting practice pattern maneuvers was instructed by ATC to reduce the spacing between himself and preceding traffic that resulted in a required go around; the reporter questioning ATC's knowledge of aircraft performance characteristics.

Narrative: I was practicing touch and goes with a PA28 ahead of me doing the same detail. After the second touch and go the Controller told me that I was turning final too far away from the runway; I told him that I was just maintaining a safe distance with the preceding aircraft and he replied saying that my separation with the other airplane was too much; that I should have been turning base sooner; and that is what I did afterward; but obviously did not work; I ended up going around as I was too close to the PA28 on final. As I did not feel safe; requested a full stop landing and had a conversation with the controller afterwards. He tried to convince me on the phone that I should fly my airplane slower when following a Piper Warrior on final; but seemed not to understand that if I maintain the same airspeed as a C152 or PA28 I would be flying my airplane against the Pilot Operating Handbook and probably have control issues. Another fact that stated was that if I am turning base with a tailwind component; I should also reduce my airspeed; probably not being aware of that lift depends on True Air Speed (TAS) and not on Ground Speed (GS). It is obvious for me that this ATC in particular has very little understanding of basic airplane aerodynamics and could result in a safety issue.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.