A CL300 captain cleared for the sjc fairground visual runway 30L was confused about the descent clea...

Attributes
ACN	1006134
Time
Date	201204
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	SJC.Airport
State Reference	CA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Challenger 300
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Other Fairground Visual Runway 30L
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Narrative:

[We were] cleared for the fairground visual runway 30L. We were at 5;000; flying pilot started to descend prior to the 170 [radial from] sjc. At this point I said 'why are you descending?' he said 'we were cleared for the visual.' I then replied; '170 [radial from] sjc at 5;000.' he stopped the descent and climbed back to 5;000. Norcal then asked if we are familiar with the fairground visual approach. I replied affirmative and at this point we were back at 5;000. We did not descend more then 200 ft. Flying pilot then told me that prior to the 170 sjc radial on the chart it says recommended 5;000. Then in small print at the 170 sjc radial it says mandatory 5;000. The chart is printed with confusion. They need to remove the recommended 5;000 and make it say mandatory prior to the 170 radial.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CL300 Captain cleared for the SJC Fairground Visual Runway 30L was confused about the descent clearance because the Chart stated RECOMMENDED 5;000 FT prior to the MANDATORY 5;000 FT SJC 170 constraint and so he began the descent early.

Narrative: [We were] cleared for the Fairground Visual Runway 30L. We were at 5;000; flying pilot started to descend prior to the 170 [radial from] SJC. At this point I said 'why are you descending?' He said 'We were cleared for the visual.' I then replied; '170 [radial from] SJC at 5;000.' He stopped the descent and climbed back to 5;000. NORCAL then asked if we are familiar with the Fairground Visual approach. I replied affirmative and at this point we were back at 5;000. We did not descend more then 200 FT. Flying pilot then told me that prior to the 170 SJC radial on the chart it says RECOMMENDED 5;000. Then in small print at the 170 SJC radial it says MANDATORY 5;000. The chart is printed with confusion. They need to remove the RECOMMENDED 5;000 and make it say MANDATORY prior to the 170 radial.

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.

A CL300 captain cleared for the sjc fairground visual runway 30L was confused about the descent clearance because the chart stated recommended 5;000 ft prior to the mandatory 5;000 ft sjc 170 constraint and so he began the descent early.