Narrative:

I will start by saying that den has 70 charts; including 10 for arrivals alone! We were cleared on the ldora RNAV STAR. Den approach cleared us to descend via ldora 1 runway 34L. Inside of the transition (about 15 miles from larks); we were given the peekk two runway 16R and a clearance for direct to larks descending on the peekk 2 runway 16R. The FMC would not let me execute the peekk arrival and we were now descending for larks between FL190 and 17;000 ft per the ldora arrival. I told the controller we needed a heading and altitude as we were having trouble loading the new arrival into the FMC. He told us to fly present heading and descend to 17;000 ft. We reloaded the transition into the FMC and it finally let us execute the peekk arrival. We told ATC that we now had the arrival loaded and he re cleared us to larks and to descend on [via?] the peekk 2. It was as we were descending though 19;500 ft that I noticed that you must cross larks on the peekk arrival between FL220 and FL200! First; they have to get rid of some of the procedures at den. The names are hard to understand and hard to find in the book. Then they have to stop giving us very complicated changes so late in the procedure. (We are going 300 KTS 15 miles from a fix and they expect us to know what all the silly named fixes and procedures are!) that close inside of the transitions [the only acceptable change to a descend via clearance] should be 'fly heading XXX; maintain XXX; this will be radar vectors for runway xx.'another big gotcha is the different crossing altitudes at larks!!!!one more thing; den changes runways way too many times. I know--it's in the mountains and the wind shifts a lot (I used to fly into stapleton); but they seem to do it unnecessarily a lot of times.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Confusion ensued when ATC changed the B737-700's clearance from 'descend via the LDORA RNAV STAR to land north' to 'proceed direct LARKS (a fix on both assigned STARS); recleared to descend via the PEEKK RNAV STAR to land south.'

Narrative: I will start by saying that DEN has 70 charts; including 10 for arrivals alone! We were cleared on the LDORA RNAV STAR. DEN Approach cleared us to descend via LDORA 1 Runway 34L. Inside of the transition (about 15 miles from LARKS); we were given the PEEKK two Runway 16R and a clearance for direct to LARKS descending on the PEEKK 2 Runway 16R. The FMC would not let me execute the PEEKK Arrival and we were now descending for LARKS between FL190 and 17;000 FT per the LDORA Arrival. I told the Controller we needed a heading and altitude as we were having trouble loading the new arrival into the FMC. He told us to fly present heading and descend to 17;000 FT. We reloaded the transition into the FMC and it finally let us execute the PEEKK Arrival. We told ATC that we now had the arrival loaded and he re cleared us to LARKS and to descend on [via?] the PEEKK 2. It was as we were descending though 19;500 FT that I noticed that you must cross LARKS on the PEEKK Arrival between FL220 and FL200! First; they have to get rid of some of the procedures at DEN. The names are hard to understand and hard to find in the book. Then they have to stop giving us very complicated changes so late in the procedure. (We are going 300 KTS 15 miles from a fix and they expect us to know what all the silly named fixes and procedures are!) That close inside of the transitions [the only acceptable change to a descend via clearance] should be 'FLY HEADING XXX; MAINTAIN XXX; THIS WILL BE RADAR VECTORS FOR RWY XX.'Another BIG gotcha is the different crossing altitudes at LARKS!!!!One more thing; DEN changes runways way too many times. I know--it's in the mountains and the wind shifts a lot (I used to fly into Stapleton); but they seem to do it unnecessarily a lot of times.

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.